Stoicism isn’t About Reducing Negative Emotions

In his book The Stoic Challenge, Bill Irvine claims that the goal of Stoicism is to decrease negative emotions:

Their goal wasn’t to banish emotion but to minimize the number of negative emotions — such as feelings of frustration, anger, grief, and envy — that they experienced.

This is subtly, but importantly misleading. What ultimately matters to a Stoic is acting and thinking well. The goal of Stoic thought isn’t to minimize negative feelings, but see the world as it is and cultivate virtue.

Ward Farnsworth notes this in The Practicing Stoic:

View the Stoics not as against feeling or emotion but as in favor of seeing the world accurately, living by reason, and staying detached from externals.

So why do emotions matter for Stoics? Emotions matter when they obstruct from seeing the world accurately. This happens when we become wrapped up in them. Emotions matter when they push towards acting without reason.

From this perspective, the emphasis isn’t on decreasing negative emotions. The emphasis is on acting with reason and being committed to acting on our values.

Why does this matter? Stressing reducing negative emotions as the goal distracts from what’s really important. One’s effort can be spent fighting…