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[This page reproduces the text of the trifold leaflet that we send to postal enquirers. If you
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THE STOIC FOUNDATION
INTRODUCTION TO
STOIC PHILOSOPHY
The Quest for Inner Peace
(A correspondence course comprising six study papers with full tutor support.)
THE STOIC FOUNDATION
BM Box 1129, London, WC1N 3XX
Great Britain
Phone & Fax: + 44 (0) 1923 229784
Email: k.h.s@btinternet.com
Website: http://www.btinternet.com/~k.h.s/stoic-foundation.htm
|
— Epictetus, Discourses 4.7.14 |
The promise of Stoic philosophy
Shall I tell you what philosophy holds out to humanity? Counsel. One person is facing death, another is vexed by poverty, while another is tormented by wealth — whether his own or someone else’s; one man is appalled by his misfortunes while another longs to get away from his own prosperity; one man is suffering at the hands of men, another at the hands of the gods … All mankind are stretching out their hands to you on every side. Lives that have been ruined, lives that are on the way to ruin are appealing for some help; it is to you that they look for hope and assistance.
— Seneca
Letters from a Stoic, 48
Stoic Philosophy
The Stoic school of philosophy was founded in about 300 BC in Athens, by Zeno of Citium (which is in Cyprus). Zeno’s teaching established what many have deemed was the most successful of the ancient schools.
Philosophy for the Stoics was practised by reorienting oneself towards life generally, and finding new and improved perspectives on one’s specific concerns, to arrive eventually at a point where our worries are defeated, or our fears abolished, and our passions tempered. The endeavour to do this, and to live abiding by the insights attained, for the ancients constituted living as a philosopher. The term ‘philosopher’ designated not so much the teacher or author, but the person aiming to live the philosophical life. One of philosophy’s most important figures, Socrates (5th century BC), said this during his trial in Athens:
I did not care for the things that most people care about — making money, having a comfortable home, high military or civil rank, and all the other activities, political appointments, secret societies, party organizations, which go on in our city …
I set myself to do you — each one of you, individually and in private — what I hold to be the greatest possible service. I tried to persuade each of you to concern himself less with what he has than with what he is, so as to render himself as excellent and rational as possible.
— Plato, Apology 36b—c (trans. P. Hadot)
What Socrates did for himself was to find out how to make himself ‘excellent and rational’ – which in part at least resulted in his not caring about the sorts of things that people usually regard as of supreme importance (wealth and status, especially) – and then he set about encouraging others to do the same. Socrates is famed for his assertion that ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’ (Apology 38a). In the most general of senses what Socrates wanted to examine is the system of values we adopt to justify what we find of importance.
And this is what we shall be doing on this Course by reading and discussing two philosophical books written by Stoic philosophers:
Seneca: Letters from a Stoic, translated by Robin Campbell, Penguin Books.
Marcus Aurelius: Meditations, translated by Robin Hard, Wordsworth Editions.
Keith Seddon
Dr. Seddon is a founding trustee and Director of the Stoic Foundation. He wrote and currently tutors the correspondence course. He has taught philosophy at university and a wide range of Liberal Arts topics in further education colleges, and has worked as a correspondence tutor for many years.
His primary concern is in finding ways of using philosophical knowledge and techniques to promote the betterment of the individual and thereby of the wider community.
Dr. Seddon holds a B.A. in Humanities from the University of Hertfordshire and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of London. He is a fellow of the Philosophical Society of England, and is a member of the Institute for Global Ethics.
About the Stoic Foundation Correspondence Course
The Course comprises six Papers which are offered with full tutor support, and which introduce the student to the main principles of Stoic living.
- Good, bad and indifferent
- What is in our power
- ‘Live simply’ and ‘Live according to nature’
- Universal nature, God and fate
- Living in society
- Impermanence, loss and death
The Course is designed to have practical application to daily living, just as a course in Stoic Philosophy would have had in ancient times. The Course is not technical, and is suitable for people with no prior knowledge of philosophy. From the very start, the emphasis is on encouraging students to begin living a life that is eudaimon, which is the term the ancient Greek philosophers used for ‘lived well’, or ‘flourishing’ or ‘happy’. It was in this sense that the ancient philosophers sought the ‘good life’, and this Introduction to Stoic Philosophy, although not guaranteeing to anyone a life of perfect bliss, will give you the tools to think more carefully about what really matters and why, and will give you techniques for living the eudaimon life.
Students on the Course will begin working on practical exercises right from the start. Stoic philosophy does not tell you about life, but shows you ways to live life in a more satisfactory way.
The Stoic school of philosophy was founded in about 300 BC in Athens, by Zeno of Citium (which is in Cyprus). Zeno’s teaching established what many have deemed was the most successful of the ancient schools.
Philosophy for the Stoics was practised by reorienting oneself towards life generally, and finding new and improved perspectives on one’s specific concerns, to arrive eventually at a point where our worries are defeated, or our fears abolished, and our passions tempered. The endeavour to do this, and to live abiding by the insights attained, for the ancients constituted living as a philosopher. The term ‘philosopher’ designated not so much the teacher or author, but the person aiming to live the philosophical life. One of philosophy’s most important figures, Socrates (5th century BC), said this during his trial in Athens:
I did not care for the things that most people care about — making money, having a comfortable home, high military or civil rank, and all the other activities, political appointments, secret societies, party organizations, which go on in our city …
I set myself to do you — each one of you, individually and in private — what I hold to be the greatest possible service. I tried to persuade each of you to concern himself less with what he has than with what he is, so as to render himself as excellent and rational as possible.
— Plato, Apology 36b—c (trans. P. Hadot)
What Socrates did for himself was to find out how to make himself ‘excellent and rational’ – which in part at least resulted in his not caring about the sorts of things that people usually regard as of supreme importance (wealth and status, especially) – and then he set about encouraging others to do the same. Socrates is famed for his assertion that ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’ (Apology 38a). In the most general of senses what Socrates wanted to examine is the system of values we adopt to justify what we find of importance.
And this is what we shall be doing on this Course by reading and discussing two philosophical books written by Stoic philosophers:
Seneca: Letters from a Stoic, translated by Robin Campbell, Penguin Books.
Marcus Aurelius: Meditations, translated by Robin Hard, Wordsworth Editions.
Keith Seddon
Dr. Seddon is a founding trustee and Director of the Stoic Foundation. He wrote and currently tutors the correspondence course. He has taught philosophy at university and a wide range of Liberal Arts topics in further education colleges, and has worked as a correspondence tutor for many years.
His primary concern is in finding ways of using philosophical knowledge and techniques to promote the betterment of the individual and thereby of the wider community.
Dr. Seddon holds a B.A. in Humanities from the University of Hertfordshire and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of London. He is a fellow of the Philosophical Society of England, and is a member of the Institute for Global Ethics.
About the Stoic Foundation Correspondence Course
The Course comprises six Papers which are offered with full tutor support, and which introduce the student to the main principles of Stoic living.
- Good, bad and indifferent
- What is in our power
- ‘Live simply’ and ‘Live according to nature’
- Universal nature, God and fate
- Living in society
- Impermanence, loss and death
The Course is designed to have practical application to daily living, just as a course in Stoic Philosophy would have had in ancient times. The Course is not technical, and is suitable for people with no prior knowledge of philosophy. From the very start, the emphasis is on encouraging students to begin living a life that is eudaimon, which is the term the ancient Greek philosophers used for ‘lived well’, or ‘flourishing’ or ‘happy’. It was in this sense that the ancient philosophers sought the ‘good life’, and this Introduction to Stoic Philosophy, although not guaranteeing to anyone a life of perfect bliss, will give you the tools to think more carefully about what really matters and why, and will give you techniques for living the eudaimon life.
Students on the Course will begin working on practical exercises right from the start. Stoic philosophy does not tell you about life, but shows you ways to live life in a more satisfactory way.
The Stoic Foundation
The Stoic Foundation was established in 2000 by Keith Seddon, the current Director of the Foundation, as an educational trust, offering advice, support and a correspondence course in practical Stoic philosophy to anyone interested in taking up Stoicism as a philosophy to live by.
The Foundation is happy to advise on any aspect of Stoic philosophy, from advice on primary source literature (including the ancient Stoic writers), secondary source literature (interest in the Hellenistic Schools, including Stoicism, has grown enormously in recent years), and by offering our own correspondence course.
If you have not already read the Introductory Paper for this Course, please request it by sending four 1st-class stamps to the address on the front page of this leaflet, or request a free electronic copy by emailing to the address shown. The Introductory Paper is also available on our website.
To apply to enrol on the Course, and/or to order the set books, please request an Application Form, by writing, faxing, phoning or emailing us.
The Course is fully explained in the Introductory Paper
More details about the Correspondence Course
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