Stoic Philosophy on Community and Connection

Four Takeaways from Will Johncock's new book Beyond the Individual

Youssef Naddam via Unsplash

Will Johncock’s Beyond the Individual: Stoic Philosophy on Community and Connection is the first book-length examination of Stoicism and sociability that specifically engages with the modern community of practicing Stoics. Johncock acknowledges from the outset that the book is partly born from his frustration at seeing Stoicism presented as a means of self-centered self-improvement by some authors and influencers. This is a frustration I share, so I’m glad to spotlight this book as an antidote to the egocentric strand of Stoicism (sometimes designated as Broicism or $toicism).

As readers of Stoicism for Humans already know, Stoicism is in fact an extremely prosocial philosophy that encourages us to flourish as individuals by recognizing and building our connections with other people and the world around us. This is Johncock’s main line of argument through Beyond the Individual: happiness consists in living according to our rational nature, which means understanding that we are a small part of a larger whole. If we mistakenly focus only on ourselves, or if we act against the common good in what we mistakenly believe to be our own best interests, then we will never find happiness.

While this is a very erudite and thoroughly footnoted work, it is different from the majority of scholarly books in that it’s oriented toward Stoic practitioners—people who rely on Stoicism for life-guidance. Johncock isn’t just content to describe Stoic principles, but to explain how we can put them into action.

At the same time, Beyond the Individual fits into the scholarly tradition of seeing Stoic ethics as determined by Stoic physics. If you’ll recall our discussion earlier this year of Chris Gill’s Learning to Live Naturally, Gill identifies four primary ways ancient Stoics presented ethical theory: (1) standard concepts from Greek ethical theory; (2) ethical concepts + human nature; (3) ethical concepts + human nature as part of the broader natural patterns of life; and (4) ethical concepts + universal or cosmic nature.

In this work Johncock focuses almost exclusively on a Type 4 presentation. While I personally enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone seeking to deepen their understanding of Stoic ethics, readers should be aware that this is a deep dive into one particular strand of ethical thinking: the Type 4 Stoic worldview. I suggest balancing out your reading with alternative perspectives that include Types 1-3 (e.g., Julia Annas’ The Morality of Happiness and Chris Gill’s Learning to Live Naturally, or see my past article on evolutionary anthropology for an evidence-based approach to Types 2 and 3). As Gill convincingly argues, the ancient Stoics did not rely on just one way of thinking about ethics, and it’s important to for any Stoic to understand the full range of their ideas. I recommend reading as widely as possible and deciding for yourself which of these presentations you find most compelling.

With that said, let’s look at some of the major themes of Beyond the Individual. This is a weighty book and I can’t offer a comprehensive overview in one post. So here we’ll focus on just a few highlights. I’ve selected four quotes from Will Johncock, followed by my own commentary with practical takeaways. I hope you find benefit from these and are inspired to check out the book for yourself!

Four Key Takeaways

1.       Remember you are part of the whole

Well-being requires a conscious acceptance of how our existence serves an entity well beyond the individual alone. The primary mode of living as a Stoic does not comprise erecting resilient borders between our own minds and the rest of the world. The Stoic consciousness instead fundamentally requires an awareness that each of us as an individual is an expression of a world system.

p. 102

Theory: Regardless of whether or not you accept the divinity of the world system and related ideas such as the rationality and benevolence of the cosmos, it is quite clear that we are all interconnected in important ways. We are all, to use a popular phrase, made of stardust—all made of a similar substance and all returning to a similar substance after our death. We are all participants in the larger system of the world and contribute to its wellbeing (or lack thereof). Understanding this interconnectedness is fundamental to developing a proper relationship with other people and with the natural world. We are neither more important nor less important than others; rather, we are all important parts of the larger system.

Practice: Think about how you can thin out the borders you’ve built between yourself and other people. Can you lower your guard a bit when interacting with a colleague or the supermarket clerk? Can you defuse some of your defensiveness when talking with your spouse or partner? The idea is that we reach out toward others rather than building up walls to keep them out.

2.       Orient yourself toward other people

When considering our default orientations toward community and universe for the Stoics, what also becomes apparent is how interrelated individual well-being is with the welfare of the whole of which we are each a part. This is not surprising given that as we fulfill our social roles and responsibilities in our daily lives, be they related to work, family, or personal relationships, our own well-being is never far from our mind. The company we keep, the practices we undertake, the paths we choose, all to some extent factor in what we believe is good for us personally.

p. 127

Theory: As Marcus Aurelius says, “What brings no benefit to the hive brings none to the bee” (Meditations, 6.54). It’s much harder for an individual member of a family to flourish if the family as a whole is not doing well, just as it’s harder for an individual member of a community to flourish if the community is blighted. By working toward wellbeing for the people around us, we ultimately benefit ourselves as well as everyone else.

Practice: Pause for a moment and think about someone who helped you when you were going through a difficult time. Then identify one way you can extend a hand to someone in need (the holidays are a great time to do this!). It could be someone in your family or community, or someone on the other side of the world (I recommend Kiva.org if you’re looking to donate money).

3.       Choose actions appropriate to your nature

Kathekonta refers to the actions and functions that are ‘reasonable’ or ‘appropriate’ for us. Such acts or functions can be rationally determined to fit or ‘be proper’ for the entity that expresses them, whether that entity is human, nonhuman animal, or even plant. Diogenes describes how for Zeno, kathekonta in the human regard represents our “activity appropriate to constitutions that accord with nature” and reason. In this definition, the Stoic correlation of the individual’s rationality with an overall universal order again becomes apparent, as we are impelled to practically enact our own choices in ways that accord with our grander nature.

p. 151

Theory: Reflecting on our “grander nature” inspires us to make choices appropriate to a rational, sociable human. Why give in to our less noble impulses when we know we’re made for better things?

Practice: Think back to a time when you’ve fixated on a petty argument with someone, or maybe a time when you’ve felt sorry for yourself for not getting what you deserved. Would your behavior have been different if you’d been thinking of yourself as “free, noble-minded, and self-respecting” (to use Epictetus’ phrase)? You might spend some time making a list of the highest and best qualities possible for a human, and reflect on ways you can incorporate these qualities into your own life.

4.       To be happy, focus on shared goals

If living rationally is living happily, then likewise living happily is living virtuously, given that living virtuously is living rationally. It is virtuous, for example, to think and act with a consciousness of common and shared, rather than of personal, outcomes.

p. 229

Theory: Many people believe that empathy (feeling someone else’s pain) is a crucial aspect of morality, but in fact empathy has significant limitations. It is based on emotion and is therefore susceptible to manipulation, plus we can only feel empathy for a limited number of people whom we personally encounter or whose stories we hear.

Reason, on the other hand, is a much better guide to both ethical action and happiness. By using our reasoning ability to understand our position in the world and our relationship to the wider society (part to whole), we can make better decisions. We can adopt shared goals that will benefit the other people we know as well as the society as a whole.

Practice: We flourish and find happiness when we live not just for ourselves, but for a grander purpose. Reflect on the goals you share with other people. In what ways can you align yourself with others and work toward a common goal? Sometimes in our modern world it can really feel like everyone just living for themselves. However, if you look carefully you can see people working together to improve their communities and the world. Make a conscious effort to look for these examples, and see if you can join in their efforts.