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Friday, March 20, 2020

Musonius Rufus, Lectures 8.9


If, however, no other art professes the teaching and transmission of virtue, though there are some which are concerned solely with man's body and what is useful for it, while others which touch the mind aim at everything else but making it self-controlled, yet philosophy alone makes this its aim and occupies itself with this, how a man may avoid evil and acquire virtue, if this I say is so, what else would be more serviceable to a king who wished to be good than the study of philosophy?

How better or how otherwise could a man be a good ruler or live a good life than by studying philosophy? For my part, I believe that the good king is straightway and of necessity a philosopher, and the philosopher a kingly person.

If the Stoics are indeed correct that virtue is the highest human good, then it will surely also follow that the ability to lead in virtue is the most suitable quality of those who are called to guide other men.

Now what sort of insight, what type of skill, what kind of gifts will be necessary to achieve this end? We may think too little of people, and assume that they will instantly and selfishly pick the tricks of their own particular trades as being the most important, but let us try to leave the door wide open for whatever might be best.

What sort of discipline is required to improve our moral worth?

Perhaps the businessman may say it is the ability to make money, or the lawyer may say it is the expertise to win in a courtroom, or the doctor may say it is the power to extend our lives.

Don’t forget the professional academic, who may say it involves getting published and earning tenure.

These can all be wonderful things, but whether they are of benefit or harm to us will depend upon more fundamental values. Money, power, long life, or honor are never good or bad in themselves; they become good or bad by how they are used.

That is, I would argue, the very point of the whole Stoic argument: nothing in life is a gift without the direction of character.

And there can never be character without wisdom, since doing well requires knowing well. The love of truth is the calling of the philosopher.

“Wait, only philosophers know how to live, and only philosophers know how to lead? That doesn’t seem right at all!”

It will seem that way only if we think of philosophy as a rather narrow trade, not as a universal human calling. Not every man can be a businessman, or a lawyer, or a doctor, or an academic; yet every man can be a philosopher.

Philosophy, you see, stands behind every career, every manner of making money, every other occupation. It provides the very meaning to anything and everything else we do.

By all means, fight this all you like, but please understand that the reason you may fight it comes down to the very first principles we use to define a worthy life. Even if you think it is all about money, or power, or fame, or pleasure, you will still need to give an account of your reasons why, and an account of the reasons why is already the realm of philosophy.

“But studying philosophy? How does that help?”

Perhaps too many years of soaking up Stoicism have numbed my sense of the popular definition of what it means to “study”. Read about it, go to classes, earn a degree? Quite nice. Grapple with it, go into the world, earn merit through action? That hits the nail on the head. Study is complete commitment, the application of principle to practice.

“I am qualified to run for office, because I earned a law degree from Harvard, and I made lots of money on Wall Street, and I wrote a New York Times best-selling book about how important it is to support the community.”

No, that qualifies you as a worldly achiever, and really says very little about your deeper philosophy. Without platitudes and soundbites, tell me what truly matters in all our lives.

I’m still here, and I’m listening. . .

Written in 9/1999


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