Being Stoic When You Know the Future

The early Stoics believed in divination. They thought that signs from the universe could be interpreted in order to inform us of future events. I do not believe in divination, but I think that the Stoic view of the practice holds lessons that we can all apply to our lives. The most important of those lessons is this, knowledge of the future never releases us from the obligation to take virtuous actions in the present.

In the second book of Epictetus's Discourses, Chapter Seven is titled, "How should one employ Divination?" Epictetus begins this talk by saying that people tend to use divination when there's no good reason for it. The outcome of this is that, "many of us neglect many of the duties of life." He gives the example of a diviner saying that in the future you must risk your life, perhaps give your life, for a friend. Epictetus says that once you hear that, you have all the information you need. Later in his talk, Epictetus says that many people would fret about this information, or even beg the diviner to find some new signs, to change that future. He points out that all of that is both a waste of effort and a deeply unStoic response.

In Stoicism your death is indifferent, the fact of death, or life for that matter, holds no moral weight in itself. It's how you use your life, or the moment of your death, that makes it good or bad. Epictetus says that when it comes to moral actions, you don't need a prophet, you have yourself. "Have I not within me the diviner that has told me the true nature of good and evil, that has set forth the signs characteristic to both of them? What further use have I, then, of entrails, or of birds?" The diviner's art informs you of indifferent things; will the harvest be good, will you recover from sickness, will war come, or will peace remain? Morality lies in your reaction to or use of these things, and those choices are made by you alone. Epictetus gives us an aspirational example in this regard. "Wherefore, that was an admirable answer which the woman gave who wished to send a boatload of supplies to Gratilla after she had been exiled. To a man who said, 'Domitian will confiscate them,' she replies, 'I should rather have him confiscate them than myself fail to send them."

I may not believe in divination, but I do make forecasts. I have thoughts about the likely outcomes of things that I and others do, and make decisions based on those forecasts. You do as well. It is a matter of considerable importance that we do not avoid virtuous actions because we're concerned that they will be a wasted effort. Virtue is never wasted. Doing right is always right, whether or not our supplies are confiscated.

I found myself dwelling on Stoicism and Divination a bit over a week ago. I was thinking about Riot Ribs as well as the street medics that have been part of the protests here in Portland, Oregon. Riot Ribs was a mutual aid effort that provided free food to the local houseless as well as to protesters. At the same time various street medic groups have been keeping people safe by bandaging our wounds, flushing our eyes, even driving us to hospitals if necessary. I'd watch people bring donations of food, ice and such to Riot Ribs or drop of medical supplies at the first aid tents. On so many nights, the park would be overrun by Portland Police and now Federal Agents, and the cops would destroy the food and first aid equipment. They raid the tents and break things or spray chemical agents over everything; it's a common and continuing occurrence. And yet people continue to bring supplies. Just like the woman in Epictetus's discourse, Portlanders have an "admirable answer" to the whims of fortune. To add to this, Riot Ribs is no more. Some rather horrible people have made the whole effort dangerous to those who served in good conscience, so they had to shut down the project and reenvision it. Still, the kindhearted efforts of the cooks and those that donated remain the right thing to do. The end of a project does not retroactively stain their virtuous efforts.

Good planning is important. We have to have some vision of the future to guide our present actions. But no vision of tomorrow should cause us to do less good today. Virtue is, in actuality, its own reward. Epictetus had a name for those who kept asking question after question about the future, he labeled them cowards. He said they feared consequences. He pointed out that if you came to a fork in the road and asked someone which one to take, you shouldn't wish for an answer of right or left, but for the one that gets you to your destination. The Stoic destination is to do good, to be a virtuous person. There is no circumstance in which we can not enact virtue. And we must enact virtue whenever the opportunity arises. Whether we truly know the future, or only hazard a guess, our present should be focused on doing the right thing.

Stoic Actions during a Pandemic

I had some thoughts that I wanted to share and wasn’t certain I’d ever sit down and write about, hence this video. Along with the thoughts found here, if you are at all worried about the recent pandemic, I would suggest that the Good Fortune episodes Uprooting Fear and Handling Distressing News might be useful.

Stoicism is Physical

There is a way to exercise as a Stoic. There is a way to eat as a Stoic. Literally every chosen action can be done, and is done, either in a Stoic way or in some other way. I bring this up because whenever a person enters an online Stoic forum and asks how Stoics exercise, or eat, or drive to work, it seems inevitable that mocking comments will soon follow. Unfortunately it is those who say, “this has nothing to do with Stoicism!” that are showing their ignorance of the philosophy.

Take our food choices. We know that the teacher Musonius Rufus, “often talked in a very forceful manner about food, on the grounds that food was not an insignificant topic and that what one eats has significant consequences. In particular, he thought that mastering one’s appetites for food and drink was the beginning of and basis for self-control.” That quote comes from notes on a lecture specifically about the Stoic diet. In that lecture the Stoic teacher proclaims that philosophers shouldn’t eat meat and that our food should take as little preparation as possible. He basically advocated for a lacto-vegetarian diet with a bit of raw food sympathy thrown in. The lecture is very interesting and through it, even within the quote I just gave, we can see that he focused on diet because our virtue is made manifest through our choices.

We also have thoughts from Musonius concerning physical exercise. That subject is found in a lecture we title, On Practicing Philosophy. Addressing new philosophers, he says, “how then and in what way must they be trained? Since a human being happens to be neither soul nor body alone but a composite of these two things, someone in training must pay attention to both. They should rightly pay more attention to the better part, namely the soul, but they should also take care of the other part, or part of them will become defective. The philosopher's body also must be well prepared for work because often virtues use it as a necessary tool for the activities of life.” We do not have a list of exercises that Musonius prescribed for his students. But we know that Stoic schools assumed philosophical training would include physical training.

I’ve covered all this before: food in You Shouldn’t Eat That: On Stoic Authority, and exercise in Good Fortune Ep 10: Physical Exercises. Running across yet another forum post that was met by some with dismissal rather than education stimulated me to address it again. Stoicism is found in our choices, all of which matter. Additionally, Stoicism is not separate from our bodies. Our choices may be generated in our brain but they are enacted through our muscles and sinew. If people are missing this, perhaps modern Stoic writings are doing us a disservice. Growth in Stoicism should make us more connected to the world, and to ourselves. If practitioners can’t see that connection, something is wrong. There is no Stoic way to deadlift, but there are Stoic reasons to deadlift. There are no Stoic recipes but our food choices matter. There is also, to be clear, no Stoic body-type nor Stoic level of health. But every choice we make is a philosophical practice. Virtue is enacted only in the moment at hand. So if a person asks you how Stoics exercise, you can make clear that our exercise goals are focused on virtue and not on body-fat percentages, but do not dismiss the question.