Transcript for:
کشف فلسفه رواقی برای رسیدن به شادی

for the stoics money pleasure and fame won't make you happy the only thing that will make you happy is living a virtuous life you see the stoics didn't think that happiness was something that you feel they were inspired by earlier Greek philosophers like Aristotle and they thought that happiness was dependent on who you are now I've been reading the stoics for a while now and I've been making some progress and kind of putting together a guide a stoic guide to being happy but when I was making this video I knew I wanted to get another perspective so I reached out to an expert in modern stoicism for some help I think the simplest way to explain the stoic view of happiness is that it is living according to Nature this is masimo Puchi Puchi is a wicked smart guy he has two phds he's a professor of philosophy and he's written several books explaining stoicism for modern audiences I spoke to pioi a few months ago and I learned a ton the stoics like other ancient philosophers thought that human beings had a kind of Nature and we call that human nature so when the stoics talk about virtue for human beings really what they're saying is that a virtuous human being is one who lives according to human nature so to be happy we need to be virtuous and to be virtuous we need to live according to human nature and to live according to our human nature we need to understand what that is now for the stoics it comes down to two components of human nature one the first the fact that we are highly sociable that we're social animals yes we can survive on our own if we have to but we only thrive in a social group and be the fact that our evolutionary weapon as we would put it today is reason so for the stoics a happy life is one in which you understand and implement this notion that a good human being is somebody who is social and thinks well human beings are essentially rational creatures but we're also essentially social creatures so our guide to happiness has to keep both of these in mind now how do we even start applying stoic insights into our life well here's a good place to start it is the very first paragraph of the inidian by Epic the inidian is like a manual for stoic living written by probably my favorite stoic so at the very beginning of the inidian epicus writes some things are up to us and some are not up to us our judgment inclination desire aversion in short whatever is our own doing not up to us our bodies possessions reputations public offices and short whatever isn't our own doing epicus goes on to say that we should focus only on those things which are up to us in order to determine our happiness this is a principle that has come to be called the dichotomy of control when I spoke to Puchi by the way he told me that this was the most important stoic lesson that he's been able to apply to his own life he sort of trained himself so that when anything bad or even mildly annoying happens the very first thought he has is what can I control and what can I not control if you really internalize this lesson then you're going to realize that a lot of things that you think make you happy are actually things that you cannot control pleasure and money and fame and social status aren't really what make you happy all of these things are nice to have but they are ultimately out of our control but what we can control is living a virtuous life there are four stoic virtues courage Justice moderation and wisdom keeping in mind that we are social creatures all of these virtues involve how we treat other people but they also involve how we will treat ourselves and the sort of radical stoic claim is that if you can become a virtuous person if you can live according to these four principles then you will be a happy person now if you want to develop the virtue of moderation you probably need to break some bad habits many of us are accustomed to an extreme level of luxury there are so many things in our life that we take for granted that actually make our lives incredibly comfortable and if we have become dependent on these things this means from the perspective of the stoics that we have let other things determine our happiness there's a bit of a meme on the internet about taking cold showers I understand that from the outside it looks a little silly but I actually think there is some stoic wisdom there the idea is that you're depriving yourself of an ordinary pleasure that you would usually take for granted and if you can find a way to be happy even if you aren't able to take a nice hot comfortable shower then you're becoming a little less dependent on external circumstances for your happiness if you don't want to take cold showers and I understand if you don't there are other ways to practice moderation the stoics talk about eating simple Foods or in the modern age that might mean putting your phone away for an entire day and not allowing yourself access to easy and cheap entertainment that distracts you from the things that you actually want to achieve the point is to do something that is uncomfortable that you know will ultimately benefit you how often do you waste whole days doing things that you realize were actually rather pointless I know that I've spent so much time watching videos on my phone when I really know that I'd rather be reading but it's so easy to just keep going to a different video or to keep scrolling and suddenly the whole evening's gone think about all of those little distractions that you let get in the way way of the projects that you would rather pursue for me one of those projects is learning a new language it's something I've wanted to do for a while I've especially wanted to be able to read certain philosophers in the original German but I've never really gotten around to doing it I like to say that I've never had the time but really I've never had the discipline and that is where lingoda comes in I want to thank lingoda for sponsoring this video lingoda is not an ordinary language learning app it is actually an online language school when you sign up to lingoda you get access to accessible and live classes these are taught by a native level teacher and they are taught in small groups so you can actually get some attention from your teacher I've been learning German but lingoda also offers classes in English Spanish and French with special classes for business English and they can handle all levels of ability from absolute beginners to Advanced speakers lingoda is currently running a one-month language Sprint this is a special kind of challenge when you sign up on the website you can choose between two options the Sprint or the Super Sprint and there are slightly different rules for each those are up on the screen scream but if you complete enough classes in a month you'll be able to earn cash back or credits for future classes which is going to help you just keep learning that language and developing this new skill learning a new language is one of those things that many of us want to do but we keep putting it off so you could just go ahead and make the time to do it now if you choose to check out lingoda use my code Jared 25 and you'll be able to save $25 when you sign up thanks again to lingoda for sponsoring this video now when you hear about sism online you might might think that moderation or discipline is really all that the stoics ever cared about but the stoics were also incredibly concerned with Justice not only is treating people justly the right thing to do but it also is what enables you to form relationships and friendships which are essential to a good life if you're not able to treat people fairly then you're never going to be able to form those deep and Lasting friendships and remember we are social creatures so treating other people well is a part of being virtuous being honest is a form of Justice refusing to lie gossip cheat steal all of these are a form of justice as well and those are the habits of a good friend Justice also involves trying to better the circumstances of others while ultimately we can't control the outcomes we can certainly try to help people understanding that while things might ultimately be out of our control it is our duty to try and help them Marcus aurelus saw himself as trying to do this by being a good Emperor masonius Rufus thought he was helping people by teaching them about philosophy epicus writes about the value of being a good friend many times in the handbook and the discourses I hope this challenges The Stereotype that stoics are individualist the stoics all all human beings as connected and they saw it as their duty to try to treat everyone fairly and when you abide by this principle you do end up being happier so let's talk about courage now courage involves the regulation of fear fear is one of those emotions that often holds us back from doing the right thing this does not mean that we should never be afraid fear is a natural response and some sometimes it is the appropriate response but the point is to be able to acknowledge fear and then acknowledge the circumstances for what they are and then to still do the right thing courage is not just a matter of running into burning buildings and saving people sometimes we don't speak up for something that we believe in because we think we'll lose friends or we don't defend someone who needs defending because they're unpopular those are both failures of courage in the meditations Marcus really has this line that I think about all the time he says to stand straight not straightened the idea is to live by your principles not the principles of other people and when you live by your own principles instead of the principles of others you are actually acting with integrity and that is certainly a part of being happy and finally let's talk about wisdom wisdom is probably the hardest virtue to develop because it involves a lot of trial and error now it's helpful to know that when the stoics talk about wisdom they're talking about practical wisdom this isn't some kind of esoteric wisdom that is ineffable basically practical wisdom is the ability to think rightly and clearly l in everyday scenarios put even more simply it's about becoming a better thinker now wisdom is the prerequisite for all other virtues if you're not able to accurately assess a situation then you're not going to be able to be courageous or moderate or just so it's hard to see how being wise on its own makes you happier but the important part is actually being wise is the necessary condition for being virtuous and general which does make you happier there are a few ways that we can do this first is that we could learn patterns of reasoning that often lead us astray in the realm of logic these are called fallacies in Psychology we call these biases either way what they are are patterns of thought that do not reliably get us to the truth learning about fallacies and biases allows us to be better thinkers and to more accurately assess situations so that we can then go on to act rightly another way to become more wise is to start keeping a journal a journal is essentially a record of your life and you can use it to reflect on what you've done well and what you did poorly so that in the future you can act differently and here's a bit of a curveball I think that reading good fiction can actually help make you wiser as well when you read authors like Fodor dovi or Jane Austin or Tony Morrison what you are learning about is human nature you can see both the Foles of human nature but also examples of people acting rightly now I can imagine what some people want to say right now which is that all sounds fine but does that actually make me happy and it's hard to give an abstract argument for why being virtuous is actually going to make you a happier person but what I can say is you should learn from the experience of others when I started to think more like a stoic I became happier and when I talk to Scholars like Puchi they say the same the modern world is seeing more and more people turn to stoicism as a guide to a happy life and it seems to be working so if you're looking for some way to be happier why not give it a shot