| Kate Robson |

 

This Week

Sunday 10th July 2022

Hi everyone,

Hope you had a great week. Here's the run down of mine!

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GAMSAT Section 2

Research Recommendation:

Ethics / Moral Philosophy:

Stoicism

Memento Mori – "Remember that you will die."

Before we get into this week's topic, I just want to make it clear that I am not a stoic. In fact, something about stoicism really gives me the ick. Sorry to any of you stoics that may be reading, but that's just me. Now that disclaimer is out of the way, let's get into the field of Virtue Ethics and our topic for this week.

Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic Philosophy (323-31BC) founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the 3rd century BC. It is a school of though that relies on logic to ascertain that "virtue is the only good" and that life should be spent practicing virtue and living in accordance with nature. Many Stoics – such as Seneca and Epictetus – emphasised that in order to live a virtuous life, one must develop self-control and fortitude as a means of overcoming destructive emotions, such as anger, envy, and jealousy. Epictetus asserted that these emotions result from lapses in judgement that determine how we react to things. He called the 'will' or 'volition' with which we rationally respond to impressions prohairesis and said that we may use this to choose how we react to things.

One of the problems I (and many others) have with Stoicism is that it is impossible to detach from our emotional reactions and remain rational. The Stoics seem to have viewed emotions as something that we should learn to have control over, and although I agree that we should practice and modulate our emotional reactions and to be more rational beings, I think this line of thinking perpetuates the modern narrative of 'toughness' and only encourages a suppression of emotion, which isn't completely possible (or helpful, as modern psychologists point out) at the end of the day. It makes me sad for this reason that Stoicism has made a comeback in the tech and business worlds, particularly amongst men. Perhaps it has done so because men, in the West at least, are often fed a narrative that 'manliness' does not involve showing emotion or being vulnerable. Thankfully, this message is becoming communicated less often today, as psychologists, parents, and young people realise the toxicity of these stereotypes, but I still see how they affect men like my brother and my dad.

There are certainly things that we can learn from the Stoics: do not concern yourself with things out of your control, accept the struggle of hard work rather than chase hedonism, a good life is a virtuous one etc. But, something about it just doesn't sit right with me.

Perhaps there is a happy middle ground somewhere in between the Buddhists, the Stoics, and the Epicureans (who we will touch on next week) that might provide us a guide with which we may live our lives more virtuously. If you have any insights, feel free to reply to this email.

Start here:

Stoicism

Since the Stoics stress the systematic nature of their philosophy, the ideal way to evaluate the Stoics' distinctive ethical views would be to study them within the context of a full exposition of their philosophy. Here, however, we meet with the problem about the sources of our knowledge about Stoicism.

How to Be a Stoic

The Stoic philosopher Epictetus was born a slave, around 55 A.D., in the Greco-Roman spa town of Hierapolis-present-day Pamukkale, Turkey. I first encountered his teachings in 2011, shortly after moving from San Francisco to Istanbul. I lived alone on a university campus in a forest.

There Are Two Kinds of Happy People

"How to Build a Life " is a weekly column by Arthur Brooks, tackling questions of meaning and happiness. These days, we are offered a dizzying variety of secrets to happiness. Some are ways of life: Give to others; practice gratitude. Others are minor hacks: Eat kale; play a board game.

Why I Am Not a Stoic

You often hear about the philosophers of Ancient Greece and Rome, but if you're like me, it's hard to sort out all the names and ideas in your head. Here's a simplified way to think about it: You've likely heard of Socrates. He's the OG, the godfather of western philosophy.

Life lessons from ancient Greece

After Helen Rudd sustained traumatic injuries in a traffic accident, she lay in a coma for three weeks. "I had to learn everything again. I had to learn to read and write," says Rudd. Her life had changed completely and she needed a different outlook.

My random recommendation for the week:

YouTuber

Khadija Mbowe

Sociology & English

I stumbled upon this YouTuber this morning and binged a few of their vids about U.S. society, race, and the recent Roe v Wade atrocity.

Would highly recommend watching video essays on YouTube to educate yourself on matters of society for GAMSAT essays!

This week's video(s):

No video this week! Check out last week's:

A moment of joy I had this week:

Playing Against Lauren Jackson

We took on Albury Wodonga again in our NBL1 game today and that meant we stepped up against Lauren Jackson, who just happened to be my childhood idol. I didn't snag a photo with her this time, but it's an honour to even play in the same competition as her.

She'll be playing for the Opals in the FIBA Women's World Cup (pictured left) later this year, which you should definitely grab tickets for if you're a basketball fan. I'll see you there!

Hope you guys have a wonderful week and see you next Sunday.

Kate :)

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