Modern Stoicism: A Critique

Realization of a Trend

A few years ago, I first became cognizant of the widespread appeal of stoicism in modern culture at a family reunion. Somehow my cousin and I had both found ourselves outside on my aunt’s patio reading our books. I cannot recall what book had me engrossed, but I do remember that when I glanced over at my cousin reclining on a swinging chair nearby I saw the Oxford edition of Marcus Aurelius’ Writings on his lap. “How interesting” I thought when I saw the book; “Maybe the classics have made a comeback.” But had they? Not exactly. A couple years later the same thing happened with another acquaintance. As more and more acquaintances from all points of view (liberal and conservative) turned out to like the Stoics, I realized that this movement was less about philosophy than about mental training or something close to it.

Who are the Modern Stoics?

To be clear, in this essay I am not interested in Stoicism in academic terms. My goal is to explore a cultural definition of Stoicism. I use the term Modern Stoicism as do others such as Tim Ferriss, but I have capitalized the “m” in modern to clarify my intention to talk about a modern movement. Whether we will look back on the Stoic bloggers and authors of today and see them as an actual movement, remains to be seen.

A Google search for Modern Stoicism yields many results, but I quickly focused on the site “The Daily Stoic.” I start with this website’s description of Stoicism because I feel that the website may be something of a model for other sites—it is referenced by Tim Ferris and has 106K followers on Facebook. Likewise, its exploration of Stoicism brings to light aspects of Modern Stoicism that I have found everywhere in my search such as tranquility, self-help, and, above all, reason. With this in mind, here is a synopsis of what I found most helpful from the website’s section on ‘What Is Stoicism?’:

Stoicism has just a few central teachings. It sets out to remind us of how unpredictable the world can be. How brief our moment of life is. How to be steadfast, and strong, and in control of yourself. And finally, that the source of our dissatisfaction lies in our impulsive dependency on our reflexive senses rather than logic.

First, I have to admit I am struck by how similar this quote and the rest of the section sound to the advice yoga instructors give to be mindful, to show your body who is in control, and to never give up. To my little surprise, “Daily Stoic” says that the mindfulness trend in popular culture has its roots in ancient Stoicism as much as it does in ancient yoga. It is notable that the above description identifies change as the central obstacle to happiness and highlights the importance of reason over instinct because eastern philosophy, specifically Buddhism, takes a similar approach to life. Finally, the description implicitly stresses reason and self-control as opposed to impulsiveness. Clearly, the Modern Stoics strike a pose between the touchy-feely, emotionality we associate with modern cultural movements and the self-restraint that we associate with their opposites.

Emphasis on Reason

What distinguishes Modern Stoicism from much of the inspirational material floating around the internet is its reference to reason and self-discipline. Tim Ferriss who runs a popular blog for men and has many followers on Facebook echoes “The Daily Stoic” in his ebook “The Tao of Seneca”. In the introductory section entitled “How to Use This Book,” he details the boot-camp-like routines he routinely goes through all modeled on Stoic philosophy. The routines sharpen his control over himself and reduce his impulsive and emotional tendencies. Through them he finds joy.

These types of practices make you less emotionally reactive, more aware in the present tense, and more resilient. Perhaps counterintuitively, given the English connotations of “stoic,” this dramatically increases your ability to feel joy over the small things. (p.12)

Tim Ferriss, a true Modern Stoic, has gained a cohort of followers by promising just that kind of joy. His website promises that Stoicism will liberate us from stress and bring us undreamed of successes. It will help us make decisions and navigate relationships. We just have to become less emotional, more reasoned, and above all mentally tough. In fact, he calls Stoicism “mental toughness training” (p. 12). Neither Tim Ferris nor “The Daily Stoic” has proposed anything radically new. They have simply tapped into a broader cultural movement that emphasizes detachment and so-called mindfulness. On this, they have added the appeal of reasonableness.

A Critique of the Cultural Movement: Detachment and Its Limitations

My critique of the Modern Stoics will begin with the issue of detachment. St. Paul said countless things about mortifying the flesh that agree with the Modern Stoics. In Romans 8:13, Paul warns “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” However, St. Paul speaks of detachment in different terms from the Modern Stoic or the student of yoga. St. Paul does not speak of reason as an escape from feeling as Ferriss speaks of it. Nor does he advocate a stress free life. Rather it’s implicit that reason is a tool used by the Christian in self-mortification, but the emotions can be effective as well. In imitating Christ, Paul surely advocates experiencing the gambit of emotions that Christ, as one of us, experienced.

For moderns, detachment often implies self-sufficiency. The detached person does not rely on other people. In some sense, such a person does not even need anyone or anything else. This can begin to seem like self-centeredness. In contrast, John the Baptist who lived a Stoic life said “He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30). Catholicism says that dependence and trust in God leads to peace since depending on ourselves or anyone else is sure to disappoint. Modern Stoics hope for a kind of self-realization or self-liberation in which the self becomes greater and greater and all-encompassing.

Problems with Practicality

Moving on, while I applaud a return to reason as a standard, I find that Modern Stoics are mostly interested with a kind of reason that tends to be materialistic and entirely based on practicality and expediency. Ferriss makes this type of reason clear to his audience in his “The Tao of Seneca” by saying:

Few of us consider ourselves philosophers. “Philosophy” usually conjures images of dense textbooks and academic quibbling with no application to real life. It’s fun for professors, perhaps, but a waste of time for the rest of us. (p. 11)

Ferriss is careful to describe Modern Stoics as highly practical in contrast to philosophers; it is unfortunate that his separation between the two camps is so definite. It would be better if our culture could see a connection between the reasoning that goes into accepting a job and the reasoning that goes into answering the mysteries of life. Instead, we are urged to be skeptical towards all non-material result based activities such as reading Kant or going to pray before the Eucharist. On top of this, we have grown to distrust anyone’s ideas except our own and tend to discount anyone who follows someone else’s philosophy.

An Opportunity

As much as Modern Stoics paint themselves as philosophers and mystics, they remain a part of a modern movement that makes it harder and harder to be still or to have the necessary inner silence to listen to a lecture on philosophy or get something from a meditation. That being said, Catholics have started to tap into the redeeming aspects of Modern Stoicism. One example is Fr. Mike Schmitz who is part of Ascension Presents and whose blog is called Bulldog Catholic. I follow Fr. Schmitz on YouTube and here are the names of some of his recent videos “Motivation to Go to Catholic Mass,” “Inspiration to Stop Complaining,” and “The Secrets to Sticking to a New Year’s Resolution.” All these titles strike me as having to do with “mental-toughness” and Modern Stoicism. Thus, while I quibble with the Stoic philosophers of the day, I think they present us with an opportunity to bring back some of the practices of self-discipline and moderation our culture may have thrown to the wayside.