Control and Stoicism: Emotional Responses and Judgment (Research Paper Sample)

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Control and Stoicism
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Control and Stoicism
Human nature has it that every human being strives to be rational and to achieve optimal benefits from life. However, due to the dynamism of the world and the ensuing limitation of resources to enhance lives, individuals may not achieve satisfactory outcomes in their lives. Such an end result leads to the development of some form of attitude towards the elements surrounding their daily lives. The attitude developed towards life is mainly expressed in the form of emotions. Due to dissatisfaction in life, individuals tend to develop negative emotions. Stoicism provides teachings on the development of fortitude and self-control as a mode of overcoming negative emotions. From the Stoics’ point of view, it is thus, possible for us to distinguish between things in our control and those outside our control.
We are all capable of controlling our emotional responses, as well as judgments. Emotional responses and judgment are key elements that enable us to develop an attitude towards things that dominated our lives. Since we can control them, we gain the ability to determine what is within our control and what is without. The ability to distinguish the two sides of our lives is derived from our strong rational nature, which involves our power to engage in critical thinking about our lives and different experiences and subsequently change our point of view towards them.According to Stoics, the power of rational judgment is the sole true power that human beings possess in life. The strength of rational judgment thus, plays a key role in enabling us to draw a clear distinction between things that we can control and those that we cannot. All other weaker powers that we possess and that are weak enough to reduce the ability to make the distinction can be gained or lost in the process of pursuing our objectives in life. These weaker powers are derived from such aspects of life as possessions, relationships, and roles in the society. From the perspective of the Stoics, if such powers are taken away from us, we are still in possession of an intrinsic power that enables us to maintain a strongly rational state of cognizance. The strong intrinsic power possessed by all human beings is an essential feature in enabling them to naturally determine the level of control that they exercise on things that have an impact on their lives and thus, the differentiation between controllable and uncontrollable things.[William Irvine, A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (New Jersey, CA: Oxford University Press, 2008), 114-116.] [Christopher Star, The Empire of the Self: Self-Command and Political Speech in Seneca and Petronius (New York: JHU Press, 2012), 64-65.]
The things we can control and those that we cannot are determined by our state of mind. An individual’s state of mind is determined by intrinsic factors, including their perspective towards the situations facing them at a particular moment. In this ...