Stoicism and Happiness: The Stoic Theory of the Good Life

Question

Does Stoicism make you happy? The question is a fair one, because a philosophy that promises a good life must answer it, and the Stoic answer is at once the most demanding and the most comforting in the ancient tradition: happiness is not what fortune gives you but what you make, and the making is in your power.

Quick Answer

The Stoics held that happiness (eudaimonia) is the life of virtue — the life lived rationally, justly, courageously, and temperately — and that virtue is the only good. Happiness is therefore not a feeling that fortune produces but an activity that we perform: the activity of living in accordance with reason and nature. The Stoic does not seek pleasure as the goal, but does experience joy: joy (chara) is the "good emotion" of the wise, the delight in what is genuinely good, which the Stoics distinguished sharply from the pleasure that follows the satisfaction of desire. The Stoic theory of happiness has three consequences. First, happiness is in our power, because virtue is in our power: the person who lives virtuously is happy whatever fortune brings. Second, happiness is secure: it cannot be taken away, because nothing external can deprive us of the activity of virtue. Third, happiness is active: it is not a state we fall into but a life we live — the daily practice of the virtues.

Historical Wisdom

The Stoic theory of happiness descends from the Socratic conviction that virtue is knowledge and that the good man cannot be harmed. Zeno of Citium, the founder of the school, defined the end of life as "living in agreement with nature, which is the same as living virtuously," and the identification of happiness with virtue became the school's signature doctrine. Against the Epicureans, who made pleasure the goal, and the Peripatetics, who included external goods in the happy life, the Stoics insisted that virtue alone is sufficient: the wise man is happy even under torture, because his happiness is the activity of his reason, and fortune cannot reach that. The doctrine was tested in the lives of the Roman Stoics: Epictetus, the former slave, taught that the happiness of the free mind cannot be taken; Marcus Aurelius, the emperor, practiced the happiness of the virtuous life amid war, plague, and loss.

Philosophical Perspectives

The Stoic theory of happiness rests on two doctrines. The first is the doctrine of value: only virtue is good, only vice is evil, and everything else is indifferent. The consequence is that the traditional components of happiness — wealth, health, reputation, pleasure — are indifferents: they are preferable, but they are not goods, and they do not constitute happiness. The second is the doctrine of the activity of virtue: happiness is not a passive state but an activity, the exercise of reason in the conduct of life. The two doctrines together yield the Stoic account: happiness is the activity of virtue, and since the activity of virtue is in our power, happiness is in our power.

The Stoic account of joy completes the theory. The Stoics distinguished the passions — the turbulent emotions of the unwise — from the good emotions (eupatheiai) of the wise. Joy (chara) is the good emotion of the wise: the delight in what is genuinely good, the elation of the soul that has understood the true order of value. The Stoic sage is not grim; the sage is joyful — with a joy that is deeper and more constant than the pleasure of the unwise, because it does not depend on the changes of fortune. The modern caricature of the Stoic as the joyless, pleasure-denying philosopher is the opposite of the truth: the Stoic is the one who has secured a happiness that cannot be lost.

Lessons From Thinkers

From Zeno of Citium: happiness is living in agreement with nature, which is living virtuously. From Epictetus: happiness is in our power — "some things are up to us and some are not." From Marcus Aurelius: happiness is the activity of the present — "the happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts." And from the tradition: the test of the theory is the life — the Stoic happy in poverty, in slavery, in exile, in the face of death — the happiness that fortune cannot touch.

Practical Application

The Stoic practice of happiness has a concrete form. Do not seek happiness as a feeling to be captured but as a life to be lived: the daily exercise of the virtues — wisdom in judgment, justice in conduct, courage in endurance, temperance in desire. When fortune is good, enjoy it without clinging: the pleasure is an indifferent, and the joy is in the virtue. When fortune is bad, practice the discipline: the setback is an indifferent, and the response is up to you. The daily rhythm of the Stoic life — the morning preparation, the discipline of action, the evening review — is the practice of happiness: the daily training by which the life of virtue becomes the life of joy. The Stoic does not promise the happiness of the satisfied desire; they promise the deeper happiness of the well-lived life — and they promise that it cannot be taken away.

Quotes

Zeno states the goal: "The end may be defined as living in agreement with nature, which is the same as living virtuously." Marcus Aurelius states the quality of the inner life: "The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts." And the Stoic account of joy is stated in the tradition: "The wise man's joy is the delight in what is genuinely good — a joy that fortune cannot diminish."

Related Questions

• What Is Stoicism? — the philosophy behind the theory.
• What Is Happiness? — the wider philosophy of happiness.
• What Are the Stoic Virtues? — the content of the happy life.
• Stoicism and Emotions — the theory of joy and the passions.