Stoicism
What are the basic tenets of Stoicism and how might Stoicism be considered as a mid - point between Cynicism and Hedonism?
The basic tenets of Stoicism preached control over the passions: they thought that reason or rationality could be imposed over human emotion in order to achieve a sense of peace, and that cessation of desire was preferable to the fulfillment of desire. The modern debased meaning of "stoic" as "impervious to pain" actually derives from the Stoic tenet that (as expressed by Marcus Aurelius in his stoic Meditations) that if one removes the statement "I have been injured," then one effectively removes the injury. The Stoics believed that the correct mental response to pain, suffering, or misfortune would preclude an emotional response. Philosophy and wisdom thus become, for the Stoics, an active process of living: the exertion of mental control over the process of receiving and analyzing the data of daily existence was thus central to the Stoic definition of the practice of philosophy. The Stoics believed that living in accordance with reason would put one in harmony with all virtues, which are rationally derived from the overall pervading "logos" (something between "logic" and "conscious reasoning") of the universe itself. The Stoics believed in four virtues associated with the...
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