đ Dying Every Day
Dying Every Day (Stoicism in a Year) is a daily podcast by the Perennial Leader Project. Each episode turns a selected passage from Stoic philosophy into a guided meditation designed to help you (and me) learn how to live the âgoodâ life.
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The Wisdom of Kindness
Welcome to another edition of Dying Every Day (Stoicism in a Year). Weâve made it to Day 48, and today, weâre exploring the virtue of justice, one of the cardinal virtues. If youâve missed the last few meditations on courage, temperance, and wisdom, I encourage you to go back and listen. As youâll hear shortly, these virtues work in harmony with each other.
In a letter to his friend Lucilius, Seneca wrote,
The sole task of philosophy is to discover the truth about matters human and divine. Philosophy is never unaccompanied by piety, reverence, and justice, and all the other assemblage of interrelated and connected virtues. It teaches us to worship things divine and to love things human; it shows that power rests with the gods while sociability links human beings to one another.
+Adapted from On the Part Played by Philosophy in the Progress of Man
Stoic philosophy teaches that any person who possesses one of the virtues possesses them all. Although, as weâve learned this week, each virtue has its own distinctive application, they work in harmony (often called the unity of virtue).
But itâs not only the virtues that are interconnected. As human beings, we are also connected and part of a single community. For this reason, the Stoics believe that we have a duty to live virtuously and help others where possible.
As the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius put it,
We were born to work together like feet, hands, and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural.
To the questions: âWho should we help?â and âWhere should we help?â The answers are everyone and everywhere. âWherever there is another human being,â stressed Seneca, âthere is an opportunity for kindness.â
Reflection Exercise
I invite you to reflect (or journal) on specific ways you can practice the virtue of justice. As youâre doing so, you might consider what role the virtues of courage, temperance, and wisdom play in practicing kindness.
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Thank you for reading/listening; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
J.W.
P.S. Check out the meditations on courage, temperance, and wisdom.