Podcasts about of anger

Seneca's Of Anger

This is a reading of a short essay by Thomas Fuller, "Of Anger". Source: The Oxford Book of Essays Support ($): https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theworldofmomus Connect: Link Tree: https://www.linktr.ee/theworldofmomus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/theworldofmomus

In this episode we unpack the essay "Of Anger" by the Roman Stoic Philosopher Seneca the Younger. The essay explores... -Whether or not anger is useful -Why the sword of justice is ill placed in the hands of an angry man -How we should respond to anger when it arises Link to Reading "Of Anger" by Seneca the Younger **note** reading is not required to enjoy the episode! Host: Zach Stehura UnpackingIdeas.com Guest: Chase Harris The Switch Podcast Theme Music: Polyenso listen here

today we are again talking about anger management. To be specific: We are talking about „OF Anger“ by Seneca in the form of a relatively long „commentary“ or summary of the book. Some really good insights and thoughts! —————————————————————

today we are again talking about anger management. To be specific: We are talking about „OF Anger“ by Seneca in the form of a relatively long „commentary“ or summary of the book. Some really good insights and thoughts! —————————————————————

Massimo’s books include Phenotypic Plasticity: Beyond Nature and Nurture (Syntheses in Ecology and Evolution) (2001): https://www.amazon.com/Phenotypic-Plasticity-Syntheses-Evolution-2001-07-17/dp/B01K17YKGQ Making Sense of Evolution: The Conceptual Foundations of Evolutionary Biology, with co-author Jonathan Kaplan (2006): https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo4100801.html Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk (2010): https://www.amazon.com/Nonsense-Stilts-Tell-Science-Bunk-dp-0226667863/dp/0226667863/ref=mt_paperback?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid= and How to be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life (2017): https://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Stoic-Ancient-Philosophy/dp/0465097952 He is the co-author, with Gregory Lopez of Live Like A Stoic: 52 Exercises for Cultivating a Good Life (2019): https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1116985/live-like-a-stoic/9781846045967.html He is the co-editor, with Maarten Boudry, of Philosophy of Pseudoscience: Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo15996988.html You can find Massimo’s Letter conversation with David Sloan Wilson here: https://letter.wiki/conversation/34 And my article about this conversation here: https://areomagazine.com/2019/07/10/human-cultural-evolution-a-letter-exchange You can find Massimo’s Letter conversaion with Philip Goff here: https://letter.wiki/conversation/277 For more on the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: https://extendedevolutionarysynthesis.com/ On Stoic Week: https://modernstoicism.com/about-stoic-week/ Follow Massimo on Twitter: @mpigliucci Write to Open Letters at Letter here: https://letter.wiki/OpenLetters/conversations Write to me: https://letter.wiki/IonaItalia/conversations Further Notes Derren Brown, Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine (2016) My essay on Stoicism: https://areomagazine.com/2019/01/21/in-praise-of-stoicism-derren-browns-happy-book-review/ For Karl Popper on the demarcation problem see: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/popper/#ProbDema Larry Laudan on the demarcation problem: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-009-7055-7_6 For Wittgenstein on the definition of a game see: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wittgenstein/#LangGameFamiRese The SETI institute: https://www.seti.org/ Geoffrey Miller, The Mating Mind: How Sexual Selection Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature (2001): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/114577/the-mating-mind-by-geoffrey-miller/ Richard Lewontin, 1929– Lawrence Kraus, A Universe from Nothing (2012) Massimo, Maarten Boudry, Lawrence Krauss and Daniel Dennett on the Limits of Science: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRzfCemXYLc For Wilfred Sellars on the stereoscopic vision of science see: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sellars/#8 Jorge Luis Borges, The Library of Babel (1941): https://maskofreason.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/the-library-of-babel-by-jorge-luis-borges.pdf Sam Harris, The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values (2010) Massimo’s review of The Moral Landscape: https://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/11-02-02/#feature Ayn Rand’s objectivism: https://aynrand.org/ideas/overview/ The Discourses of Epictetus: http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/discourses.html Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations: http://classics.mit.edu/Antoninus/meditations.html Seneca, Of Anger: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Of_Anger/Book_I For more on Chryssipus: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Chrysippus Timestamps 3:47 The demarcation problem, the difference between science and pseudoscience 17:26 What made Massimo change fields from biology to philosophy 21:45 What is the relationship between philosophy and science? 38:32 Science and ethics 45:59 The appeal of Stoicism 57:17 Stoic practices 1:11:31 The Stoic fork/dichotomy of control 1:23:11 Free will 1:34:00 The misrepresentation of Stoicism as repression of emotion 1:43:18 The lessons of the pandemic

There are many different vices out there. It’s long been a debate amongst priests and philosophers if some are worse than others, or if they are all created equal. Even amongst the Stoics there was some debate—were all sins the same? Was being or doing wrong a matter of degree, or was it black and white?It’s one of those things that vexes philosophers but is obvious to normal people. Of course some vices are worse than others. Of course there is a grey area! Welcome to life, genius. Seneca eventually concurred. As he writes in Of Anger, anger must rank fairly high on the list of vices because it has so few redeeming qualities. “It’s a worse sin than luxury,” he says, “since that is enjoyed by personal pleasure, whereas anger takes joy in another’s pain.” Malice and envy are similar, he said, because they are about wanting other people to be unhappy, not just yourself. Anger and envy are about inflicting harm on others, not just on oneself. Point being: It’s better to be a little bit Epicurean (that is, to enjoy some pleasure) than it is to be an asshole. If you’re going to sin or give in to vice, make sure it only ruins your life. Make sure it’s something internal, not something like anger—which inevitably makes itself felt by the people around you. To sin, to fall short, is one thing. To punish innocent people? Well, that’s even worse.

You love your kids more than anything. You think they’re God’s gift (which they are, to you!). You want them to know how you feel about them, and you feel bad when they feel bad about themselves. These are all perfectly healthy and laudable feelings.At the same time, we have to make sure we’re not puffing up their ego with our endless praise and our very natural bias towards their virtues and blindness to their vices. Seneca knew this balance was not easy—it isn’t for any parent. It’s hard for grandparents and uncles too. But if our goal is to raise well-adjusted, self-aware kids, we’ll have to work for it. Even if our instinct is to rush over and tell them they’re the greatest, most special-est little kiddo there ever was. As Seneca writes in his essay, Of Anger, this requires speaking honestly—with kindness—and holding them accountable for their actions. Even if that pains us. He explains:Flattery, then, must be kept well out of the way of children. Let a child hear the truth, and sometimes fear it: let him always reverence it. Let him rise in the presence of his elders. Let him obtain nothing by flying into a passion: let him be given when he is quiet what was refused him when he cried for it: let him behold, but not make use of his father's wealth: let him be reproved for what he does wrong. It will be advantageous to furnish boys with even-tempered teachers and paedagogi: what is soft and unformed clings to what is near, and takes its shape: the habits of young men reproduce those of their nurses and paedagogi.Seneca knew what he was talking about because he saw Nero’s mother do the opposite. She indulged his every whim. She cleared every obstacle out of his path. She made him think he was infallible and invincible. By the time she brought in an even-tempered teacher like Seneca around to be a good influence, it was too late. She had ruined her son. And he in turn ruined himself and nearly ruined Rome.

As we’ve said before, Seneca was a father and a father figure to many people. Even today, through his writing, he remains an inspiring, patient, and firm father figure through the advice he wrote thousands of years ago. We don’t know what kind of father he was, but we can imagine that his kid (and the kids he tutored) were taught the lessons of sportsmanship, an essential skill for athletes and for life. How you handle winning and losing shows so much about who you are—and the earlier kids are taught this, the more prepared they will be for the real world (which includes plenty of both). In his essay, Of Anger, Seneca lays out some specific advice for fathers when it comes to teaching your kid how to be a good sport. He writes:In contests with his comrades we ought not to allow him to become sulky or fly into a passion: let us see that he be on friendly terms with those whom he contends with, so that in the struggle itself he may learn to wish not to hurt his antagonist but to conquer him: Whenever he has gained the day or done something praiseworthy, we should allow him to enjoy his victory, but not to rush into transports of delight: for joy leads to exultation, and exultation leads to swaggering and excessive self-esteem.This is important. We want to give our kids a will to win, but one they can control and contain. We want them to feel good when they win, without being so dependent or addicted to that feeling that they are crushed when, inevitably, they lose. We don’t want their success to fuel their ego, or their shortcomings on the field to lead to insecurity or self-loathing. It, like all things, is about balance. And most of all, about being respectful, responsible, and enjoying the process more than the results.

Fabius was one of Ancient Rome’s great generals, though he was not the bold, reckless type that usually gets all the attention in history books. No, he was the cautious type. He was strategic and reserved. He preferred to let enemies defeat themselves more than anything else. He was far less exciting than his most famous counterparts, but without him, Rome almost certainly would have been defeated by Hannibal in the 200s BCE. In the book Of Anger, Seneca draws on Fabius to teach a lesson from war that every citizen and leader and business person should be familiar with: “Fabius used to say that the basest excuse for a commanding officer is ‘I didn’t think it would happen,’ but I say it’s the basest for anyone. Thinking everything might happen; anticipate everything.”When the Stoics talk about the exercise of premeditatio malorum, that’s what they’re trying to train into you. To make sure you’re not surprised by the twists and turns of life, or by the moves of the enemy. Because there is no excuse.But what about black swans? you say. True black swans are rare. They have never happened before. That is what makes them black swans. Most of what we are unprepared for are not those kind of freak occurrences. Look at Fabius’s quote closely: To say “I didn’t think it would happen,” means you’re already aware of the possibility and have dismissed it. When that happens, it’s not bad luck—it’s ego come home to roost. We must keep our eyes open. We must consider all the potential consequences, even the unlikely or the unusual or the unintended ones. We must be ready. Fortune behaves as she pleases. So do our opponents. Don’t be surprised. There’s no excuse...except that you haven’t been doing your work.

Getting angry is not a good look. We know this because we see how ugly other people look when they get mad. How childish they seem. How pathetic their gesticulations look, how badly they seem to need our attention. We see how much it undermines their point too—we see their anger and think, “They are acting this way because it’s the only way they hope to win the argument.” We might even worry about someone’s health when we see their anger, fearing that they might have a heart attack. Seneca, referencing a thought from the philosopher Sextius, writes, “it has often been useful to angry people to look in a mirror. The great transformation in themselves has disturbed them; they have no longer recognized themselves, yet how little of their true deformity was displayed in the image reflected in the mirror.”Spot on. Yet, like so many things we are critical of, it’s rare that we apply this gaze back at ourselves. Notice Seneca doesn’t describe how his anger looks in the mirror. In fact, almost nowhere in his essay, Of Anger, does he discuss his own temper and the problems it has caused him. Your job today is to look in the mirror. To think about how unflattering anger is on you, how much it transforms and deforms you when you allow it to take hold. Anger is not a good look on other people, which makes it very unlikely that it is a good look on you. So don’t waste any more time thinking about their bad fashion choices. Fix your own.

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Greg Sadler is a philosopher, academic entrepreneur, founder of ReasonIO and editor of Stoicism Today. In today’s episode we explore the various causes and manifestations of anger, the difference between chronic and acute anger, and the relationship between anger and vengeance. We discuss why some people’s anger becomes directed inwards, towards the self, while other people’s anger is directed towards other people and the outside world, why anger can sometimes be a productive or even an enjoyable experience, and we close up by turning to stoic philosophy for some tips and advice on how to avoid hitting the roof when you’re absolutely fucking steaming. *** BOOKS MENTIONED *** "Of Anger" by Seneca https://amzn.to/2Jeu45Y "The Republic" by Plato https://amzn.to/2HjVXxb "Nicomachean Ethics" by Aristotle https://amzn.to/2K38brs "Discourses" by Epictetus https://amzn.to/2HiL4aG *** DONATE OR SUBSCRIBE *** http://myownworstenemy.org/support *** SOCIAL MEDIA *** Facebook: http://facebook.com/myownworstenemyorg Twitter: http://twitter.com/dannydwhittaker *** CREDITS *** Theme Music: Falling Down by Ryan Little http://youtube.com/user/TheR4C2010 Podcast Image: Fred https://flic.kr/p/KyffcB DISCLAIMER: My Own Worst Enemy is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk and affiliated sites.