Concept tag
#providence
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My cousin’s biopsy result already exists. Does it make sense to pray that it is benign?
My cousin had a biopsy on Friday. The results come on Wednesday. Whatever is in that tissue is already there; the lab will only tell us. Yet the whole family is praying that it will be benign, and so am I. A…
Started by Aoife Kilbride1 reply -
Epictetus says some things are up to us. What did that depend on for him?
Epictetus is still my favourite. The Handbook begins by saying some things are up to us and some are not: our opinions, desires and aversions are up to us; our body, property, reputation and office are not. In traffic this is very…
Started by Serkan Aydoğdu5 replies -
If the Stoic technique works without the Stoic cosmos, the cosmos was never doing the work
Stoicism helped me back from a bad year. I read Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius and practised separating what's in my control from what isn't. I don't believe in a rationally ordered cosmos governed by providence. The practice worked anyway. I keep reading…
Started by Rohan Desai7 replies -
Take away the rational cosmos and Stoic ethics becomes a coping technique
My students discover Marcus Aurelius on their phones before they discover him in my classroom, usually as short videos about controlling what you can control. I am glad they find him. But I want to defend a thesis that spoils the mood…
Started by Giulia Ferrante6 replies -
At three in the morning, does a first cause comfort anyone?
I work nights at a care home for older people in Uppsala. A few weeks ago, while his father was dying, a man asked me whether I thought there was a reason for everything. He didn't want an argument, I think. He…
Started by Elin Hedqvist5 replies -
Did Epicurus actually make the argument from evil that carries his name?
In my theology seminar the lecturer put up the famous dilemma, "Is God willing to prevent evil but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Able but not willing? Then he is malevolent...", with "Epicurus" printed under it. A friend in classics…
Started by Aoife Kilbride4 replies