so I wanted to start with a common misconception that's floating around a lot out there and it's that stoicism can be summed up you know there's a variety of different one liners that people use and so sometimes you'll see people saying stoicism is the idea or the philosophy that virtue is the only good Vice the only bad and everything else is indifferent and you can actually find some texts where they they say things like that so for example Cicero stoic Paradox number one only what is morally Noble is good um now that doesn't say only
virtue is good but only what is honom or colog in in Latin or Greek is is good so we're going to get into that technically um the stoics think that quite a few things besides virtue and vice are good so it's not as if you've only got these two things they will say that friendship is good for example if it's the right kind of friendship or um you know things that that have to do with your use of indifference is good so we're going to explore that a little bit later on these things do do
tend to be connected with virtue and vice so it's not like they're totally uh off base in in highlighting virtue and vice but there you know it risks some misunderstandings so you know that's what we want to study the text for and I think there's no substitute for people who um want who are interested in the stoics and and stoicism there's no substitute for actually reading the primary texts and seeing what what people say what else can be good or bad so virtue is good Vice is bad this goes back to that that original uh
confusion what else do the stoics think can be good or bad your emotions so a lot of things like the stoics for example think that anger is always bad there's you know you could say well what if you needed to to get yourself you know riled up against Injustice the stoics would say you can do that without getting angry you know there's never a case where anger is going to be a good emotion but there are some good emotions Joy genuine Joy felt for the right reasons the stoics think that that is a good emotion
affection toward other people friendship love care all of those sorts of things those are good emotions you know provided they're still within the realm of of rationality um even fear rational fear they call caution so you know um should you be so you know I'm going in for this operation you can you can have all sorts of things playing out in your head like oh what if they give me too much anesthetic and I never wake up and oh my kids will never see me again and blah blah blah blah blah blah right uh that's
not a rational fear you know and now if I find out my anesthesiologist is a serial killer then I could have a rational worry that I probably shouldn't go get that operation that might be caution in that case you know I'd be like oh that guy has a terrible track record the stoics would say that could be that could actually be good um actions can be good or bad right actions typify virtue or vice um friendship is a good thing for the stoics they they think that you actually want to have uh friendship happiness is
a good thing and happiness isn't the same thing as virtue it's connected with it um it's felt through it but it's it's not the same thing and you know they also talk about Tranquility Freedom these are also good things so um there's a wide range of stuff um and all the stoics thought that you have a duty to protect your Homeland you know um just like you know you could say from a certain perspective every relationship that you have is external but that doesn't mean that friendship is not a good for them so there's kind
of you could say a bleed over the stoics think that we have a common uh human nature that is Orient towards living in community and that's where the that's where Justice is actually going to come from at least the origins of justice and this is where a lot of people get stoicism wrong they think that stoicism is this individualistic you know thing I withdraw unto myself and I you know I I keep everything else away because it's not true Goods um protecting you know Humanity in general and protecting your political Community um that can be
a good for for them it's now the distinction that sen is making there is more like some Goods require us to do um more work and they involve courage to to protect courage in the different senses that we're going to look at so that's I think that's how how Sena would address it would other stoics go the same way I think so I mean you know think about the practice of ko got to save the Roman Republic even if it means teaming up with a scumbag like Pompei against a bigger scumbag or Marcus Aurelius you
know Marcus does you know he's got to kill people on the frontier in Wars um he thinks that it's important to keep the the Roman Empire protected um even at Great cost to himself you know so so those are those can be Goods um but they're not going to be Goods in exactly the same way that virtue in a particular person is a good you know e
