Cynicism and Stoicism

Cynicism and Stoicism are ethical philosophies based on distinguishing between those things in your control from those things not in your control. Both views stress emotional detachment from the world and emphasize the development of independent character.

Cynicism: The end of life is virtue, not pleasure, and it can only be obtained by independence of all earthly possessions and pleasures.
The Cynics sought self-sufficiency and rejected the social and religious values of civilization. Group thinking is herd-thinking. The nature of what it is to be a human being is not a political or social animal.
Independence was shown through a flouting of convention. Obviously, a philosophy that rejects the social nature of man would have a difficult time forming a consistent school of thought.
Three causes of human misery: desire, indulgence and ignorance.
The ascetic self-discipline and training achieved by "following nature" leads to self-sufficiency. E.g., Suppose someone has done you an injustice and tries to amend the wrongdoing by giving you something you wanted. You refuse in order to show your independence and self-sufficiency. "You need nothing other than yourself."
The Cynics eschewed formal philosophy. Instead, their teaching consisted of anecdotal quips, diatribes, and satire.

Stoicism: Philosophy is primarily concerned with ethics. The end or purpose of life is arete (excellence) or virtue which is identified with "happiness." The central theme is" indifference to external circumstances."
Stoics assumed the doctrine of (soft) determinism. In the external world, every event has a cause; there are no exceptions (e.g., miracles or outcomes of actions).

"Live life according to nature." Our actions should agree with the laws of nature.
Stoics assumed the doctrine of (soft) determinism. In the external world, every event has a cause; there are no exceptions (e.g., miracles or outcomes of actions).
Since we are rational, we can know the laws of nature and can consciously follow them--rather than fight them or wish they were different.
"Let go." Worry about events in the external world is unnecessary. "What will be, will be" (not fatalism but determinism). "Don't carry the boat, let the boat carry you."
Be indifferent to external circumstances. Distinguish between those things in your control and those things outside your control. Give your attention only to those things you can control (mental phenomena).
Freedom and independence can only be obtained by realizing that external events (events in the material world, matter) need not affect mental events (thoughts, mind). In this way we see ourselves as we truly are, not as we might imagine ourselves to be.
Consider if the Stoic can avoid the psychological dilemma of determinism. If every event has a cause, how can our will be free? Mind and matter cannot be completely disassociated because we would be completely disengaged from the external world.
In a sense, the Stoic recommends a passive detachment from the world. Nothing in the world is good or bad or even painful or pleasurable. Things in the world simply are what they are.
You can't change the world, you can only change your awareness of the world. You feel centered not because the world is right for you but because you choose to be right for the world. If you hike in the mountains when ill and again when well, the scenery is the same in both cases. Only you are different.

Moral evil pertains to human will and intention. No act is evil in itself; moral evil pertains to the intention, the moral condition from which the acts proceeds. The act considered as a physical entity is indifferent. "As you are in your heart..." rather than "Beauty is as beauty does."
Nothing is good or bad in itself--only the mind has the ability to confer value on things.
C.L. Kleinke writes, "Consider a young child who goes to the circus for the first time. Bombarded with new sights, smells, and sounds, the child is in a state of general physiological arousal, experiencing a faster-than-usual heartbeat, slight tremors, accelerated breathing, and possible cold or sweaty hands. How does the child interpret this arousal? What emotion does he or she feel? Let us look a bit further. As the child walks by the lions' cage his or her parent most likely says, "Oh that lion is so big. I bet you're scared. Don't be scared, the lion can't hurt you.: later when the trapeze artists are performing the parent helps the child interpret his or her arousal by exclaiming, "Isn't that exciting!" The clowns appear and the parent "instructs" the child by laughing and commenting on how funny and happy they are. Before leaving the circus the child is likely to confront the smell of animals and learn from the parent that arousal in this context is a sign of unpleasantness and disgust. During all this time the child has been in essentially the same arousal as different emotions according to the particular stimuli or events in the immediate situation... What distinguishes emotions such as anger, fear, love, elation, anxiety, and disgust is not what is going on inside the body but rather what is happening in the outside environment." C.L. Kleinke, Self-Perception (San Francisco: W.H. Freeman, 1978), 2.

The Stoic would say that what distinguishes emotions is not the events happening in the outside environment, nor is it what is going on inside the body, but it is the mind's interpretation of the two.
You are different from your emotions. Emotions are the result of the perception of an external situation considered with bodily states. The dangers of the identification of the ego with the emotions include loss of personal freedom.
Avoid identification with anything, for you are sure to get hurt: e.g., your job, your career, another person, drugs.
"I am a teacher," but what am I when I lose my job? Look at what happens when you identify yourself with your grades. What you would be then would be beyond your control. (Your life would be subject to the vicissitudes or the conscientiousness of the teacher.)
If I identify myself with my feelings, I become the feeling. (I.e., consider a child's tantrum.) For example, the feeling of sadness arises. I are not the feeling--I need to separate the emotion from what I truly am..
If I use esteem, love, worldly success as a means of psychological identity (picturing myself as an important person), I create anxiety. None of these things add anything to my internal life.
I can enjoy world activities regardless of results. I can have a successful love affair or a career, but these would not be part of the essential self.
Negative feelings (boredom, restlessness, sense of futility) are caused by us-- not by exterior happenings. We don't have to have these feelings; we can choose our interpretations of events more appropriately.
Character, truly virtuous conduct, fulfillment of duty, are the points most stressed in Stoic ethics.
Apatheia is the self-conquest achieved by training to overcome irrational and unnatural feelings (pleasure, sorrow, depression, fear). Apatheia is "freedom from morally wrong impulses or passions."
From the Cynics, the Stoics adopted techniques for the emotional independence from the world. The Stoic uses many techniques to separate healthy from the unhealthy desires.
Passive self-examination as well as active awareness help us avoid the dangers of identification of our psyche with anything.
Verbal techniques help separate the way we feel from the way we truly are. Think of yourself in the third-person. (E.g., Siddhartha's techniques.)
All desires need not be distinguished--only separate the healthy from the unhealthy. Avoid those which are painful, compulsive, nervous, or angry. Activate those which are for health or self-understanding.
Distinguish between genuine wants (food, shelter) from false wants (needless cravings). The self, itself, has all that it needs.

Spinoza adds the notion of "active awareness" to clarify the Stoic's state of mind. You impose your attitudes on the world by moving from passive emotions to active emotions.
Once we understand that people act from the necessity of nature (determinism), we can overcome the hatred we feel because someone harms us. If we trip over a rock, we don't blame the rock for being there.
Freedom comes with understanding the order and necessity of the universe and acting in accordance. Thought and thought alone gives freedom. E.g., What is the difference between someone going back on his word and that person changing his mind? The glass being half empty or being half full?
We see some movies more than once even though we know in advance what is to happen. The value of the movie is not in the outcome.
Consider hearing the same music more than once. Our choice is to hear the beauty or to react with "Oh no, not that again."
With active awareness, we are no longer at the mercy of moods. E.g., how would we live if we had no fear, if we saw that misfortune cannot affect our happiness? The state of the soul is independent of the external situation. In this manner we avoid compulsive desire and automatic anger which would make us reactive to the forces acting upon us. Alfred Tennyson credits this active awareness as "absolute clearness of mind."
Consider the failure to break an unwanted habit. We fail because of the very self who is trying to break the habit is the same self who is subject to it. Hence, a new sense of self is needed--one that goes beyond the limits of the "old" self.
The single most important techniques is self-observation--you watch yourself just as if things were happening to someone else. for the Stoic, "Awareness = Happiness."
You can enjoy your worldly activities regardless of results. You are not at the mercy of anything in the world--your sense of psychological survival does not depend upon this or that happening.

An Adaptation of John Hosper's criticisms of Stoicism:
The Stoic solution is really negative in outlook--stoicism doesn't seek happiness; it seeks to avoid unhappiness. The Stoic ethics misses some of the best things in life: love, reliance on others, pride in external objects, and so forth. Some of the greatest things in life are achieved through emotional and mental turmoil.
Possible Stoic response: The objection is a question of emphasis--it's better to be affirmistic than happily deluded. One can enjoy these things without investing one's essential self.
Our power extends farther than the stoic believes--we do have some control over external events.
It's contrary to human nature not to desire more than the Stoic recommends. "Your reach should exceed your grasp." Maybe we don't have total control over other people and circumstances, but at least we have some influence.
As William James wroteOur passional nature not only lawfully may, but must, decide an option between propositions, whenever it is a genuine option that cannot by its nature be decided on intellectual grounds; for to say, under such circumstances, "Do not decide, but leave the question open,: is itself a passional decision,--just like deciding yes or no,--and is attended with the same risk of losing the truth. William James, The Will To Believe.
Possible Stoic response: Beliefs like these make people unhappy; these beliefs set you up for profound disappointement.
A life of desire, even though not totally satisfied, is better than suppressing desire.
"It's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."
Possible Stoic response: Sure you can love, but don't invest your essential self in it
The world isn't as hostile to the fulfillment of desires as the Stoic claims.
His is an empirical claim and depends upon not only the culture, nations, and social circumstances, but also the nature of the individual
Possible Stoic response: The truth of this objection can only be found in life experience
The Stoic is an emotional weakling--the Stoic is trying to "play it safe."
The Stoic is afraid to take risks; the Stoic fears loss more than possible gain.
Possible Stoic response: This is an ad hominem attack. Such a view prevents persons from rooting out the real problems of their unhappiness.
The fundamental flaw in Stoicism is that our "active awareness" does affect what we do and what we do does affect the world. The mind-body dualism is ultimate untenable because it leads to psychophysical parallelism