In recent years the philosophy and practice of stoicism has seen a stunning revival with many bestselling books applying this ancient wisdom tradition to the challenges of modern life. The philosopher Michael Tremblay is versed in the thinking of the stoa and at the same time a practitioner of this way of living. With his project StoaMeditation he combines the stoic philosophy with mindfulness, and he himself is a committed martial arts practitioner. With this background he argues for the relevance of the stoic practice in todays world. In an interview with evolve he says:

“The Stoics view virtue as knowledge. They think that how we act is determined by how we think. The stoics name four main virtues: courage, wisdom, justice and temperance. These are classical Greek virtues, but the stoics turn them all into types of knowledge. Courage is knowledge of what should be avoided versus what not. Justice is a knowledge of who deserves what. Temperance is a knowledge about your desires, appropriate qualities or quantity of things that are worth desiring. Wisdom is the meta virtue of how these virtues are put together, to discern the appropriate thing in certain situations.

A lot of stoicism is about reflection. We receive impressions about the world, those are not necessarily true. We evaluate the truth of those impressions, and then we give our assent to them, we accept them as true or we don't. And that forms our beliefs, and we act on those beliefs. So, when you're practicing these virtues, it's a about being mindful. It means understanding the impressions you're receiving about the world, and then creating a space between the impression and your belief or actions that follow that impression. And then successfully navigating that space, which means only believing things that are actually true.”

In our evolve Live Event we will investigate together with Michael Tremblay the aspects of stoic thinking and practice that can help us maneuver the challenges and potentials of our times. We will engage in dialogue, that is also one of the stoic practices to gain wisdom and clarity together.

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