PhilosophyTube is usually pretty cool but I think this is kind of an L? She gets into some pretty heavy criticisms of the traditional Stoic philosophy and seem to just dismiss them all at the end. I don't know how someone can say that "You can be in literal chains and be the freest person in the world if you are a sage" with a straight face. I know it's technically true from some perspectives but it just seems so hollow compared to everything else in the video. Mental freedom doesn't help someone when they're doing a daily 12 hour shift that drives them to the edge of exhaustion and takes away everything they enjoy in life.

None of this is me criticizing Stoicism, btw, I don't think I'm smart enough to, just felt like a weird end to the discussion part of the video

Maybe, I'm just not familiar enough with PhilosophyTube's format?

  • Nagarjuna [he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    I wasn't saying that they enjoyed it, just that through collective process they were able to feel free by focusing on consciousness raising, mutual education and meditation as a way of navigating those circumstances.

    Obviously all this could and should happen in community, and prison is not the ideal environment for it. My point was more thay mental, social and spiritual practices like stoicism or in my friends case, feminist education, can be incredibly powerful.