I wonder if modern Stoicism shouldn’t make more of a point of expanding the list of important, highlighted virtues beyond the cardinal virtues as you’ve done here with gratitude. I’m thinking of fairness, mindfulness, kindness, compassion, patience, generosity and humility off the top of my head.
The idea in Greek philosophy was that the "cardinal virtues" were broad concepts that included many other virtues. For example, fairness and kindness are classed as forms of dikaiosune (badly translated as "justice"), which would probably include generosity, and compassion as well. I would say "mindfulness" comes close to the meaning of sophrosune (badly translated as "temperance") and what the Greeks mean by that would encompass humility as well.
Do you find that these more discreet virtues get enough prominence in today’s Stoic discourse? I’ve really only seen you discussing them but I don’t follow a lot of Stoic voices.
No, I think there's a lot of confusion around this, partly because of difficulty with translating these sort of concepts into English. It should be clear, though, if you read the ancient sources closely that they're talking about a range of virtues, which goes beyond what people tend to think of under these headings in English.
I wonder if modern Stoicism shouldn’t make more of a point of expanding the list of important, highlighted virtues beyond the cardinal virtues as you’ve done here with gratitude. I’m thinking of fairness, mindfulness, kindness, compassion, patience, generosity and humility off the top of my head.
The idea in Greek philosophy was that the "cardinal virtues" were broad concepts that included many other virtues. For example, fairness and kindness are classed as forms of dikaiosune (badly translated as "justice"), which would probably include generosity, and compassion as well. I would say "mindfulness" comes close to the meaning of sophrosune (badly translated as "temperance") and what the Greeks mean by that would encompass humility as well.
Do you find that these more discreet virtues get enough prominence in today’s Stoic discourse? I’ve really only seen you discussing them but I don’t follow a lot of Stoic voices.
No, I think there's a lot of confusion around this, partly because of difficulty with translating these sort of concepts into English. It should be clear, though, if you read the ancient sources closely that they're talking about a range of virtues, which goes beyond what people tend to think of under these headings in English.
Thank you for this article - very informative and very though provoking for me. Turn the misfortunes around - simple but effective. Love it Thanks