The Western world is wrought with individualism, but we Humans are herd animals and it’s not often that people thrive on their own. Individualsim may concern itself with our rights and needs on a very personal level and when we practice Stoicism, we are very busy with how everything around us relates to ourselves. The most important thing is that we make conscious attempts to concern ourselves with that which we have influence on and this basically comes down to our own thoughts about events that happen around and to us. Before we can answer the question if Stoicism is Individualism, let’s look at emotions first, because I feel that that’s an important key element of my answer.

Stoicism and Emotions

There’s quite a few misconceptions surrounding Stoicism. One of them is that Stoics don’t feel emotions. I imagine that people think of Stoics almost like Vulcans from Star Trek who somehow manage to live entirely without emotions and let logic rule their lives. Stoicisim doesn’t deny the fact that we feel emotions, but rather that we don’t let them govern us. We are Human and Stoicism tells us to live according to nature. It is in our nature to feel and so, we should. The big difference is that we don’t let our instinct or monkey brain take the wheel and steer. One key element of doing this is by being mindful and present and noticing that we are feeling a certain emotion.

For instance, while being part of traffic, we often get in situations where someone else is cutting us off, or not stopping at a traffic light. Our instinctual emotion is probably anger. Because, why would someone do that? Or we get stuck in traffic and feel frustrated that we will be delayed. All of these situations trigger a basic emotion, like anger, frustration, or maybe even fear (what if we have a collission?). What Stoicism is about is recognizing these emotions for what they are, without letting them govern us and our reactions. This takes time and a lot of practice. You need to be aware and mindful of your feelings.

Stoicism is something you practice individually

Because Stoics focus on what they can control and that which we can control is basically our own thoughts and actions, it seems like it is a very individualistic philosophy. As I said in the previous segment, it’s about being mindful of our emotions and how we react to events that affect us. And this means that you can only practice this part of Stoicism alone.

But here comes the part that might be even more important to answer our question. Stoics live according to a set of values, or virtues. There are four main ones; courage, temperance, wisdom, and justice. While these may also be seen as individualistic values, they also touch those around us. In my personal practice of Stoicism I also add compassion to my set of core values, as I feel that this is an important addition. And when you add this to the mix, you can see how Stoicism becomes something that is beyond the self.

The Pillars of Stoicism

As I said there are four big virtues of Stoicism: courage, wisdom, justice and temperance. Let us now look at each of these seperately and how they are not just used on a personal level, but also to help other people, to show the separation between Stoicism and Individualism.

Courage

Perhaps this is the easiest of the virtues, because we associate courage with heroics a lot. Sometimes only onle courageous person needs to step up to make big changes for the world, but courage exists on many different levels. Sometimes it can be the courage to overcome a personal fear (individualistic), but there are often times when we need to be courageous to help others. We need courage to step up for those who cannot help themselves, or those who do not have a voice. When these times arrise, courage is what a Stoic needs to overcome the odds and make a big change for all those affected.

Wisdom

What good is it to be wise without sharing that wisdom? To me, someone can’t be wise just on their own. People can only say someone is wise, because they share their wisdom, knowledge and experiences. Since this is one of the main pillars of Stoicism, it means helping others by sharing what you know and lifting them up to become a better version of themselves. In my view, wisdom can’t even be an individualistic virtue, because how wise is it not to share all that you know?

Justice

Justice for all. I don’t believe justice can exist purely on an individualistic basis, how else can we call it so? Therefore this virtue is more of a collective one. We need to be just as a person, but also as a society. Justice cannot exist without rules created by the people. Law and order must be maintained by civilization itself. Perhaps this one is the furthest from the four virtues that can be interpreted as an individualstic one.

Temperance

And last, but not least, temperance. While the previous virtue; justice, was the most collective and social one, temperance is perhaps the most individualistic one. It means selfrestraint and taking things in moderation, such as alcohol, food, sex and all other things that only bring us temporary joy or relief. It’s about self control and awareness of our own behaviour. But even temperance has an effect on those who we associate with, because if we never go out of bounds, we can serve as an example for others. Having good self control also helps us to moderate our emotions and feelings. Temperance also means we shouldn’t drown ourselves in work, or other distractions, so that we can live a good life.

Stoicism =/= Individualism

We have gone through the basic tenets of what Stoicism is and I think we dug quite far into how this relates to individualism. While there are certainly a lot of aspects about the practice of Stoicism, I think we can see how they are performed individually, but with the good of society at heart. It is not without reason that the ancient philosophers often had schools to teach others their philosophy, or give them advice. Stoicism isn’t about living like a hermit and not caring about anything else than the self. Rather, I think ego can be seen as an adversary that we need to overcome. To live according to nature is one of the biggest taglines of Stoicism, and if we live according to our nature, I think we can see that deep down, we are a herd animal. We need other people to thrive, to grow and to succeed in whatever purpose we have given ourselves. In this regard, I can’t see Stoicism as individualism, because for me, growth only works if we all help and cooperate to make this planet and our lives as beautiful as it can be.

Thank you for reading!

Jeffrey