Great find and thank you Don. Another occasion to examine the recurring issue!
Here are some initial comments:
I can quite believe that Elizabeth Holmes was using Stoicism to justify her fraudulent behavior at Theranos!
I question whether it was "designed for the masses" but I don't doubt the "machiavellian" attitude of Stoics in dumbing it down for popularity's sake. That certainly was not Epicurus' viewpoint on his own philosophy.
Sounds like a method we could usefully learn from.
This is definitely an observation we hear made over and over and I believe to be true.
That may be true for some "light" stoics, but according to the info in David Sedley's "the ethics of Brutus and Cassius" it was by no means true of them all and was in fact used to justify doing nothing in the face of emperical tyranny.
Very true!
I suppose this is true as one conclusion of virtue extremism. It should also serve to show how different Stoicism is from what Epicurus taught.
There's much more in the article worthy of comment. Again - thanks Don!
Oh it's also worth mentioning this similar article discussed previously -
