Highlights from the Stoic Summit
The Stoic Fellowship is happy to offer these highlights from the North American Stoic Summit 4–01–2023 in Tampa, Florida. The event was organized by Brittany Polat and Phil Yanov. It was the first international meeting of Stoics in-person since the start of the pandemic, featuring notable speakers like Bill Irvine and Ward Farnsworth. These highlights were collected by StoicDan of the Orlando Stoics.
Bill Irvine, who’s the author of popular books “A Guide to the Good Life” and “The Stoic Challenge” was the first speaker on a cool, quiet Saturday morning. He emphasized that you should live each day fully, because your vision might fail or some other disability could happen. Also, realize that you live in relative peace, and we should enjoy that, because peace could end on any day. The speaker’s metaphor, which resonated with the audience was “your last time.” He was referring to the next time you play basketball or any activity, remember it could be your last. We must have gratitude for these moments in life.
StoicDan relates this to the famous stories of Roman generals, when returning from victorious battles, they had festivals waiting to honor them. A slave would stand behind them in the chariot and whisper in their ears: “memento mori.” In other words, be humble and remember that you are mortal.
Leonidas Konstantakos spoke about the popular Stoic topic of cosmopolitanism. He suggested that justice is a character trait, and this is based on our obligations to others around us. He also related this to the Circles of Hierocles. He added that we can reach out to the outer circles by bringing people closer to us!
StoicDan adds: Hierocles was a second century (CE) Stoic philosopher, who created the idea of what we call today the “Circles of Hierocles”. It’s a series of concentric circles, and the smallest one in the center represents you. Then, moving outward is your family and extended family, then your local community, then your town, then your country, and then all of humanity. Using the concept of oikeiôsis, we should have concern for those around us, starting with the circles near us, and then adding people in the circles further away.
Jennifer Baker, a Professor of Philosophy, was the third speaker. Her area of interest is virtue ethics, and she has authored / edited many books on the subject. One of her observations is how we need to prepare ourselves for online life in modern society. We should say to ourselves the quote from Seneca, “the wise man knows that all things are in store for me.” This leads to the role (the need) of practical rationality. We must recognize that our behaviors online (whether it’s under our name or done anonymously) affect other people and also affect ourselves! Baker said if we are acting inappropriately online, we might trust ourselves less in real life.
StoicDan later spoke to the presenter and commented how valuable this concept is. In modern Psychology, a similar concept is about self-trust being based on your feelings of integrity, and if one lacks integrity, then your identity feels less confident and lacks focus in your mission / purpose. A lack of integrity can also send a person to a dark spiral of vices.
Karen Duffy was the next speaker. Her latest book is called “Wise Up!” and was included in Oprah’s 50 Most Anticipated Books for 2022. Duffy suffers from chronic pain, where even small sensations like a light breeze can cause great pain. However, she remains an optimist and uses many Stoic practices. After reading Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, her motto is “pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.” She feels that the writings of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius bring their cumulative wisdom to life. She concluded her presentation with lines “we are in control of our thoughts” and Emerson’s quote “every day is beautiful.”
At Orlando Stoics, StoicDan has taught a similar line of reasoning over the years. Some of us have small pains, others chronic and extreme pain, but in all cases, realizing that we control our thoughts and impressions is a valuable step to keeping our focus and tranquility. In past lectures, Donald Robertson reminds us that medicine may be needed to reduce chronic pain (the extreme cases where Stoic help is limited). So, a complete understanding would be to start with Stoicism and consult a physician if needed.
Melinda Latour at Tufts University does research on music and Stoicism. We don’t hear about that every day! A song that she included in her presentation was “Qué será, será (Whatever Will Be Will Be)”. This famous song’s lyrics are a child asking a parent about their lives ahead, and the parent says “whatever will be will be, the future’s not ours to see, qué será será, what will be will be.” Latour suggests that listening to music can help us deal with loss and practice more self-control. She concluded her presentation with the idea that the scholars think the Stoics liked music, yet it was an indifferent. Music can be used for good or bad purposes, but there are cases where music teaches us maxims.
StoicDan agrees. In modern society, many items (the Internet, money, movies, etc.) are indifferents. They can be used to practice virtues or vices. We choose how to spend our time and energy. Further, we can follow Latour and learn from selected songs that echo Stoic practices. Check her web site for a list of the songs presented at the Summit. The audience made suggestions too: “My Way” by Frank Sinatra, “Sounds of Silence” by Paul Simon, “Hakuna Matata” from the Disney film “The Lion King”, “Live Like you were Dying” by Tim McGraw, “Let it Be” by The Beatles, and “Shake it Off” by Taylor Swift. This was a very revealing list of songs! The audience was impressed at their cumulative ideas. This can be a very engaging item to start a discussion for a Stoic group meeting.
Greg Lopez was the final speaker of the day. He’s the founder of the NYC Stoics and co-founder of The Stoic Fellowship. One of his themes was the “passions” and how Stoics handle them. Lopez quoted Arius Didymus, the Stoic philosopher from the first century (BCE), “every passion is violent, since those who are in a state of passion… are swept away by [its] vehemence, as though by some disobedient horse.”
StoicDan likes this metaphor of a horse, because it shows how anger can become like a wild animal. Donald Robertson, in one of his articles, described it clearly “Anger is ugly and, in a sense, unnatural, because, as though in a trance, we seem to abandon reason when we’re in the throes of rage. We’re thinking creatures and yet when anger takes control of us, we become mindless and stop thinking. We’re therefore less human when enraged — that’s what the Stoics found most unnatural about it. Anger, hatred, and the desire for revenge, potentially turn us into animals.”
We hope you enjoyed some highlights of the North America Stoic Summit 2023. If you’d like more information about the presenters included here, contact StoicDan. You can find him on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or send an email to AskStoicDan@gmail.com.
