Be A User, Not A Loser

Dr. D. T. Suzuki, a 20th century Japanese author who was largely responsible for popularizing Buddhism, Zen, and Shin in the West, was once approached at the end of a dinner party. “How is it, Dr. Suzuki,” the woman asked, “we spend the entire evening asking you questions and nothing is decided.” He looked at her and replied, “That’s why I love philosophy: no one wins.” While the Stoics, notably Cato the Elder, had a visceral disdain for sophistry and debate for debate’s sake, they would have agreed with this premise. Stoicism was not a parlor game, nor was it religious dogma with its absolutism and black and white rules. Stoicism is ultimately a philosophy for life and life is complicated. It is also a philosophy that embraces the individual, and every individual life is different. That’s why the writings of Seneca don’t fit puzzle perfect with the writings of Marcus Aurelius, which themselves are not perfectly aligned with the teachings of Epictetus, despite the latter’s influence over the former. There is no “winner” or “best” among these equals, there is simply a wide breadth of overlapping wisdom designed for a multitude of situations. Our job is to avail ourselves of this information and put it to use where we can, however it makes sense for the situations in which we find ourselves. What we don’t have time for are pedantic debates about whether so-and-so was a true Stoic or in-fighting about whether this person or that person is continuing the Stoic legacy properly. There are no winners in philosophy, though there certainly are losers. The best person to be, of course, is a user of the philosophical knowledge we have available to us. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:06Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to The Daily Stoic, where each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailystoic.com. Be a User, Not a Loser. Dr. D.T. Suzuki, a 20th-century Japanese author who is largely responsible for popularizing Buddhism, Zen, and Shin in the West, was once approached at the end of a dinner party. "How is it, Dr. Suzuki?" the woman asked. "We spend

• 0:47Ryan Holiday?

  the entire evening asking you questions, and nothing is decided." He looked at her and replied, "That's why I love philosophy: no one wins." While the Stoics, notably Cato the Elder, had a visceral disdain for sophistry and debate for debate's sake, they would have agreed with this premise: Stoicism was not a parlor game, nor was it religious dogma with its absolutism and black-and-white rules. Stoicism is ultimately a philosophy for life, and life is complicated. It's also a philosophy that embraces the individual, and every individual life is different. That's why

• 1:28Ryan Holiday?

  the writings of Seneca don't fit puzzle-perfect with the writings of Marcus Aurelius, which themselves are not perfectly aligned with the teachings of Epictetus, despite the latter's influence over the former. There is no winner or best among these equals. There is simply a wide breadth of overlapping wisdom designed for a multitude of situations. Our job is to avail ourselves of this information and put it to use where we can, however it makes sense for the situations in which we find ourselves. What we don't have time for are pedantic debates about whether so-and-so was a true Stoic, or infighting about whether

• 2:08Ryan Holiday?

  this person or that person is continuing the Stoic legacy properly. There are no winners in philosophy, though there certainly are losers. The best person to be, of course, is a user of the philosophical knowledge we have available to us.

• 2:27Ryan Holiday?

  If you like the podcast that we do here and you want to get it via email every morning, you can sign up at dailystoic.com/email.