Stoicism
- “a philosophy about staying calm and focusing on what you can control”
- “how to not let things outside my control upset me”
- “the ancient philosophy the emperor Marcus Aurelius practised”
- “finding peace by accepting what I can't change”
:: COMPARE ::
StoicismvsNihilism
The short answer
Nihilism concludes that nothing means anything. Stoicism concludes close to the opposite: meaning is real and lives in your own character and choices — the one place fortune cannot reach.
Side by side
| Aspect | Stoicism | Nihilism |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | Real, and self-made | There is none |
| Virtue | The whole point | Pointless |
| Facing hardship | Meet it with reason | Why bother |
| The aim | Eudaimonia — flourishing | None |
Which one you meant
Readers who land here meaning Stoicism rather than Nihilism are usually searching for phrases like “a philosophy about staying calm and focusing on what you can control”, “how to not let things outside my control upset me”, “the ancient philosophy the emperor Marcus Aurelius practised”.
Nihilism
- “was nietzsche a nihilist”
- “what is nihilism simply”
- “types of nihilism”
- “nihilism vs absurdism”
Which came first
Stoicism. c. 300 BCE — Zeno of Citium teaches on the painted porch (stoa) in Athens.
- c. 300 BCEStoicismZeno of Citium teaches on the painted porch (stoa) in Athens.
- 1799NihilismFriedrich Jacobi uses the word in his open letter to Fichte to negatively characterise transcendental idealism - as an accusation, not a self-description. Earlier German uses are on record for Obereit (1787) and Jenisch (1796).
Read either one in full
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