Do you consider yourself to be virtuous? Or. Living the good life? What are your thoughts on the subjects... and are they outdated, or do both Stoicism and Epicureanism have some relevance today? I personally prefer the enticing Stoics, than the Epicureans and find that both have particular relevance in modern society. So? What are your thoughts?
I fancy myself more a contemporary Philosopher, my favourite period is the enlightenment (although I reject it overall) & so that period of Philosophy has never really interested me as anything more than a more than as part of the Historical narrative of Philosophy which I again deny the importance of since it matters not when something of said but what was said & the potential truth value of that statement so it's not an area I am particularly knowledgeable in. I certainly feel they made some good, relevant points, namely their ethics which teaches that logic & reason should be the control of your decisions, as someone who has suffered from depression on & off for 2 years but also as someone who tries to act logically & reasonably I can tell you just how difficult it is not to act over-emotionally but to instead take a step-back & analyse the situation. I think their Epistemology has a lot of truth to it, as an empiricist things such as being it has a lot of similarities. Overall I feel the Stoics made a good contribution to Philosophy which was built on. I don't necessarily agree that a lot of what they say is true. I do not believe their ethics are true (but more a useful fiction) nor, unlike the Stoics do I think we can ever 'know' anything (or at least very much) but while their phenomena of knowledge which can be found out by consulting our peers & mankind is obvious essential to the all important "peer review process" of science, but this only solves to further justify a belief rather than raise it to the rank of knowledge. As for Epicurus I know nothing of him & thus cannot comment. As for whether I am living the good life, I don't think that question is hugely important because there is no such thing as 'the good life'. However, by the standards set out by the past I doubt they would say that I was.
I believe Apathy is bliss, only if you truly do not emotionally care about a decision can you consistently and rationally make the right choice, and i believe that is a universal truth wich shall stand the test of time, so yes, Stoicism is still true today, maybe not as popular, but maybe thats because Feminism made everyone have emotions for no god damned good reason xD (j/k)
