What follows is always organically related to what went before; for it is not like a simple enumeration of units separately determined by necessity, but a rational combination; and as Being is arranged in a mutual co-ordination, so the phenomena of Becoming display no bare succession but a wonderful organic interrelation.
—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book IV.45
A central theme in Stoic philosophy is the beneficence of the cosmos. Today we might think this strange, seeing that the world is full of mishaps, crimes and disasters, great and small. How then is it possible to view the universe as beneficent or providential?
Whereas people conventionally apply the terms ‘good’ and ‘evil’ to things or events external to oneself, Stoics like Epictetus made a sharp distinction between ‘the things under our control’ and ‘the things not under our control.’ The Stoics relegated ‘the things not under our control’ to the category of ‘indifferent.’
Seneca, in his essay On Providence, sums up Stoicism succinctly: ‘Not what you endure, but how you endure, is important.’ ‘How you endure’ corresponds with Epictetus’ category of ‘things under our control.’ For the Stoics, it is only within this restricted compass that good and evil are found. It is up to the individual how daily situations are judged and handled, regardless of what those situations might be.
As with this Stoic doctrine regarding good and evil, providence likewise pertains to the same narrow range of ‘things within our control.’ The Stoic attitude toward life implies that all things work for the good of the Whole. Only insofar as one realises oneself existentially as an expression of the Whole does one also realise the beneficence of the Whole. It is for this reason that Marcus Aurelius says, ‘Love only what falls to your lot and is destined for you; what is more suited to you than that?’ (Meditations, Book VII.57)
Whereas people conventionally apply the terms ‘good’ and ‘evil’ to things or events external to oneself, Stoics like Epictetus made a sharp distinction between ‘the things under our control’ and ‘the things not under our control.’ The Stoics relegated ‘the things not under our control’ to the category of ‘indifferent.’
Seneca, in his essay On Providence, sums up Stoicism succinctly: ‘Not what you endure, but how you endure, is important.’ ‘How you endure’ corresponds with Epictetus’ category of ‘things under our control.’ For the Stoics, it is only within this restricted compass that good and evil are found. It is up to the individual how daily situations are judged and handled, regardless of what those situations might be.
As with this Stoic doctrine regarding good and evil, providence likewise pertains to the same narrow range of ‘things within our control.’ The Stoic attitude toward life implies that all things work for the good of the Whole. Only insofar as one realises oneself existentially as an expression of the Whole does one also realise the beneficence of the Whole. It is for this reason that Marcus Aurelius says, ‘Love only what falls to your lot and is destined for you; what is more suited to you than that?’ (Meditations, Book VII.57)
One could speak here of a mystical dimension of Stoicism. At each moment and every instant, we must say ‘yes’ to the universe; that is, to the will of universal reason. We must want that which universal reason wants: that is, the present instant, exactly as it is.
—Pierre Hadot, ‘“Only the Present is our Happiness,”’ Philosophy as a Way of Life (pg. 230)
Reason (logos) is what the cosmos as a whole and the individual (being an expression of the Whole) both hold in common. Epictetus calls this reasoning faculty a gift from the gods:
As was fitting, therefore, the gods have put under our control only the most excellent faculty of all and that which dominates the rest, namely, the power to make correct use of external impressions, but all the others they have not put under our control.
—Epictetus, Discourses, Book I.1
It is in this context that the Stoics looked to Socrates as a model for the Sage, who (according to Plato) said, ‘No evil can come to a good man.’ ‘Disaster is Virtue’s opportunity,’ Seneca wrote some two thousand years ago. Or, as we might say today, ‘When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.’
Great post. I think this idea is the most powerful and poignant idea in Stoicism and you did an excellent job setting it out.
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