Bite-sized New New-Stoicism, ep. 4

So, let's all agree for the moment that our bodies do whatever the hell they want, and that us (the singing, dancing, amazingly conscious "us") are just here for the ride. What could go wrong with that, you ask?

Well, let's look first at some definitions. I should mention that, throughout these episodes, I will talk of certain concepts that usually have a different connotation in the modern usage. Instead, for our purposes, the definitions we will be handling will be either the literal definitions, or the traditional ones (sometimes even archaic).

For instance, we must distinguish between emotions and feelings. Emotions are an affective state of consciousness. It's involuntary. Your body reacts to its environment, and the aftermath of it is that you yourself have an emotion as a reaction to that reaction. Someone pokes you in the eye? Your body reacts by feeling pain. You react by getting pissed off. In contrast, feelings are a cognitive and volitional state of consciousness. In the eye-poking example, your emotion is anger because of the pain, which is an irrational reaction to a bodily reaction. You don't need to think about it. That's it: you're poked, it hurts, now you're angry. But your feelings about this are on purpose. You might feel vengeful and want to poke back. You might feel resentful and never speak to that eye-poking person again. There's a difference because, when it comes to feelings, there is intent, you see?

And so what does that have to do with anything?

When you go through life without trying to control your feelings, you can get stuck in the pitfalls of The Four Vices. Remember: emotions are inevitable. They are part of your hardware. Feelings? Well, those you do on purpose.

I'm going to leave you with the definitions of The Four Vices, so that we can finally start getting into the nitty-gritty of this series.

• Affliction: It's when you become overtaken by the irrational idea that something bad is going on, and your only reaction is to feel depressed about it.
• Fear: It's the irrational avoidance of a danger which you think might be coming to you.
• Greed: It's the irrational and unwarranted wanting of an anticipated good.
• Vanity: It's the irrational boasting for something good that is present, and for which you give yourself the credit.

As  you can see, the common thread in those vices is that they're irrational. What would happen if you and I were rational in the way we react to our emotions? And how can anyone do that?

See y'all next time!