The Legal Stoic

 

This is my inaugural post in “the legal stoic.”  We are all on the level – where you might not know what you can get out of this blog, I surely do not yet know what I can impart or teach.  In fact, I view our relationship less like teacher and student and more like a collection of students trying to learn together.  As such, I value your comments, thoughts, and criticisms.  If my words and thoughts seem to be in error to you, please let me know.  I am at the beginning of my stoic journey and as of yet do not even know what I do not know.  My goal is to share my thoughts and then engage in discussion with my fellow stoic students.  I will value each opportunity to grow and adjust my stoic path.

I am married.  I have four children who are my world.  I am a Christian, an American, and a lawyer.  All of these facts influence my character.  They will influence my blog.  The first reason I started my blog was to write about how a stoic lawyer would think.  I will got to it after I can get my basic thoughts out.  The basics are important if for no other reason that for the longest time I did not know how to be a stoic and my misunderstanding caused problems.

What is a stoic?  I tried to answer this without having read a single word from the slave turned philosopher Epictetus, the statesman and advisor Seneca, or the Emperor Marcus Aurelius.  And in so doing, I fell into the trap of viewing stoics as slightly less competent Vulcans.  For me, it was all about the suppression of emotions and the putting on of a façade.  Ask any person who does not know stoicism what a stoic is and the answer will inevitably be a version of “a person who suppresses feelings.”  This is incorrect and it took me a brief discussion with a client who realize this.  His father had passed and we discussed the importance of expressing your feelings and not keeping them bottled up.  “Like a stoic” I said.  “you know, that’s not what the stoics meant, right?”

I did not know that, but I decided to learn. 

Jack Maden of “Philosophy Break” explains it as “don’t repress your emotions, reframe them.”  The stoics did believe that strong emotions can be dangerous but they viewed them more as reactions as anger can be an initial reaction to a perceived injustice or bad situation.  It is those reactions the Stoics seek to address.  Among other things. 

Stoicism is about trying to achieve Eudaimonia – a good life.  Their approach to this is more than an inaugural blog post can handle – although modern stoic philosopher Massimo Pigliucci did say he could answer all of life’s questions in under an hour.  But Stoicism teaches how to live in harmony with the ordered universe by focusing on what we can control – ourselves and our reactions.  Worrying about things outside of our control – almost everything happening to us – is unproductive and irrational.

I want to talk with you nice folks about these teachings.  I want to explore the mechanisms and habits that help us embrace stoicism.  Specifically, I want to see how those stoic teachings affect the law, the practice of law, and my identity as a legal counsellor.  I would appreciate your company on my journey to become a legal stoic.

Epictetus, Esq.