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Encyclopedia, Reality

Stoicism’s ideas on Reality

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Stoicism is “an ancient Greek school of philosophy founded at Athens by Zeno of Citium. The school taught that virtue, the highest good, is based on knowledge; the wise live in harmony with the divine Reason (also identified with Fate and Providence) that governs nature, and are indifferent to the vicissitudes of fortune and to pleasure and pain.” According to the Oxford Dictionaries.

Stoicism regards the universe as a beautiful, orderly and rational whole. Human is a part of the universe, a little spark. Stoic believe that everyone is a small part of the universe. Every individual is a small “microcosmos” and it is an epitome of the “macrocosmos”. I think that is very interesting angle of looking at the relationship between us and the cosmos, and it is also very romantic and poetic. 

The stoicism in ancient times was a monist and a materialist, which means that they thought that all existing things were made up of one substance. Of course, their precise definition of this “thing” is not correct. Stoicism believes that the basic component of the universe is something they call “vitality”. It has four forms: cohesion, which unifies a physical object; nature, which makes all things become vibrant and alive; soul, which gives animal perception and movement; reason, which gives reason and rationality to human beings. For example, rocks have cohesion, but none of the other three. Plants are both cohesion and nature, but they don’t have soul or reason. Animals have the first three, but not including reason. Human has all four. This is all reality but the existence of things has different forms. 

Stoic emphasizes obedience to the fate, to be comfortable in their position in society, to be indifferent, so that only in this way can we reach happiness. “Throughout each identical phase, every event is predetermined, governed by fate and entirely for the good”. I strongly agree with this theory because I always believed that there is an ultimate law of nature or fate, and with everything being predetermined we just have to live with the flow. Indifference to all events no matter is it good or evil. In addition to the Stoic’s view, I also believe that fate will always take the middle way, and I think I am influenced by Daoism. “The divine plan will work itself out no matter what, and there’s nothing anyone can do about that, but what one can do is react to events in the right way, which is to say harmoniously, virtuously, in tune with the flow of things.” 

Stoic also believes that the conventional goods such as health, wealth, fame and social standing are good depending on situations, but only virtue is good no matter what. The conventional goods are preferable – in Stoic terminology, “preferred indifference” – but whether and when we acquire them is not up to us but up to the divine plan. 

The author of the book Meditation – Marcus Aurelius, a stoic philosopher – also gave interesting explanations about life and death. Even if you want to live three thousand years, or ten times as much, remember: you can’t lose another life than what you are living now, and you can’t live another life than what you are losing. The present is the same for everyone and same as the lost; it should be clear that a short moment is everything that is lost. You cannot lose what you don’t have. And, everything is always the same and keep repeating, whether you see the same thing repeated in 100 years, 200 years, or indefinitely, there is no difference. the longest-lived and those who will die soonest lose the same things. 

We should not be afraid of death, rather, we should even welcome the arrival of death and live towards the death. Suppose that you are now dead, your life is over, and the remaining years will only be regarded as the continuation of your life, and you should live according to the way of nature. Every act, every word and every thought of yours should be like a person who would die at any time. Accept death, it is just like how you anticipate a child’s emergence from its mother’s womb; and that’s how you should await the hour when your soul emerges from its compartment.

Bibliography:

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Stoicism

Meditation by Marcus Aurelius

Encyclopedia, Politics

Machiavelli and Politics during the Renaissance

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Introduction

The Renaissance is a period between the 14th century and 16th century, when the classics are once again valued by people, religions reform, humanism is celebrated, and the bourgeoisie is standing against feudalism and medieval theology.  Its influence is reflected in art, architecture, philosophy, literature, music, science and technology, politics, religion and many other aspects. The political thought of the Renaissance period began a new era of western political thought in history. Machiavelli, a political thinker and philosopher in this period, laid the foundation of modern political science and separated it from ethics and medieval theology for the first time. This article will specifically talk about the political and political philosophy thoughts during the Renaissance. 

Main Social Ideological Trend & Initial to the Political Thoughts

The core of the mainstream social ideological trend is humanism. The core of humanism spirit is to affirm human value and dignity by focusing on “human” rather than “God” or “deity”. The purpose of life is to pursue happiness in real life, promote the liberation of personality, oppose the theological thought of ignorance and superstition, and think that man is the creator and master of real life. 

Based on the special political structure of Italy in the late Middle Ages, some scholars say that the unique local social atmosphere provided the necessary conditions for Renaissance to start in Italy. In the early modern times, Italy is not a unified political entity, but consisted of city states and territories. Italy in the 15th century has the highest level of urbanization in Europe. When bishop Otto (1114-1158) come to Italy in the 12th century, he has noticed a new form of political and social organization, and observes that Italy seems to begin to break away from the feudalism system, taking merchants and commerce as its social basis. Related to this is the anti-monarchy idea expressed in the mural “Allegory of Good and Bad Government”. This famous early Renaissance mural is located in Siena, through this painting, the painter expresses his strong desire for fairness, justice, republicanism and good governance. 

Politics: Break out of Theology

At the end of the 14th century, with the development of urbanization, politics and economy, a new class – the bourgeoisie– emerged. They call for the establishment of a unified monarchy, elimination of feudal separated power, establishment of a unified nation and formation of a national market to meet the needs of the development of capitalism economy. Underthis situation, the political thought of Western Europe emerges new ideas: thinkers began to observe the state and law from the perspective of human, thinking rationally, and individualism began to appear; thinkers began to talk about the establishment of centralized authority monarchy; equality theories about the equality of disciples and religious conferences within the church has also started to develop. But at that time, the bourgeoisie was still in its formative stage, its strength was not strong enough, and it did not put forward the idea of natural human rights. They opposed the church, but did not get rid of the feudal theology totally.

Niccolò Machiavelli

Niccolò Machiavelli was born in 1469 in Florence, Italy, died in 1527. He was one of the most influential political thinker in the Renaissance. Machiavelli  was the first thinker who freed political science or theory from religion and morality. He was not interested in high moral or religious principles, rather, his main concern was power and the practical or political interests of the state. He advocates the supremacy of the state and takes state power as the basis of law. A famous work of him, The Prince, mainly discussed the way of being a good monarch, what conditions and abilities the monarch should have, and how to seize and consolidate power. Machiavelli was one of the main founders of modern political thought.Don’t get me wrong, Machiavelli never denounced virtue, morality, or religion. However, he stressed that the field of morality and religion is very different from that of politics, and for the monarch of the state, he should rule in accordance to ruling and power itself, not god’s will. 

The Prince makes a clear distinction between different types of principalities: hereditary principality, mixed principality, new principality obtained by relying on their own force and ability, new principality obtained by relying on the force of others or due to luck, civil principality and religious principality, etc. It enlightens the prince how to establish their own monarchy according to the local conditions by referring to the historical experience of other countries and combining with the actual situation of their own state. This is undoubtedly the first principle a monarch considered at the beginning of the establishment of the country. Machiavelli’s second principle for the prince to consolidate his position of power is that the prince should rely on his own ability and strength. If he does this, he will not have much difficulty in maintaining his position in the future. If any prince or politician wants to succeed in his career, he must learn the method of political rule. 

In the prince’s treatise, the political behavior and ethical behavior of the king are completely separated, and the generally accepted morality is directly denied. It believes that people must recognize that there are two methods of struggle in the world, one is the use of law and the other is the use of force. The former method is human’s unique rational behavior, while the latter is animal behavior. According to the social reality at that time, the former often made human beings unable to follow their heart, forcing people to resort to the latter. This requires that the prince must know how to use the behavior of wild animals to fight. 

Machiavelli’s theories were based on the actual situation of the world, rather an idea of how can the world function as an utopia, such as Plato’s Republic.

Influence

By the end of the 16th century, The Prince had been translated into all the major European languages and became the most important subject of heated debate in the courts. Machiavellianism is often misinterpreted, so people look down on Machiavellianism and create a term to refer to them: Machiavellianism. Nowadays, the term also suggests a cynical attitude, according to which politicians have reason to commit any tort if it is ultimately necessary.

Bibliography:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Niccolo-Machiavelli

https://www.politicalsciencenotes.com/political-thinkers/machiavelli/machiavelli-bio-life-and-political-ideas-modern-political-thought/1097

https://www.thoughtco.com/niccolo-machiavelli-1469-1527-2670474

https://baike.baidu.com/item/文艺复兴时期政治思想/3639098

https://baike.baidu.com/item/君主论/349368