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After watching the recording of the second meeting, I have the impression that everything related to Stoic pragmatism, and by extension, the world of philosophy in general, is aimed at people with an economic or social standard of living that allows them to ask these kinds of questions. Because those whose standard of living is so low or difficult that it only allows them to fight for their own survival, or those who are experiencing conflicts that absorb most of their lives, don’t have time to apply philosophical ideas to their own lives.
This means that philosophical ideas are only taken into consideration by those with a comfortable standard of living. And the same can be said, mutatis mutandis, of democracy. Only countries with a good economic level and reasonable social stability can be governed by a democratic system under acceptable conditions. Because countries that are in constant internal struggle, due to their poor economic status, are usually not democratic, or if they do practice democracy, it is usually quite corrupt.
Consequently, the criteria or guidelines provided by Stoic pragmatism are for people who have a reasonable standard of living and acceptable mental development, because they have the necessary time and the minimum intellectual capacity to consider or identify their life problems and apply the solutions provided by pragmatism or Stoicism.
It is precisely for this reason that philosophy has an undeniable therapeutic power for people with these characteristics. Those who do not reach this minimum intellectual, social, and economic level will either focus their lives on solving their personal survival problems or will require psychological or psychiatric assistance to overcome them.
Ultimately, those of us who attend these types of philosophical gatherings should be happy to be able to understand them with greater or lesser depth and to be able to apply the lessons we acquire there to our lives. So one suggestion I think might be interesting is to discuss specific life problems that we know about or have experienced, since their reasonable solution, applying the philosophical criteria of pragmatism or stoicism, will contribute to significantly improving our lives. Carlos Climent Durán.
Yes, you must be right at some point. I want to follow your suggestion at the end of your comment, to focus on more particular life issues and their specific solutions in the following editions, although, again you must be right, philosophical ‘solutions’ have a different and vague character more often then not. Chris Skowronski
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