1004. The sources of ingratitude
Ingratitude is caused by excessive self-esteem, by that fault innate in all mortals, of taking a partial view of ourselves and our own acts, by greed, or by jealousy.
Feb 23, 2022•3 min
Stoic Meditations
Occasional reflections on the wisdom of Ancient Greek and Roman philosophers with Prof. Massimo Pigliucci. Complete index by author and source at https://massimopigliucci.org/stoic-podcast/. (cover art by Marek Škrabák; original music by Ian Jolin-Rasmussen).
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Episodes
1003. When we should decline a benefit to help a friend
Someone may be a worthy person for me to receive a benefit from, but it will hurt them to give it. For this reason I will not receive it, because they are ready to help me to their own prejudice, or even danger.
Feb 22, 2022•3 min
1002. Benefits should be freely received
No one incurs any obligation by receiving what it was not in his power to refuse; if you want to know whether I wish to take it, arrange matters so that I have the power of saying ‘No.’
Feb 21, 2022•3 min
1001. Sometimes the right thing to do is to say no
As we refuse cold water to the sick, or swords to the grief-stricken or remorseful, so must we persist in refusing to give anything whatever that is hurtful, although our friends earnestly and humbly beg for it.
Feb 18, 2022•3 min
1000. Be an anonymous benefactor
You should be satisfied with the approval of your own conscience; if not, you do not really delight in doing good, but in being seen to do good.
Feb 17, 2022•2 min
999. Don't let generosity degenerate into extravagance
Since no impulse of the human mind can be approved of, even though it springs from a right feeling, unless it be made into a virtue by discretion, I forbid generosity to degenerate into extravagance.
Feb 16, 2022•3 min
998. A hierarchy of needs and benefits
The next point to be defined is, what kind of benefits are to be given, and in what manner. First let us give what is necessary, next what is useful, and then what is pleasant, provided that they be lasting.
Feb 15, 2022•3 min
997. Do we make moral progress?
Our ancestors before us have lamented, and our children after us will lament, as we do, the ruin of morality, the prevalence of vice, and the gradual deterioration of mankind; yet these things are really stationary.
Feb 14, 2022•3 min
996. Why are you doing what you are doing?
Seneca reminds us that virtue ethics is about motivations and the improvement of one's character, not just about material help, as much as the latter may be needed.
Feb 11, 2022•3 min
995. It is the thought that counts
What value has the crown in itself? or the purple-bordered robe? or the judgment-seat and car of triumph? None of these things is in itself an honour, but is an emblem of honour.
Feb 10, 2022•2 min
994. The many forms of benefits
Do not grow weary, perform your duty, and act as becomes a good person. Help one with money, another with credit, another with your favor; this one with good advice, that one with sound maxims.
Feb 09, 2022•2 min
993. The book-keeping of benefits is simple
The book-keeping of benefits is simple: it is all expenditure; if any one returns it, that is clear gain; if he does not return it, it is not lost, I gave it for the sake of giving.
Feb 08, 2022•3 min
992. Good deeds, or their fruits?
It is the property of a great and good mind to covet, not the fruit of good deeds, but good deeds themselves.
Feb 07, 2022•2 min
991. The right attitude for gift giving
Let us bestow benefits, not put them out at interest.
Feb 04, 2022•2 min
990. The importance of benefits
Among the numerous faults of those who pass their lives recklessly and without due reflexion, I should say that there is hardly any one so hurtful to society as this, that we neither know how to bestow or how to receive a benefit.
Feb 03, 2022•3 min
989. The story of Marcus Atilius Regulus
Marcus Atilius Regulus in his second consulship was taken prisoner in Africa by the stratagem of Xanthippus, a Spartan general serving under the command of Hannibal’s father Hamilcar. …
Feb 02, 2022•3 min
988. Apply the rule! What follows?
Pray, tell me, does it coincide with the character of your good person to lie for their own profit, to slander, to overreach, to deceive? Nay, verily; anything but that!
Feb 01, 2022•3 min
987. Let's hear it from Chrysippus
“When a man enters the foot-race,” says Chrysippus with his usual aptness, “it is his duty to put forth all his strength and strive with all his might to win; but he ought never with his foot to trip, or with his hand to foul a competitor.”
Jan 31, 2022•3 min
986. What are we born for?
Cicero presents the Stoic argument that we are born to be virtuous, meaning prosocial. The Epicureans thought we are born to seek pleasure and avoid pain. They both had a point.
Jan 28, 2022•3 min
985. The axioms of your ethics
Cicero explains that ethical reasoning is akin to mathematics: it begins with certain axioms that are taken for granted. Which axioms does your ethical thinking assume to be true?
Jan 27, 2022•3 min
984. How to treat so-called foreigners
Those who say that regard should be had for the rights of fellow-citizens, but not of foreigners, would destroy the universal brotherhood of mankind.
Jan 26, 2022•3 min
983. Justice is instrumental to good living
Injustice is fatal to social life and fellowship between people. For, if we are so disposed that each, to gain some personal profit, will defraud or injure his neighbor, then the bonds of human society must of necessity be broken.
Jan 25, 2022•3 min
982. Tyrannicide and friendship
If your friend were a tyrant, would you kill him? That is the situation that Brutus faced with respect to Caesar, and which Cicero analyzes in this episode.
Jan 24, 2022•3 min
981. Socratic vs ataraxic schools
There were, broadly speaking, two major clusters of Hellenistic philosophies: the Socratic ones and, for lack of a better term, the ataraxic ones. Let's take a look at the differences.
Jan 21, 2022•3 min
980. The conflict between virtue and benefits
Whether moral goodness is the only good, as the Stoics believe, or whether, as the Peripatetics think, it is the highest of many goods, it is beyond question that expediency can never conflict with moral rectitude.
Jan 20, 2022•3 min
979. Self-seeking politicians
But the chief thing in all public administration and public service is to avoid even the slightest suspicion of self-seeking. For to exploit the state for selfish profit is not only immoral; it is criminal, infamous.
Jan 19, 2022•3 min
978. We must apologize for our offenses
We must apologize also, to the best of our ability, if we have involuntarily hurt anyone’s feelings, and we must by future services and kind offices atone for the apparent offense.
Jan 18, 2022•3 min
977. The duty to help the poor
Relieving the poor is a form of charity that is a service to the state as well as to the individual.
Jan 17, 2022•3 min
976. Political theory, not just virtue
The reason for making constitutional laws was the same as that for making kings. For what people have always sought is equality of rights before the law. For rights that were not open to all alike would be no rights.
Jan 13, 2022•3 min
975. Virtue and human society
Think of the aqueducts, canals, irrigation works, breakwaters, artificial harbors; how should we have these without the work of people?
Jan 12, 2022•3 min
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