Stoic thinking models

Lupins bloom mid June through July

Stoic thinking models are a free floating concept that I needed to rap my mind around, and when I did, I discovered that many of them are superior to what we have today. These are thinking models of the world, a system of tests of our concepts that bend the world back to straight. The stoics considered reason and logic to be the divine pursuit, and with nothing else we can defeat any enemy of taking anything of stoic good, of highest value from us. They may take our lives, but we never claimed to be immortal. Virtue is the highest good after logic, and with these two, we are assured of a flourishing life. Virtue provided meaning and engagement, and if fate permits, achievement, satisfaction, and stoic joy, oh joys. This is essentially what positive psychology has now demonstrated.

The first notable thinking model described by the stoics is "some things are up to us and some are not." This sounds simple, and it is and it is not at the same time. As the logic develops, we see a field open up behind that simple gateway that relieves passions (anger, lust, resentments), and emotions, or feelings. It is just amazing.

 What is up to us? Well we can pass a judgement on a proposition, we can assent, withhold judgement, or reject it. We need to express each idea as a proposition and evaluate it. We do this automatically now,  for many things. So frequently, we set down rules. This process lets us examine our own rules, and do mental cleanup. Next is our desires and aversions. At some time we have made a decision on these, and we can reexamine them. Next, we have control over our impulses toward and away from actions. Combined with apathy which lye between impulse toward and away, we are in control of much thinking, impulses, desires and the like. Our expectations and delusions of how life should be are within our control, and as such are open for examination. Passions are frustrated expectations, and when we see the expectation for what it is, the passion is reduced or just goes away.

We see that something we do not value is just stuff, and we are not bothered when it is taken away from us, given away, or returned to where it came from, us willing or not. All that happens is natures will.

Now the stuff not up to us, we can do nothing about that, we can accept what happens much easier, and after accepting, work on improving the salutation. There is so much more and so little space in the attention span. Piecemeal is the only possible order.

Enough.