From Daily Comments of Sept. 10:
Nicole Ovregaard, Alyssa Peteani, and Shawn Young Eagle were struck by
the Stoic notion that adversity reveals who a person is, and the
example of Hercules' labors as opportunities to exercise one's
faculties in an arena that matters.
Alyssa Rupp asks if perhaps animals have the same faculties as we do,
just in different amounts.
Bailly agrees, but suggests there is a limit: do amoebas and paramecia
have the same faculties as I do, just in different amounts?
Also, doesn't a difference in amount sometimes become a strong
difference: water just has a greater amount of thermal energy than ice,
but the difference in amount leads to a difference in state.
Greg asks whether Epictetus would still have the same thoughts if he
were alive today? Bailly asks: What is the difference between the
things he would change and those he would retain?
Jesse Wiener asks whether Stoics believe int he formation and/or
discovery of self.
Bailly gives an emphatic yes: they believe that we form and discover
who we are.
George, Matt, and Electra remarked about Stoic notions of God and
religion.