Imagine the worst. It's a daunting task, yet one that holds the key to resilience and preparedness. This exploration delves into the psychology of fear, the art of anticipation, and the power of proactive thinking in the face of adversity.
What to do with the prospect of future ruin?
Try to think about other things
- Look outside
- Listen to your breath
- Read a book
- Watch television
- Tweet something
- Post something – wait for reactions
- Be with friends
- Work. Look at the sky
Where does Stoic imagination lead us?
For all its concern with reality and truth, Stoicism lends itself to avoidance.
- When Cicero denies the significance of loss and the appropriateness of grief, he denies reality. He would rather imagine that she was never as important to him as his grief suggests: “what seemed so serious is not in reality very significant.”
- To appreciate those we love, we must also appreciate the wonder, brevity, and finitude of their existence.
Ambivalence is a path to a place where the mind can roam free
We stand to lose everything, or maybe everything has already been lost
- In fiction, in art, we find a space between the real and the impossible where we may rehearse evils-a space where we can recognize ourselves in our doubles and be recognized by others.
In the modern world, psychologists and psychiatrists are the doctors of the mind, but according to Cicero, we should turn instead to philosophy.
Unlike the medical science of the body, philosophy is self-administered: “the help of philosophy is something we need not look to others to gain.”
The COVID-19 Pandemic and Public Reason
Boston Review’s responsibility to public reason is sure.
- We rely on you, our readers, for support. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to keep Thinking in a Pandemic free for everyone.
Philosophers don’t have answers, philosophy does
Philosophy is an activity, a daily exercise of the mind, a conversation with others that is also a conversation between oneself
- The fact that universal philosophical claims are always made by individual people with particular longings and fears means that such claims express much more than they let on
- It is with this in mind that we can turn to philosophy for help
- Ancient Self-help
- Can teach us how to live in the face of our inevitable ruin
- Praemeditatio futurorum malorum: “the pre-rehearsal of future evils”
- A favorite method of the Stoics
- Focus on whatever it is that you are afraid might happen as a thing that definitely will happen
- Take the measure of it mentally and assess your fear
- You will soon realize that what you fear is either no great matter or not long lasting
