#philosophyforbreakfast

[thoughtsinthimbles]

Reasoned and/or Indifferent

I’ve been seeking out the philosophy of the well lived. I crave steadiness, purpose, some kind of shelter from the turbulence. 

My reasoned choice is as indifferent to the reasoned choice of my neighbour, as to his breath and body. However much we’ve been made for cooperation, the ruling reason in each of us is a master of his own affairs. If this weren’t the case, the evil in someone else could become my harm, and God didn’t mean for someone to control my misfortune. 

                                                             - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8,56

When I was reflecting on this passage I gravitated to the word reasoned and not indifferent. I expected indifferent, it sounds pleasing, protected. 

My understanding is that reasoned is not a substitute for reasonable, it just implies thought. However, I imparted my own idea of measure to reasoned. Idealistically believing that this means thinking clearly before acting. 

Behavioural economics is against me here and if I follow this through to my conclusion it ends up feeling distinctly paternal.  I.e.  if someone was not reasoned in their choice, I am just in acting against them. 

This logic fails me. I’m back where I started. Indifference is better. Even if moved to act, it implies impartiality.

The other rather related thought here is how foundational this is for Western thinking. God wants us to be individualistic. The Eastern counterpart in Confucius also gives guardrails on living, which is collectivist.  

[thoughtsinthimbles]

Hardiness

Drinking: La Cabra - Bensa Logita from Sidoma, Ethiopia in Chemex with V60 Filters

Reading: Florida Scott-Maxwell’s Measure of My Days

Pondering: Hardiness p.45

Hardiness is a quality supposedly created by difficulty and I have always felt it to be a stimulating virtue. I like people who have it and that must mean that I like people who have been disciplined by hardship, which is true. I find them realistic, not easily daunted, and they make few childish claims. This also means that the hardiness of life I deplore creates the qualities I admire. 

Thoughts:

Suck it up, don’t complain, be patient. You will be a better person for it. 

Rest of Quote: 

Poverty used to seem to create morality. If you were poor you had to be selfless, uncomplaining, independent, ingenious and courageous. Now in an age of plenty when it is felt that we should have what we want- and when this becomes a practical possibility- what happens to hardihood? Is it a disappearing virtue? I should be sorry to see it go, and very surprised if it did. 

We are told that the over-indulged child having had little hardship lacks hardihood, and the weak boy has to be violent to respect himself, so hardihood is wanted and missed. Children must still have to endure the natural rage of parents, and where there is no doubt at all that parents have to summon a wealth of hardihood to endure their children. Even plenty requires a good deal of fortitude. To organize family transport with only two cars, to find leisure or quiet in a house equipped with every machine a modern house can contain is not easy. To combine chores with responsible jobs, not to mention illness, accidents and the new poverty of the highly paid, all this demands stamina of the highest order, for the strain of it is great. Now when so many have so much, many work harder than their for-bears. So why does having much create strain, dissatisfaction and confusion. Could it be that austerity kept life simple, simple pleasures remaining real pleasures, while plenty makes for complication and having much leaves us sated.