(독서) Daily Stoic-8월16일 ANYTHING CAN BE AN ADVANTAGE

"This can be swiftly taught in very few words: virtue is the only good; there is no certain good without virtue; and virtue resides in our nobler part, which is the rational one. And what can this virtue be? True and steadfast judgment. For from this will arise every mental impulse, and by it every appearance that spurs our impulses will be rendered clear."-SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 71.32(“덕은 유일한 선이고, 덕이 없는 선은 존재하지 않으며, 덕은 우리의 고귀한 부분, 즉 이성적인 부분에 존재한다는 것을 몇 마디로 간단히 설명할 수 있습니다. 그렇다면 이 미덕은 무엇일까요? 진실하고 확고한 판단력입니다. 이것으로부터 모든 정신적 충동이 일어나고, 그것에 의해 우리의 충동을 자극하는 모든 모습이 분명해질 것입니다."-세네카, 도덕편지, 71.32쪽) Think about someone you know who has character of granite. Why are they so dependable, trustworthy, excellent? Why do they have a sterling reputation? You might see a pattern: consistency. They are honest not only when it's convenient. They are not only there for you when it counts. The qualities that make them admirable come through in every action ("arise with every mental impulse").  Why do we revere people like Theodore Roosevelt, for example? It isn't because he was brave once, ...

"Philosophy isn't a parlor trick or made for show. It's not concerned with words, but with facts. It's not employed for some pleasure before the day is spent, or to relieve the uneasiness of our leisure. It shapes and builds up the soul, it gives order to life, guides action, shows what should and shouldn't be done-it sits at the rudder steering our course as we vacillate in uncertainties. Without it, no one can live without fear or free from care. Countless things happen every hour that require advice, and such advice is to be sought out in philosophy."-SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 16.3 (“철학은 속임수나 보여주기 위한 것이 아닙니다. 철학은 말이 아니라 사실과 관련이 있습니다. 하루를 보내기 전의 즐거움을 위해, 또는 여가의 불안을 해소하기 위해 사용하는 것이 아닙니다. 영혼을 형성하고 세우고, 삶에 질서를 부여하고, 행동을 안내하고, 해야 할 일과 하지 말아야 할 일을 알려주며, 불확실성 속에서 흔들릴 때 우리의 항로를 조종하는 방향타 역할을 합니다. 이 없이는 누구도 두려움 없이 살거나 걱정으로부터 자유로울 수 없습니다. 조언이 필요한 수많은 일들이 매시간 일어나고 있으며, 그러한 조언은 철학에서 찾아야 합니다."- 세네카, <도덕 편지>, 16.3)   There is a story about Cato the Elder, whose great-grandson Cato the Younger became a towering figure in Roman life. One day Cato witnessed a fine oration from Carneades, a Skeptic philosopher, who waxed poetically on the importance...

"You've endured countless troubles-all from not letting your ruling reason do the work it was made for-enough already!" -MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 9.26 ("당신은 당신의 이성을 제 역할을 하도록 하지 않아서 수많은 고난을 겪어왔습니다. 이제 그만하십시오!" - 마르쿠스 아우렐리우스, 《명상록》 9.26) How many things you fear have actually come to pass? How many times has anxiety driven you to behave in a way you later regret? How many times have you let jealousy or frustration or greed lead you down a bad road?   Letting our reason rule the day might seem like more work, but it saves us quite a bit of trouble. As Ben Franklin's proverb put it: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."   Your brain was designed to do this work. It was meant to separate what is important from what is senseless, to keep things in perspective, to only become troubled by that which is worth becoming troubled about. You only need to put it to use.  당신이 두려워했던 일들 중 실제로 일어난 것이 얼마나 될까요? 불안감이 당신을 후회할 행동으로 이끈 적은 몇 ...

"Many words have been spoken by Plato, Zeno, Chrysippus, Posidonius, and by a whole host of equally excellent Stoics. I'll tell you how people can prove their words to be their own-by putting into practice what they've been preaching."-SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 108.35; 38 ("플라톤, 제논, 크리시푸스, 포시도니우스 그리고 그에 못지않게 훌륭한 스토아 학파의 수많은 철학자들이 많은 말을 남겼습니다. 그들이 자신의 말이 진정한 것임을 증명할 수 있는 방법은 바로 자신이 설파한 것을 실천에 옮기는 것입니다." - 세네카, 도덕적 서신, 108.35; 38)   One of the criticisms of Stoicism by modern translators and teachers is the amount of repetition. Marcus Aurelius, for example, has been dismissed by academics as not being original because his writing resembles that of other, earlier Stoics. This criticism misses the point.   Even before Marcus's time, Seneca was well aware that there was a lot of borrowing and overlap among the philosophers. That's because real philosophers weren't concerned with authorship, only what worked. More important, they believed that what was said mattered less than what was done.   And this is as true now as it was then. You're welcome to take all of the words of the great philosophers and use them to your own liking (they're dead; they don't mind). Feel free to tweak and edit and improve as you like....

"When the problem arose for us whether habit or theory was better for getting virtue-if by theory is meant what teaches us correct conduct, and by habit we mean being accustomed to act according to this theory-Musonius thought habit to be more effective." -MUSONIUS RUFUS, LECTURES, 5.17.31-32, 5.19.1-2("우리에게 덕을 얻는 데 있어서 습관이 더 좋은지 아니면 이론이 더 좋은지 문제가 생겼을 때, 이론이란 우리가 올바른 행위를 가르치는 것을 의미하고, 습관이란 이 이론에 따라 행동하는 것에 익숙해지는 것을 의미한다면, 무소니우스는 습관이 더 효과적이라고 생각했습니다." -무소니우스 루푸스, 강연, 5.17.31-32, 5.19.1-2) As Hamlet says,"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."There is no time to chop logic over whether our theories are correct. We're dealing with the real world here. What matters is how you're going to deal with this situation right in front of you and whether you're going to be able to move past it and onto the next one. That's not saying that anything goes-but we can't forget that although theories are clean and simple, situations rarely are. 햄릿이 말하길, "하늘과 땅 사이에는 호라티오, 네 철학이 상상하지 못한 것들이 더 ...