Maxims on Stoicism, Freedom, and Determinism

“Life doesn’t happen outside of us. It happens within.”

The Stoics believed in human agency and freedom – and that the world is governed by fate.

There’s a fundamental divide between what is up to you and what is not. For the Stoics, what is up to you is your ability to manage impressions. In other words, the decisions you make about how to attend to and assent to the world. Our external and internal worlds present us with sensations and feelings – how we respond to them is up to us. 

We are slaves to fate when we place our happiness in the hands of what is not up to us. Freedom is found by locating happiness in what is up to us.

We act as agents by choosing how to respond to the world – in expressing our character in our decisions and judgments. That is what is our own.

We are morally responsible even in a determined world because our character is the source of our actions. It doesn’t matter whether or not our character is determined. To absolve someone of responsibility for their character is to erase them altogether.

The ancient Stoic, Chrysippus, used the example of someone pushing a cone and cylinder. They may push both in the same way, but whether or not the object rolls depends on its shape. 

The ancient idea of freedom is not the same as the common modern notion that equates freedom with liberty. For the ancients, freedom meant fulfilling one's purpose, not merely "doing what you want."

Sometimes people talk about Stoicism in a way that makes it sound too reactive. We respond to the impressions we receive and by doing so play a role in determining the future situations we’ll face. 

We may judge others and ourselves for our character. But we ought to be careful when we do so.

Fortune and fate are real. A Stoic is a Buddhist who loves fate and benefits from fortune.

“Character is fate.”