Thursday — Can virtue really be that important?

Harvey Weir
Aug 24, 2017 · 2 min read

Today felt like Monday to me. After having two and half out of the last three days off school, it felt weird getting up, putting on that blazer and running for the 8.04 Westall service at Parliament station. As I sat on the train, I began to read today’s morning text, about virtue. This text I found very hard to understand, and I’m still not quite sure what it means. I think what it’s trying to say is “do not place anything above virtue. Turn your heart to virtue, and not success, fame, power, wealth, or enjoyment of superficial pleasures.”

This message is something I understand. If I am allowed to assume “virtue” means “being a good person,” then I am in accordance with the desire to put it first. So today was my day of being virtuous. To do this, I have to map out my values and the things that I find important in life.

These are:

Trust: A person who is trustworthy, who will keep your secrets and won’t judge you.

Respect: A person who doesn’t judge you for any predetermined aspects, such as sexuality, gender, race, species, etc.

Kindness: Somebody who is generous, liberal, and nice.

Compassion: Somebody who will stand by and support you, help you when you’re down.

Resilience: Somebody who is strong, resistant to challenges.

Reason: Somebody with a clear head, who is able to argue their point of view with facts, as opposed to brute force and emotions.

I don’t believe that I can uphold all these virtues, but I do believe that me and the people around me contain at least some of these. Stoicism may not be my cup of tea, but the last two days have been much more agreeable than Monday and Tuesday, at least to me.

I’m looking forward to my last day of Stoic Week, and who knows, maybe by tomorrow, I’ll have turned!

Stoic Week — How practical is it to live like Seneca?

I’m going to spend one week living like a Stoic, using the Stoic Week handbook. Hopefully by the end of the week I’ll have a greater understanding of Stoicism, and also whether or not it can be reasonably applied to the modern world.

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