Stoicism

'Stoicism' derives from 'stoa', Greek for 'porch', a label not indicating some human characteristic, but simply referring to a group of philosophers who tended to gather at a porch. These days, 'stoical' generally suggests a bearing up in the face of misfortune, which does retain at least part of the essence of the classical connotation of the term. But though Stoics have never seemed to recognize themselves as such, they are actually Aristotelian 'Eudaemonists'. Eudaemonism holds that Happiness is the greatest Good, and Aristotle argued that Happiness is achieved not through the securing of this or that particular goal, wealth, fame, etc., but through a mode of conduct. That mode is conduct in accordance with Moderation, which to Aristotle meant not too little of something as well as not too much of it, a consideration which has tended to get lost in notions of Moderation that one-sidedly are taken to only constrain excess. Stoicism, too, is a program of self-mastery, but whereas Aristotle prescribes the moderating and balancing of one's pursuits and retreats, the Stoic seeks satisfaction in detachment from external promises and threats, to be achieved only through the complete repression of all desires. Presenting Stoicism in the context of Aristotelian Eudaemonism thus augments the conventional image of it as a bearing up in the face of misfortune, with it both as a similar bearing up in the face of good fortune, and, at root, as a program of self-sufficiency.