Chapters 1 - 6

Question 0

Who said that Socrates was “the first to call philosophy down from the heavens and set her in the cities of men and bring her also into their homes and compel her to ask questions about life and morality and things good and evil”?

Answer 0

Cicero

Question 1

Who founded the Stoic school?

Answer 1

Zeno of Citium

Question 2

Antisthenes (the Cynic) said “pay attention to your enemies…

Answer 2

…for they are the first to discover your mistakes.”

Question 3

Stoic ethics are __________ ethics.

Answer 3

Eudaimonistic

Question 4

What is eudaimonism about?

Answer 4

How to live well - to flourish

Question 5

What was the primary ethical goal of the Greek Stoics?

Answer 5

The attainment of virtue

Question 6

What was the second goal added by the Roman Stoics?

Answer 6

The attainment of tranquility

Question 7

What was the Stoic conception of tranquility?

Answer 7

A psychological state marked by the absence of negative emotions and the presence of positive emotions

Question 8

In “On the Happy Life,” how did Seneca say we should pursue tranquility?

Answer 8

Use our reasoning ability to drive away all that excites or frightens us

Question 9

Marcus Aurelius said “the art of living…

Answer 9

…is more like wrestling than dancing.”

Question 10

What is hedonic adaptation?

Answer 10

Becoming used to, or adapting to, the things which made us happy when we first got them, causing us to seek new things to make us happy

Question 11

What is the purpose of negative visualisation?

Answer 11

To forestall, obstruct, and reverse hedonic adaptation

Question 12

The easiest way to be happy is….

Answer 12

…to want the things we already have

Question 13

What should we take as objects of negative visualisation?

Answer 13

Our possessions, friends, and even our own lives

Question 14

What is projective visualisation?

Answer 14

Imagining that you are a third party observer to, instead of a participant in, an event in order to reduce your emotional response to it and the depth of its disturbance of your tranquility

Question 15

How can you reduce the occurrence of “if only…” thoughts after a friend has died?

Answer 15

Negative visualisation during their life can make you appreciate the time you have and do the things you would otherwise regret not doing

Question 16

As well as helping us appreciate the world, negative visualisation is also…

Answer 16

…contemplation of the impermanence of the world

Question 17

Seneca said we must be “the user….

Answer 17

….but not the slave of the gifts of fortune”

Question 18

Recognising that everytime we do something could be the last time we ever do it…

Answer 18

…invests the experience with a significance and intensity that would otherwise be absent

Question 19

Epictetus said your primary desire should be…

Answer 19

…to not have desires you cannot fulfill

Question 20

What is Epictetus’ dichotomy of control?

Answer 20

Some things are completely up to us, and some things are not. We should not want things which are not completely up to us

Question 21

What is the significance of Epictetus’ dichotomy of control?

Answer 21

Making your happiness dependent on things which are not completely up to you is irrational

Question 22

What is the trichotomy of control?

Answer 22

That some things are wholly within our control, some things partially within our control, and some things wholly outwith our control

Question 22

Why kind of triage should a Stoic perform?

Answer 22

To decide where in the trichotomy of control something falls, and to deal with it accordingly

Question 24

How should we deal with things over which we have some but not complete control?

Answer 24

Have internal goals related to them, over which we do have complete control

Question 25

Marcus Aurelius said “Nothing is worth…

Answer 25

…doing pointlessly”

Question 26

We should be fatalistic with respect to the…

Answer 26

…past and present moment, because they cannot be changed

Question 27

Why should we be fatalistic with respect to the present moment?

Answer 27

To allow ourselves to embrace it and avoid wasting it in dissatisfaction

Question 28

What is a more general Stoic principal that could be used to explain why we should be fatalistic with respect to the past and present?

Answer 28

The dichotomy of control; the past and present instant are beyond our control, so it would be irrational to worry about them

Question 29

How is fatalism with respect to the past and present connected to negative visualisation?

Answer 29

It is the converse; negative visualisation is contemplating how our life could be worse, while non-future fatalism is a refusal to contemplate how it could be better

Question 30

Why do the meditations of fatalism and negative visualisation not cause us to be complacent and unambitious?

Answer 30

Stoicism also teaches to strive for perfection of virtue, to carry out social duties, to be a better person