Stoic Ideas

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In the philosophy of stoicism, virtue is the only ultimate good. Other things, such as health and riches are "indifferents": Sellars (2006) described how according to the Stoics, these things "are not necessary for a happy life" (p. 113). Stoic ideas appear fairly often in Montaigne's "On the Inequality There is Between Us" essay. To begin with, Montaigne (1987) wrote that a man "may have a great suite of attendants, a beautiful palace, great influence and a large income: all that may surround him but it is not in him" (p. 289). This is a stoic idea since it emphasizes how externals like wealth are not extremely important, instead just an external that is not the greatest good for our being. Similarly, when Montaigne (1987) said that even if

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