Stoicism And Stockdale And A Research Project

 Every now and again one finds a post, which leads to a link, which leads to something so stunning in terms of content that one realizes that one needs to write something about it.  And of course, one finds out that it is an entirely new area of study that one has to engage in to be able to speak about it intelligently.

The "thing" is a speech by Vice Admiral James Stockdale entitled "Stockdale of Stoicism I:  The Stoic Warrior's Triad".  It is about a 20 page read and is a speech given by the Vice Admiral in 1995.  In a short summary, it is a brief introduction to Stoicism and its practical application.

I have fuzzy memories of Stockdale. I only really "know" him from his Vice-Presidential candidacy with Ross Perot (and as it turns out, he died from Alzheimer's, so that is a small link that we share).   But that was it:  a blip in my political awareness, and then I carried on with my life. As it turns out, I missed a very great deal, which apparently I now need to rectify, both for the man and the philosophy.

Stoicism, most people know, was originally found by Zeno of Citium sometime around 300 B.C.  Less people maybe know that it was names after the Stoa, or columns, of the market place (Agora) where Zeno lectured in Athens.  A great many people know of its most currently famous practitioner, the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, whose book Meditations has waxed and waned in popularity (I believe now it is more on the "waxing" side).  Perhaps less people know other practitioners of whose works we have extant:  Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger or Epictetus (both whose quotes have graced these pages in recent years).  And many of course will know of Marcus Porcius Cato the Younger (Uticensis), the Roman Senator upright in practice and avowed enemy of Julius Caesar in his quest for power who ultimately committed suicide at Utica. 

Our modern perception of Stoicism, were one to gather opinions, would be (I suspect) a version of the Vulcan Mr. Spock from Star Trek:  Emotionless, passionless, logical.  Some readers of Aurelius' Meditations might throw in a regular consideration of our life in the face of death, but that would likely be it.

Like most modern interpretations and trends, this is at best about 10% and at worst, none at all.  Even I, in my little world, know it is much more than that.

As it turns out, Stoicism (up to the 3rd Century A.D.) was something of a thing up with early Christians (not the religious aspects of it of course - because there were religious aspects - as much as the other parts of the philosophy) as well as through the Middle Ages to a lesser extent.  So even Christianity found aspects that were compatible with it.

 So rather than write a half-baked article on Stoicism, it appears that I have a new research project (well, really two with Admiral Stockdale).  Which is not really what I intended to end up with, but the subject matter almost begs that I do - because reading people's interpretation of it, it seems (not surprisingly) that as with many other things Ancient, modern society can barely focus its attention long enough to even know such a thing existed once upon a time. 

All we in the modern world can seem to manage is that the sayings make nice inspirational posters.