I talk to Dr Dioné Harley about resilience from the perspective of Ancient Philosophers. What were the moral theories of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus and the Stoics, and how does resilience factor into their conception of the virtuous life?
What the ancient philosophers all have in common is their belief in shaping the soul to become strong. What they mean by this is that living the good life requires humans to develop their souls so that they are guided by reason and engage in virtuous activities to mould moral dispositions.
For them, resilience is part of the story insofar as you need to find ways of preventing your emotions from overwhelming to the point where you fail to act in accordance with the virtues: temperance, justice, courage and wisdom – to name a few. To do this, you need to develop your rational faculties so that you can put your emotions and appetites in perspective, undermine irrational beliefs that may inform them, and reflect on whether indulging your emotions will help the situation. Over time, your emotions will follow reason’s judgment, and this is how you become more resilient.
What do you think about their take on living a flourishing life and becoming resilient?
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