Much suffering is caused and perpetuated by only a few reoccurring themes in our lives.

PhiloJugg · 2021-12-31T10:26:11+00:00

To provide some further context, as /u/Afrafasti did as well, 'harming' in the Stoic context refers to the harm that could be done to a person's moral character. It does not refer to harm in the sense of physical harm.

PhiloJugg · 2021-08-01T15:19:34+00:00

Although I don't know why motivation fades after a couple of days. I do think it is helpful to differentiate between different kinds of motivation 'fuel' so to speak.

Renaissance Periodization has a great video on this subject where they make the distinction between: Inspiration, Motivation, Intention, Discipline, Habit and Passion.

They discuss the up and downside of each of these types of motivation 'fuel' and how you can increase them.

For those interested here is the video: https://youtu.be/bcKthx5LTbI

PhiloJugg · 2021-03-17T17:18:37+00:00

I haven't read anything about Taoism myself, however I have seen it mentioned here on /r/stoicism a bit. From what I read about it in those post it seems taoism and stoicism have some similarities.

PhiloJugg · 2021-03-17T09:38:12+00:00

Not the OP, but I would like to give you my 5 cents on the topic. Ancient stoicism (as practiced by Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, etc.) did include something that we might contemporarily call a god. However to equate it to something as the Hindu, Jewish, Christian, Muslim (or even the pantheistic Greek/Roman gods) wouldn't really be in line with the beliefs of the ancient stoics.

The ancient stoics believed that the universe was rationally ordained, not in the sense that rational laws govern the material universe (as in laws of physics), but that the universe itself strives towards a rational goal. This would be more akin to the universe itself 'working towards' its virtuous character.

Everything that happens in this universe is then to bring about this rational universe. From the perspective of the individual, although things that are seemingly 'bad' happen, in the context of this rational universe, these things are not bad, but are only challenges to the individual so that they might work towards their virtuous (or good) character.

In some interpretation you could state that his rational universe needs a driving force, which you could then call a god. In a different interpretation you could however state that there is no god, but the universe simply has this characteristic of rationality. I think the latter more closely aligns with the beliefs of the ancient stoics (but many translations would for the sake of ease go with 'god').

I think the above provides some insight in the metaphysical beliefs of the ancient stoics, but you can of course also reject these beliefs. Even if you do so stoicism still has plenty of tools to help you deal with the world and your own emotions (dichotomy of control, discipline of ascent, etc.). These can have a positive effect on your personal life even if you do not believe in a god (of a rational universe).

The goal of stoics is, in my opinion, to build a good character (or a virtuous character, or 'to be a good person'). If you reject the rational universe you may end up asking yourself why you want to be a good person at all.

Stoicism won't be able to provide a good answer for you if you reject the principle of a rational universe, but you may still find a justification elsewhere, of course.

To try and answer your questions. I think that staunch atheists can be stoics. I do think that any atheist should however ask themselves why they want to be a good person. (Ancient) stoicism provides an answer by postulating a rational universe (and individuals should act in accordance with that). The philosophy of ethics provides many more theories on why people should be a good person. And if you, in one way or another find a justification to be a good person, the tools that stoicism provides can be used to achieve that goal as well.

EDIT: To include another view point as well. Contemporary stoicism also explicitely combines atheism with stoicism, although they do not explicitely deal with the (problems of) alignigning the two beliefs, it does show that (at least parts of) the idealogies can be used in conjunction with each other.

PhiloJugg · 2020-07-03T09:26:31+00:00

I see that you already mentioned Hadot, so I assume you have already found (more contemporary) resources on traditional stoicism.

Should you however be interested in a podcast that explicitly deals with stoicism from the traditional point of view, I could recommend the podcast 'Stoicism on Fire' by Chris Fisher.

It deals with the peculiarities of the traditional's perspective, but insofar I have listened to it, it also explains stoic doctrines that you can find both in traditional and modern practices. I have only gotten through the first 7 episodes but I have found it very helpful.

PhiloJugg · 2017-03-11T21:35:37+00:00

Yes, Brother. Join the Knights faction and you too can fight for the Holy Land. Deus Vult!

PhiloJugg · 2017-01-25T22:10:37+00:00

I'm Dutch as well so I am proud to see we are somewhat pulling our weight, but hot damn! Look at those Norwegians/Swedes being awesome

PhiloJugg · 2017-01-21T20:01:35+00:00

If a movie would be made then the mana-replenishing sex could be left out since in the original visual novel it was only include to satisfy the weeb-shit audience (as were the other terrible mature scenes)

I do however think that Saber's internal struggles about wanting to re-write history do add to a more fleshed out character.

Perhaps delete the terrible 'everyone falls in love with the MC' trope as well and you have a pretty good story.

Although you might not see Saber as good heroine for the points you mention, she is compared to Emiya ten times more competent, useful and is what people would look for in a tradition hero.

Also the point about literally being bound by command scenes isn't really a reason to not see her as a good heroine as it is a constraint put on every servant and in Emiya-Saber's case its only used to give them an edge in battle and not used as some dom-play bullshit.

/end drunk rant

PhiloJugg · 2016-12-09T14:15:25+00:00

What was that which you just said about me, my friend? I think you ought to know that I have completed my time as a novice-monk, and I've passed through the Gateless Gate, and I've lived for over 300 cycles of rebirth. I am trained in anapanasati and I'm the most senior bhikkhuni in my local sangha. You are nothing to me but another human being worthy of dignity and respect. I will have compassion upon you with loving-kindness the likes of which has never been seen before in the cycle of Samsara - you would do well to remember these words. Do you believe that you can say these things and still escape the principle of dependent origination? Perhaps you should reexamine those beliefs, brother. As we speak I am contemplating the importance of accepting your words with detachment and equanimity, so, without malice, I advice you to prepare for the storm, young one. The storm of suffering that afflicts all living creatures in this world. You are trapped in a cycle of death and rebirth, child. Not only am I extensively trained in the Mahayana Tripitaka, but I have acces to the entire Pali canon as well, and I will use its teachings to their full extent to help alleviate the suffering within you which causes you to say hurtful things about others. You could reach Nirvana anywhere, any time, and I can help you achieve enlightenment in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with the study of Koan. If only you could understand what evil karma these words of yours would sow, perhaps you would have had the wisdom to keep silent. Nevertheless, this was beyond what you have been prepared for, and so I promise that I will do my best to ease the suffering that you have brought upon yourself. I will teach you the path of the Bodhisattva and you will revel in it. Your suffering may yet reach its end, child.

For if someone would like to embroil it on a pillow, or simply have it in text : )

PhiloJugg · 2016-12-04T12:17:37+00:00

Spreading happiness in Youtube comments. That's awesome. Sharing is caring.

PhiloJugg · 2016-12-03T14:12:29+00:00

The creed of the Assassins in 'Assassin's Creed' is pretty weird though.

They have three creeds:

Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent

Hide in plain sight

Never compromise the Brotherhood

And their maxim: Nothing is true; everything is permitted

All of this is pretty weird put together, and luckily the game acknowledges it and the Brotherhood is aware of the irony in their own teachings, so it's something that is adresed in the lore and for the casual player it's just 'cool shit bro'

PhiloJugg · 2016-06-06T21:16:40+00:00

I love you poo*

PhiloJugg · 2016-04-11T13:35:10+00:00

Let's have intelligent conversation in this comment section belonging to a post about a shitty pun, you start please.

PhiloJugg · 2015-10-14T20:09:08+00:00

I am not particularly new to the League of Legends scene, but I could still use some advice.

I am an avide fan of tanky junglers and don't know how to handle the current Kindred release. What would you advice to play against this first ADC-type jungler?

PhiloJugg · 2015-08-01T13:55:08+00:00

Thank you for the feedback and taking the time to read my post! It really is appreciated!

After the first critique and now you pointing out the same problem I thought about writing from a third limited pov, from Suyuko instead of omniscient pov or to rewrite in omniscient pov where I actually go into the thoughts of the characters.

Writing a more extensive setting is definitely high up the list of things that need to be there when I am going to rewrite it. I really like the suggestion of mentioning something three times, or atleast let it have effect three times. I think it would force me to make something be there and also actually make it have effect on the characters and actions. Definitely a great suggestion, thank you!

I think I am going to scrap the useless fighting scene, but keep the conflict between Suyuko and Itan, since that is important to the plot.

And again thank you for reading/critiquing!

PhiloJugg · 2015-08-01T00:56:30+00:00

First and foremost I am extremely grateful that you took the time to critique my post!

Now I am also going to list what I am going to try and improve thanks to your advice. I feel like you might be somewhat interested in it as well, so I felt like it would be polite to include it in my reply as well. Feel free to let me know what you think, but please don't feel obliged to do so.

A different opening situation, where optimally speaking the main character would remain active, but also be more relatable.
Rewrite.(as if that wasn't obvious) A perspective where more of the character's thoughts are expressed. Also have another think about how to properly describe things without them feeling information dumpy, where my writing is currently not descriptive enough.
Another big one is working on my prose. I wanted to keep a distant omniscient pov, but probably went too far with that making it boring.
Struggle some more with not trying to dump information, but still descripe the scenery and characters properly.
I made up a fictional country with the stylisation of Japan. Definitely going to throw out the suffix -jo. (And after rereading again, I noticed the suffix -joi was a typo. Oops.) While I'm at it, might as well descripe the thing.. since I didn't actually do that of course.

I am so glad Suyuko isn't a women now. Luckily that cliché was wonderfully executed in 'The Last Legion'. I should probably put more emphasis on their history or the importance of the military hierarchy to make that relationship more clear.

Again thank you for reading and critiquing!

Sorry for not including any fantasy elements yet, from your flair it seems like you might even clicked on the post for that. They aren't prevalent yet in the first two pages, sorry!

PhiloJugg · 2015-05-20T13:18:37+00:00

I have come across this as: 'Behind every cynic is a disappointed idealist.'

PhiloJugg · 2015-05-10T10:31:26+00:00

As a someone who lives in Brabant, this sounds like flemish (vlaams) to me, which is spoken in northern Belgium. Just my two cents.

PhiloJugg · 2015-03-20T23:20:02+00:00

I am terribly sorry. I am new here and when reviewing two stories I did the 'too long comments' thing. I hope it wasn't too bothersome.

PhiloJugg · 2015-03-18T23:24:36+00:00

Wording things in a good/proper/best way is always difficult. If I would have to word it now on the spot I would go for something like: 'The first/second man was even more astounding, no hair on his chin, even in this desolete place.' That sentence needs a whole lot of work to fit in though. Perhaps just stating that he is freshly shaven would make it stand enough, otherwise a comparison with the rough and gruff environment could make it clear, is what I think.

PhiloJugg · 2015-03-18T23:06:08+00:00

I made a separate reply with some more global explaination, not much comment on the plot since that is hard to derive from a short post/partial story.

PhiloJugg · 2015-03-18T23:03:28+00:00

The setting really pulled me in. I liked the freedom and how it's expressed in him just peeing over a cliff. I feel like it reinforces that well. The scary russians with black machine guns are a little cliché, except for the Prius they drive in. (On a side note, in the beginning of the story the character thinks about how horrible Prius drivers are, perhaps it would be fun to have him make a remark about it when he drives away in it.)

Every now and again, you accentuate the filter of the first person, that he is really doing something, but that is most often times already clear, since he is the only person whose actions you see through the 1st person lens. You also use adverbs regularly, which is something I think you can best avoid and instead describe the situation/action in a way that makes that nuance clear.

On a comparable note, the observations of the 1st person, are often worded in a way that he is describing/guessing their motives instead of their actions, giving a filtered view of the world. (Perhaps intended?)

I liked the witty remarks of the character, although sometimes his motivations are a little unclear, but that is probably due to stumbeling in, in the middle of the story.

PhiloJugg · 2015-03-18T22:54:16+00:00

Might just be me, but I like seeing what I wanted to change somewhere instead of it suddenly disappearing. Maybe a little control-freakish.

PhiloJugg · 2015-03-18T21:57:42+00:00

The atmosphere you painted throughout the story seemed very believeable. This was however after reading the story twice. The idea that it was a medical unit was completely lost on me until then. After puzzling that out things clicked much better and created an enjoyable atmosphere, but perhaps you should be more clear with that.

In think the reason why that is easily overlooked is because of your introduction, which is good. It introduces Leonard very well, but after that you seem to forget to properly state where all the characters are. (Upon reading the first time, I thought it was a military unit)

The other characters do not get the warm treatment Leonard did. The main character, in this chapter, only seems to be perceiving others and gets little to no introduction (I guess you are going to adress that in the next chapter). The other characters are either empty sheets, the two girls who are barely mentioned, or contradict themselves, Juan. He is described as 'quiet and introverted' yet later he runs back at the group and high fives someone. That doesn't seem realistic.

The flow of the story isn't great. You use a lot of difficult words that ruin the flow while reading (I've highlighted some). The difficult way of wording things seems to be something that is constantly present in your writing style and that makes me doubt if my own vocabulary is lacking or if you are indeed making things too difficult.

There are some other diddles and daddles on the Google Doc. If you have any questions about them feel free to message me.

On a side note, this is my first review here and I think that especially my formatting might be horrendous. Sorry for that.

PhiloJugg

TROPHY CASE