Stoicism and the Cardinal Virtues Class Session 6 Questions and Answers About Stoic Conceptions Of

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This video brings together a number of questions from students and answers provided by me, Greg Sadler during the sixth and final session of the online 6-week Stoicism and the Cardinal Virtues taught in my Study With Sadler Academy in Spring 2024. That session was devoted to a number of problems and issues with the Stoic doctrines on virtue and vice, the unity of the virtues, the emotions, and other related matters
The questions asked are:
1. It seems virtues and subvirtues for Stoics are just what is glimpsed in a specific context, the story one tells about an action or decision. Epictetus seems to view them just as making good use of prohairesis
2. Virtue feels a bit like a moving target. How do you know, measure, or estimate you’ve reached the pinacle of virtue?
3. Modern positive psychology says we each have strengths in different measures. This seems to just be a different language to the [Stoic] subvirtues
4. Would the Stoics consider anxiety, depression, and other mental illnesses vices of the mind?
Identification of the goal [of the Stoic sage] helps to motivate me
5. I ask myself in tough situations what would the sage do, or what would a role-model of that virtue do
6. [The Stoic sage] is one of the similarities between Stoicism and Buddhism. You have nirvana, and you know you’ll never reach it, but it doesn’t prevent you from trying
7. I think about these questions like whether Stoic positions on matters are right or not
When I think about the Stoic mud-puddle analogy, I acknowledge that it is true that you can drown in a mud-puddle, but it does seem more likely you’ll drown in the middle of an ocean
8. A Stoic might argue that their approach isn’t about producing guilt, but promoting reflection and growth, and understanding our emotional triggers to foster a rational virtuous life
Stoicism implies for true virtue to manifest its objective reality, the person’s character, the formal reality must fully embody virtue
9. When I’m clearly trying to do better with what I can control, I can see myself make better decisions. That practice is just more important for my life than trying to solve theoretical paradoxes. Maybe later those paradoxes will matter more to my practice
10. Does Aristotle allow for improvement regarding the acquisition and cultivation of virtues?
I plan to teach this class again, in an expanded 8-week format, in Spring of 2025, in the Study with Sadler academy. If you're interested in enrolling next time around, keep an eye out for announcements!
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[@MrMarktrumble]

Four archers can aim at the same target, and be united in aim of that target. This is how different aspects of the four cardinal virtues can maintain their diversity and yet be one. In a Bach piece, the integrity in each of a number of melody lines creates a diversity of melodies , and in their tension of relations between melodies an overall harmony is created that would not exist if it were not the case of the differentiated melody lines. When harmonies within and without multiple melodies are achieved, the original aim is created and maintained. And it was good.

[@GregoryBSadler]

The Bach piece is perhaps a better analogy for how the cardinal virtues work together than the old archer and target one