Saturday, April 30, 2022

Stoicism - PART 11 Virtue - Temperance

 There's no doubt that this concept resonates with me, and I've touched base on it on my first and second entry. This concept is simple but as important as the rest of the values derived from Virtue. I defined courage in my last entry as almost a synonym to bravery and resilience, but temperance is needed to balance these values as an excess in bravery will cause us to become reckless. We don't want to act cowardly either, we need to limit ourselves and use reason before acting, this is where wisdom comes in. 

You can start to see how these concepts overlap each other and how they connect to create a system that allows us to act virtuously. 




Of course, pleasures are an important point to discuss here. Stoic philosophy does not avoid pleasures, you are free to have pleasures as long as you practice them moderately and don't prevent you from reaching your goals and improving yourself. We don't want to live a life without doing the things we like, after all. 

Remember, temperance is all about balance! Don't feel discouraged if you fail to moderate yourself, try again until you can find the middle ground between your goals and pleasures.


-Roberto


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