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ELITE

Stoicism, have you heard

about it?

Mariam Elsafty, political science, , sophomore
Mariam.Yasser2020@feps.edu.eg
“No person has the power to have everything However, Stoicism does not mean that we are subject
they want, but it is in their power not to want to be helpless victims of the world. Rather, Stoicism
what they do not have, and to cheerfully put to proclaims that there are two domains of life; our
good use what they do have” –Seneca. Stoicism external, the things outside our mind, which we cannot
is a Greek philosophy found by Zeno of Citium, control, and the internal, our interpretations and
in a time when Athens was so indulged in the reactions of the external, which we can control. When
serious belief of political participation of its we believe in the idea that everything outside of us or
citizens, and literally, politics was everything, in the future is only responsible for our own happiness,
and in a period of time when Plato and Aristotle we exchange every moment of our life with a moment
tried to introduce their idea of the most ideal and that does not exist. We really then tend to depend on
perfect state that could ever exist, the Stoics were things completely not under our control, and we
more concerned with living life as an experience endlessly run on a treadmill of needing more. In
in a place where there are no worries nor fears. Stoicism, and unlike the philosophy of Plato, there is
Stoicism was designed to help people live their nothing wrong about working towards and achieving
best possible lives, to maximize positive wealth, fame, or power, but in the Stoics mind, these
emotions and reduce their negative ones, and it things are merely to be enjoyed if they do work out, but
helps individuals to have their virtues of not to be dependent on for one’s happiness.
character. It produces a framework of living well.
Stoicism also provides answers to anxiety, stress,
fear, and troubling questions. It provides an
operating system that deals with the trials of the
human condition. In recent history, Stoicism has
found huge appeal. It was used and encouraged
by Washington, Nelson, and more. The principles
of Stoicism help us find calmness, presence, and
resilience in a world of increasingly chaos,
anxiety, and unstable desire for more. In
Stoicism, we exist in a reality that does not care
about our personal opinion of it. We cannot ask it
to remove chaos, poverty, or hardships.

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Vol.1, Issue 40, February 2022
Vol.1, Issue 40, February 2022