• Shawn
    13.2k
    So, I'm sort of working on making a guest appearance possible, and would like to know if anyone has any specific question or questions asked and answered by a modern Stoic philosopher?

    I have a list prepared that is somewhat solipsistic if I were to ask it without asking if anyone we're actually interested in them being asked in the first place.

    Here they are:

    • 1. Why has Stoicism experienced such a revival as of late in the Western world? In your professional opinion, Professor Pigliucci is this due to our lifestyle, and if so, what has Stoicism to offer to better ourselves?
    • 2. How would you differentiate between ancient Stoicism, Victorian Stoicism, and modern-day neo-Stoicism? How has the ethical field of Stoic thought evolved through time?
    • 3. On a more general level, why do you subscribe to virtue ethics that is Stoicism rather than advocate consequentialism or deontological theories?
    • 4. People have a hard time understanding the difference between Stoical apatheia and our modern use of the term is "apathy". How do you disambiguate the two from one another?

    If anyone has anything better or would like the questions revised, here's the place to do it.

    Regards.
  • tim wood
    9.3k
    Question to be answered in briefest and plainest terms, even bullet points if possible: Similarities and differences between Stoicism and modern major Western religions, probably with emphasis on Christianity.

    Follow-up: in what ways can one be both Christian and Stoic, and in which ways not? And in which ones must one be, if one, then not the other?

    Or another way, in which ways are Stoicism and Christianity alike, in which ways do they vary but are similar, and in which ways are they to each other mutually exclusive?

    Underlying question: can a person reasonably be both? (Unreasonably a different, and uninteresting, question.)

    Stoicism, "modern major Western religions," and Christianity broadly defined, and for present purpose taken as monoliths if possible, even if in fact they are not.

    Brief answers for a variety of reasons, not least because clear and definite answers can be buried in equivocal commentary.

    Second question. Major modern Western religions call for "obedience" or else - the or else being some consequence. It's carrot and stick, and seems to imply a choice. Kantian faith, on the other hand, has its categorical imperative, based in reason, comportment with required by duty. Both, then, in a sense, rest in appeal to an other, God, or reason and duty. What does Stoicism have, if anything, that might correspond to either God or reason/duty?
  • Shawn
    13.2k
    Similarities and differences between Stoicism and modern major Western religions, probably with emphasis on Christianity.tim wood

    What does Stoicism have, if anything, that might correspond to either God or reason/duty?tim wood

    I suppose Q#3, is kinda an offshoot between Q#2&1, being insofar, how much does the Kantian categorical imperative lend itself to Stoical duty? Or is there any overlap between the two?

    Is that a good reification of your question(s)?
  • Baden
    16.3k
    We'll put your suggested questions in the discussion we're going to start later. Please bear with us.
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