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The Power of Wisdom
The virtue that runs through all the rest
“There is nothing the foolish person has a use for — since he does not know how to use things — and yet he lacks everything.”
Chryssipus
In Plato’s Apology, Socrates, who is standing trial for impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens, is said to have muttered, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
In Stoic philosophy, and especially in Stoic ethics, one must continually examine themselves and their situations in order to properly apply wisdom to the scenario at hand.
For the Stoics, they held wisdom in the highest regard because it is through wisdom that our reasoning abilities, the characteristic of ourselves that separates us from all other creatures, is put to the test.
The Stoics separated wisdom into the three categories: good, bad, and indifferent. As Epictetus taught his students:
“That of things some are good, and some are bad, and some are indifferent: the good then are virtues, and the things which participate in virtues; and the bad are the contrary; and the indifferent are wealth, health, reputation.”
For the Stoic, each action is processed through these categories to determine…
