Modern Stoicism

Modern Stoicism is an intellectual and popular movement that began at the end of the 20th century aimed at reviving the practice of Stoicism. It is not to be confused with neostoicism, an analogous phenomenon in the 17th century. The term "modern Stoicism" covers both the revival of interest in the Stoic philosophy and the philosophical efforts to adjust ancient Stoicism to the language and conceptual framework of the present. The rise of modern Stoicism has received attention in the international media since around November 2012 when the first Annual Stoic Week event was organized.
Background
Philosophy
Modern Stoicism arose as part of the late 20th century surge of interest in virtue ethics. "The work by philosophers like Philippa Foot, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Martha Nussbaum, among others, have brought back virtue ethics as a viable alternative to the dominant Kantian-deontological and utilitarian-consequentialist approaches." Modern Stoicism draws from the late 20th and early 21st century spike in publications of scholarly works on ancient Stoicism. Beyond that, the modern Stoicism movement traces its roots to the work of Dr. Albert Ellis, who developed rational emotive behavior therapy, as well as Aaron T. Beck, who is regarded by many as the father to early versions of cognitive behavioral therapy. Viktor Frankl also found Stoicism useful while he was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II; he later developed his theory known as logotherapy. A well-known quotation from Enchiridion of Epictetus was taught to most clients during the initial session of traditional REBT by Ellis and his followers: "It's not the events that upset us, but our judgments about the events." This subsequently became a common element in the socialization phase of many other approaches to CBT. The question of Stoicism's influence on modern psychotherapy, particularly REBT and CBT, was described in detail in The Philosophy of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy by Donald Robertson. Moreover, several early 20th century psychotherapists were influenced by Stoicism, most notably the "rational persuasion" school founded by the Swiss neurologist and psychotherapist Paul DuBois, who drew heavily on Stoicism in his clinical work and encouraged his clients to study passages from Seneca the Younger as homework assignments.
As a popular movement
The modern Stoicism movement relies heavily on global social media and online communities. One of the key sites is the modern Stoicism website, which harbors the Stoicism Today blog and hosts the Annual Stoic Week (online) and Stoicon (offline) events. Another important place is the New Stoa, which was founded in May 1996 and is arguably the first lasting Stoic community on the internet. Three key podcasts talking about Stoicism applied to modern thought are the Stoic Solutions Podcast hosted by Justin Vacula, The Practical Stoic Podcast hosted by Simon Drew and Steve Karafit's The Sunday Stoic.
Several personal blogs explore Stoicism, some of them run by notable Stoic scholars (e.g., Massimo Pigliucci, William Irvine, John Sellars) and some therapists who explore Stoic applications (e.g., Donald Robertson). Articles on Stoicism have appeared on popular websites. In E.O.Scott's words, " potent combination of social media and a few highly publicized books and articles has recently launched Stoicism on an exponential growth curve." There is a variety of Stoic meetups and groups based in places such as Australia, Denver, Dublin, Edinburgh, Fremont, Helsinki, Lisbon, London, Manchester, Milwaukee, New York, Orlando, San Francisco, Toronto and Warsaw, amongst others, as well as several "Stoic Camps" for study and practice. According to E.O. Scott, "arguably the most important and influential gathering place for Modern Stoics " However, two Stoic academics, Kai Whiting and Leonidas Konstantakos, have warned against using "life-hack Stoicism" or "Silicon Valley Stoicism" as the primary means of understanding Stoic philosophy. Subsequently, they discussed Stoicism's role in advocating for change in society, including when it comes to standing against gender-based discrimination in the workplace and highlighted the fact that women had a vital role in the development of ancient Stoicism
Similarities of modern Stoicism and Third Wave CBT have been suggested as well, and its potency in treating depression has been studied. There has also been interest in applying the tenets of ancient Stoicism to the human origin story, environmental education, vegetarianism and the modern challenges of sustainable development, material consumption and consumerism.
Differences between modern and ancient Stoicism
Problems with the appeal to nature
The ancient Stoics held as unquestionable dogma that to live a good life, one needed to live consistently with nature. According to the ancient Stoics, nature was by definition good, and everything which was conformable to nature was deemed good. Moreover, the ancient Stoics had a teleological outlook on the world, that is, they held that everything in the universe was purposefully and rationally organized to a good end. However, this view is much more difficult to uphold in the present day. As Becker puts it, "science presented significant challenges to our metaphysical views." The notion of the rational organization of the world seems much more doubtful in the 21st century than it, presumably, was two millennia ago. "When we face the universe," Becker writes, "we confront its indifference to us and our own insignificance to it. It takes no apparent notice of us, has no role other than Extra for us to play, no aim for us to follow." As the field of physics is being constantly redefined by different laws and understandings, some stoics believe that Becker was not trying to redefine nature as the ancient stoics saw it but as the neostoics defined when they attempted to combine Christianity and Stoicism in the 16th century. Ancient Stoics simply believed that there was an active and passive material of nature and that one controlled reason and one was acted upon with reason.
Virtue, agency, happiness
Becker organizes his reading of Stoic ethics around the concept of agency. "The Development of Virtue the Perfection of Agency," Pigliucci describes it as follows: "some things are up to us (chiefly, our judgments and actions), some things are not up to us (major historical events, natural phenomena), but on a number of other things we have partial control. Irvine recasts the third category in terms of internalized goals, which makes more sense of the original dichotomy." Thus, "we must face the lushness, diversity and - yes! - sensuality of life and we have to live and thrive inside this world, accepting it as it is. Unlike a monk, a Stoic doesn't dodge the myriad of different aspects of the earthly and sensual life."<ref name=":2" />
On the other hand, Kevin Patrick refutes this argument, ridiculing it as "hedonic Stoicism" and saying that the mentioned position "falls into the more common trap and misinterpretation, that since externals are indifferent to us, we should go ahead and indulge in all of those things for which we have a proclivity".<ref name":2" /> "Modern Stoics," he concludes, "ought to be Stoics."<ref name":2" />
Irvine takes a more modest stance and he proposes a program of "voluntary discomfort". As he describes it: "By undertaking acts of voluntary discomfort - by, for example, choosing to be cold and hungry when we could be warm and well fed - we harden ourselves against misfortunes that might befall us in the future. If all we know is comfort, we might be traumatized when we are forced to experience pain or discomfort, as we someday almost surely will. In other words, voluntary discomfort can be thought of as a kind of vaccine: By exposing ourselves to a small amount of a weakened virus now, we create in ourselves an immunity that will protect us from a debilitating illness in the future."<ref name=":1" />

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