What we’re about
How does one live a good life?
This simple question can be surprisingly difficult to answer. Yet not taking an honest try at answering it (or even worse: ignoring the question entirely) can lead to the risk of misliving one's life. One of the main goals of ancient philosophy in the West was to help guide people in answering this question rigorously and well, and then helping people to live in accordance with their life's philosophy (literally "the love of wisdom").
One of the most successful and influential schools of thought in the ancient world which addressed this question was Stoicism. Stoicism taught that by cultivating personal excellence ('arete' in Greek) was all that was needed to lead a good life and flourish as a human being ('eudaimonia' in ancient Greek). To do this, the ancient Stoics taught a host of practices and a sophisticated theory of mind to help the Stoic student on the path to eudaimonia. Stoic philosophy had a huge influence on the West, from helping shape early Christianity to being a strong influence on the modern psychological movement of cognitive-behavioral therapy.
But Stoic philosophy is not only useful for those in the ancient world. For instance, James Stockdale has cited Stoic philosophy as helping him cope with the horrors of being a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Also, the University of Exeter in the UK has been conducting pilot studies starting in 2012 of the effect of Stoic practices on various measures psychological well-being with promising preliminary results. Stoicism can be of great use to people in our modern era.
The goal of this meetup is to introduce Stoic philosophy as a way of life to people interested in living a more meaningful, authentic life and to support experienced students of Stoic philosophy in their practice. While many of the meetups will be focused around reading, this is not a group for disengaged study of ancient philosophy from an academic perspective. Instead, this is a group for helping people to put Stoic philosophy into practice in their daily lives, so they can live the best life they can.
Are you ready to attempt to live a more authentic, meaningful, and happy life? Then join us today!
Note:
The Minnesota Stoics group is part of The Stoic Fellowship, an international community whose aim is to build, connect, and foster the knowledge and practice of Stoicism through in-person activities throughout the world.
Upcoming events (2)
See all- Courage Updated: Brene BrownLink visible for attendees
Join us for our weekly meeting of the Minnesota Stoics. We'll begin with thoughts from contemporary author Brene Brown on courage, and then have additional prompts from the Stoics. (Thanks to member Kate for this idea).
All are welcome to join in, and we encourage newcomers to give us a try. No outside reading is required, and it's fine to just listen in.
We'll be on Zoom, and the link is posted just before the meeting starts. Image: Wikimedia commons, by BBeargTeam
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. - Stoicism in the BibleLink visible for attendees
Did you know that the Stoics are mentioned in the Bible? Join us as we look at the historical interaction between the early Christians- specifically St. Paul- and the Stoics. We'll use an article by Donald Robertson to fuel our conversation (but reading prior to the Meetup is not required). All are welcome, and we encourage newcomers to try us out. We will meet on Zoom, and the link is posted just prior to the meeting time. Article link here:
St. Paul on Stoicism: From the Acts of the Apostles – Donald J. RobertsonImage: St Paul Preaching in Athens, by Raphael, public domain
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