Like the philosophic dialogues of Socrates, we must look to the students of Epictetus for a written record of his thoughts.  The former slave Epictetus became a leading teacher of Stoicism in the first and second centuries C.E. His student Arrian recorded his teachings in Discourses and from the Discourses Arrian compiled a handbook the Enchiridion.  This brief book became a standard of philosophical guidance among Western thinkers through the centuries and has even seen a revival among readers of the novel A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe. The Wolfe novel also led some contemporary philosophers to a contemporary Stoicism resurgence. In a blog entry back in February I wrote about how William Irvine, a professor of philosophy at Wright State University, turned from the study of Zen to Stoicism by reading A Man in Full.

The Enchiridion is a kind of life guidance book that would fit nicely on a modern bookstore shelf of lifestyle books.  It is not about philosophy in the sense of metaphysics or epistemology but is rather a toolbox on how to reach eudemonia or how to live the good life of reason and peaceful equanimity.  It is a book of applied philosophy, how to make reason guide your life. 

Epictetus advises us to know our limits, to always distinguish what we can control and what is beyond us. Strive to foster the good within our control and a placidly accept that which is beyond our powers.

“There are things within our power, and there are things beyond our power. Within our power are our opinion, aim, desire, dislikes, and, in summary, whatever is our own. Beyond our power is property, reputation, duties, and, in summary, whatever is not ours.”  In another of the short passages, Epictetus says “If then, you decide to avoid the things you dislike which you can control, you will never suffer any grief from anything in your power to avoid; but if you try to avoid sickness, or death, or poverty, you will run the risk of being unhappy.”

Stoicism always reminds me of Buddhist thought, especially the Buddhist concern with the calm control of the mind which in turn controls our actions. Or Shakespeare’s “there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” This is what Epictetus says “Men aren’t disturbed by reality, but by the view which they take of it. Death is nothing terrible, otherwise it would have appeared to be to Socrates. But terror consists in our idea of death, the idea that death is terrible.”

Epictetus advises the strengthening of character, of taking life’s blows with endurance and equanimity.  Several passages caution us to use our own inner strength to rise about what others think of us.  Here is one: “Remember it’s not the person who gives abuse or blows, who insults, but the view we take of these things as insulting. When, therefore, anyone provokes you, be assured that it is your own opinion which provokes you.” And another “Don’t consider what he does, but what you should do to keep your own will in a state conformable to nature, because another cannot hurt you unless you let them. You will only be hurt when you allow yourself to be hurt.”

So look to your thoughts because your thoughts are what your are. “You must cultivate either your own reason or else what the external gives you. You must apply yourself either to think inside you or outside you—that is, either be a philosopher or one of the crowd.”

Don’t worry, be happy.

Magpie Murders and its sequel Moonflower Murders are both whodunits-within-whodunits by the clever mystery writer, Anthony Horowitz. Horowitz is probably best known for his work as a screenwriter for the Midsomer Murders, Foyle’s War, and the very best version of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot stories starring David Suchet. The Poirot series was a favorite Masterpiece Theater production and soon Magpie Murders will be a Fall 2022 Masterpiece feature. 

These mysteries feature an unlikeable fictional mystery writer, Alan Conway who writes nine mysteries led by his likeable detective Atticus Pünd. Like one of Horowitz’ favorite sleuths Hercule Poirot, Pünd is a cerebral immigrant detective with a sidekick who works the English village and manor house murders and keeps his own counsel. The Pünd story, Magpie Murders, is nested within the mystery of the death of its author Conway, whose editor, Susan Ryland becomes a reluctant sleuth herself. There are murders galore, red herrings, miscues and all the features of the English village murder mystery. The sequel, Moonflower Murders, follows Susan Ryland to Greece and then back to England to discover a clue she knows must be hidden in Conway’s story. Moonflower Murders again is a nested mystery with the detective Pünd story in another English village manor house murder. This story is told enveloped within Susan Ryland’s search for yet another murderer.

What is particularly appealing in both novels is the rumination of Susan Ryland as she tries to discover the perpetrator by exploring how mystery stories are written. There are references to famous whodunits and even Horowitz’ own work. These intriguing stories are detective stories for the lovers of detective stories. I loved reading them.

A neighbor of mine retired and moved to a new subdivision bordering a golf course. Why?  He said “well, every day I just open up the garage and roll onto the links in my golf cart for a couple of rounds.  I am livin’ the good life!”  I hope he is still happy.  Most of us do not know exactly how to achieve such a blissful state.  The ancient Greek philosophers sought the answer and, later, the Roman Stoics thought they found it, although they didn’t have golf courses.

William B. Irvine, a professor at Wright State University looked to Zen Buddhism to help him in a personal quest for flourishing life. In A Guide to the Good Life:  The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy he writes that the path of Zen was not enough, but he found his way through Stoicism.  And his conversion came about by reading A Man in Full.  Tom Wolfe’s novel features a man who suffers one defeat after another but finds comfort and personal satisfaction through the works of the Stoic philosopher Epictetus.  When I read the novel some years ago, I did find I came to appreciate Stoicism.  Irvine relates how Wolfe’s novel led him from his embrace of Western style Buddhism to the Greek and Roman philosophy of Stoicism.

There is a growing interest in Stoicism. A recent New York Times article was somewhat critical of the new, trendy Stoicism Lite (Opinion | What Pop Stoicism Misses About Ancient Philosophy – The New York Times (nytimes.com))  Stoicism for the ancients sought a meaningful life through the cultivation of virtue.  To the Greek and Roman philosophers, virtue wasn’t personal goodness. Their concept of virtue includes a rational understanding of just what is goodness, and the cultivation of wisdom, courage, self-control, and justice.  Moreover, virtue was a social good, a measure of one’s relationships with others. The NYT opinion writer quotes the Stoic Seneca as writing: “Let us cultivate our humanity.” 

Irvine’s book does not really feature ethics, but rather the book’s purpose is to guide the reader toward a fulfilling life of tranquility and a calm acceptance.  In modern terms, this interest in developing a fulfilling, happy life fits well with the interest in meditation, “living in the moment” and the new “Positive Psychology” of Martin Seligman as well as popular college courses about happiness. Irvine stresses the self-help aspects of Stoicism as the road to tranquility and seems to have very little interest in the ethical goals of the Roman form of Stoicism.  He shows the reader how to control anger and reduce anxiety. To prevent worry, the apprentice Stoic should learn to go ahead and imagine the worst-case scenario and see how unlikely it is and to understand the futility of worry. 

In order to learn satisfaction in life, the author recommends “negative visualization” or imagining how it would be to lack some of the things and relationships we have.  Consider how valuable is our life now.  Get off the hedonic treadmill, the yearning for better things or riches or fame only to find out that when we have more things we are not happy. We keep striving for more and more.

Like the Buddhists, the Stoics were careful to point out that one must distinguish what one can have from what is achievable.  Buddhists emphasize that everyone’s life comes with sorrow and misfortune. However, desires, especially unreasonable desires are the root cause of suffering.  Stoics and Buddhists are clear about the understanding that distress is within the self and there are methods to deal with personal suffering.  One of the new websites devoted to Stoicism, “The Stoic Sage,” explores the similarities between the Western Stoicism and Eastern Buddhism. The entry is on Buddhism and Stoicism is here: http://thestoicsage.com/stoicism-and-buddhism/.

The New York Times book critic Molly Young tells of her own initiation into Stoicism https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/28/books/stoicism-books.html. The article gives several resources for modern Stoicism including Ryan Holiday’s popular book and website. I do listen to Holiday’s podcast “The Daily Stoic.” But after all, the best reading is from some of the original Stoics like Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. I keep the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius handy for reading the short entries like Marcus wrote it day by day. It’s the original Daily Stoic. Amazing that Marcus, the Emperor of Rome, could write with such humility, graciousness, and wisdom.

Anthony Horowitz is a clever and often humorous writer about murder.  And who doesn’t love a clever murder…mystery.  Horowitz worked with David Suchet and wrote many of the scripts for my favorite mystery series, Agatha Christie’s Poirot.  He discusses some of his television work in the mystery novel The Word is Murder because Horowitz becomes not only the first-person narrator of the novel but a character in it.  Horowitz portrays himself as a less than competent sleuth who works with a less than likeable detective, Hawthorne.  Apparently, the dyspeptic Hawthorne is to become a figure in a new series of who-dun-its.  Hawthorne hires Horowitz to write about Hawthorne himself and it turns out that he writes about Horowitz himself as well.  An interesting scene is an incident when Horowitz is meeting with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, an actual meeting—interrupted by the fictional Hawthorne. When the Horowitz character tries to out-detective the detective he almost gets himself killed.  After the incident, he writes that it is a pity deciding to write in first person because the reader can’t possibly think the writer will die at least until he finishes the book.  It a strange twist to the unreliable narrator technique, in this case possibly reliable, where the reader can’t quite tell what is fiction and what is not.  Like the long-running series Midsomer Murders for which Horowitz was also a writer, the story involves multiple murders, revenge, suicide, and various deceptive clues that the Horowitz character doesn’t catch but his character Hawthorne does.  Ingenious, witty, and entertaining.

Have I already written about Joshua Foer’s book, Moonwalking with Einstein? I can’t remember. But then again, I don’t need to remember because this blog site remembers for me. Foer’s fascinating book is subtitled The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. Foer, a journalist, is well equipped to write such a book because in his reporting of the unusual world of memory athletes, he not only learns the techniques of championship memory challenges but wins the USA Memory Championship. 

Memory Championship? Really? Yes, you could look it up on the Google memory machine. Practitioners of the ancient art of memory gather annually and compete in several areas of memory challenges. This is safe to try at home. Shuffle of deck of cards, display them one by one and give yourself five minutes to memorize them and then name them in order. Give yourself twenty minutes to memorize hundreds of random numbers and then write them out. In order. Give yourself fifteen minutes to memorize one hundred names and place them with the correct faces. And what is said to be the hardest and most dread challenge, take fifteen minutes to memorize a long poem of several pages that has never been seen by anyone and repeat it exactly as written. 

Probably you can’t remember your brother’s cellphone number and certainly could not give the address and phone number of your physician. Nobody needs to anymore; we all have cellphones who do the memory challenges for us. Cellphones are the world champion mnemonists. The ancient arts of memorizing that were taught by Greek and Roman scholars are largely forgotten, not by the advent of cellphones but by literacy itself. If you can read the Odyssey, why should anyone memorize it?

Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad were recorded and served as a kind of foundational text by the time of Pericles’ Golden Age of Greek thought and learning. Some scholars maintain that the work of Homer shows such consistency, brilliance, and creativity that must have been put into writing by one exceptional man. However, there is no doubt that the poems have all the hallmarks of an oral tradition. That is, they were memorized and performed before an audience. In the early part of the 20^th century, literacy was not prevalent in some parts of Europe. Milman Parry and Albert Lord of Harvard traveled to Bosnia and recorded and transcribed the oral stories and poetry recited by local bards. The work of Parry and Lord helped to define the techniques of oral epic poetry. The poetry of Homer and other epic poems are characterized by a formulaic structure. Standardized phrases such as “the wine-dark sea” and “rosy-fingered dawn” help to carry the poem along in a recitation. Formulaic phrases along with other conventions including meter, alliteration, episodic structure and other standardized techniques aid the performer’s memory. These same techniques are evident in Beowulf and other ancient heroic poetry.

And now there is an 11 hour long DVD of a man reciting—from memory—the over 10,000 lines of John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Why John Basinger would do such a thing I just don’t know. When I went for some long walks, I listened to an audio of Paradise Lost but apparently, I didn’t walk nearly enough to get too far into the epic or too high up Pinnacle Rock. According to Prof. John Seamon of Wesleyan (in an online course I took on Coursera) Basinger would memorize parts of Milton’s work while on his exercise machines. It took him nine years and he got it exactly right and probably is in very good physical condition. According to Seamon, the memorization done by actors is not done by rote repetition. Actors say that they try to mentally enter the person of the character they portray and look for meaning of the lines, not just the words of the lines. Actors “encode” their parts by understanding the meaning of their part, committing themselves to the emotion and forming a deep empathy with the character.  Seamon interviewed Basinger who told him “During the incessant repetition of Milton’s words, I really began to listen to them, and every now and then as the whole poem began to take shape in my mind, an insight would come, an understanding, a delicious possibility.”

It is safe to try this technique at home as well. With some difficulty I am able to memorize poems of a few stanzas, certainly not poetry of epic length. The technique of recall by meaning does work but not as well as the ancient method of the Memory Palace.

The Memory Palace, or Method of Loci, is a technique useful in memorizing list of things. Physicians who examine Medicare (elderly!) patients are encouraged to give a simple test of cognitive ability in order to detect the possibility of incipient dementia in the patient. The recent defeated president made a claim of high “mental stamina” by having successfully repeated five words. Person, woman, man, camera, TV. Truthfully, anyone can remember much longer lists of words by simply taking a walk, that is, taking a mental walk through a “memory palace.”

In ancient Greek and Roman times and in the Middle Ages memorization was highly valued and taught to students as a fundamental skill for learning and speaking.  Scholars studied the techniques of memory by consulting works on this skill by the Romans Cicero, Quintilian, and Giordano Bruno. Thomas Aquinas wrote a treatise on memory. Foer writes that memory champions still study Rhetorica ad Herrennium.  This guide to memorization and rhetoric was written by an anonymous author in the first century BCE.   Herrennium records the techniques of Simonides. According to Cicero, Simonides of Creos invented the Memory Palace after a tragedy. Simonides was a Greek poet and rhetorician who taught in the 5^th century BCE. The story goes that Simonides was invited to a dinner party to give a recitation.  After he recited his poetry he stepped outside to talk to friends.  A terrible earthquake struck and destroyed the building burying the dinner party guests. He helped families to recover and identify their crushed loved ones by pointing out where each participant was seated at the table.  Simonides reconstructed in his mind the room and its table and where each person sat. He could identify each body by recalling the loci, each location or place in the Memory Palace. 

Psychologists who study memory say that familiar places are very easy to remember by forming a picture in the mind especially of a familiar place. At each of the loci, an item to be recalled is placed, and then one takes a walk through “palace” and observing each item. Here is how it works:  Perhaps you have a shopping list. You think of your own home trying to imagine each room as you walk through.  The front door is opened by a farmer in big boots holding a gallon of milk. As you enter you see on a small table in a carton of a dozen eggs. At the stairway stands the Frankenstein monster holding a package of AA batteries shooting electricity. The people are not as important as the places but it helps to have highly memorable persons in the rooms to help form memorable pictures. Joshua Foer likes to imagine a naked woman; that one is not forgettable. Or try a person, perhaps Einstein doing the moonwalk (thus the unforgettable title of Foer’s book). The Memory Palace is a sure-fire method to easily remember a list of items. Master the Method of Loci and you will easily pass the five-item dementia test your family physician will give when you reach Medicare age. In that way you can delay the time an assisted living facility will serve as your memory palace. Personally, I always decline to take the test. Because who knows?

The use of imaginative and striking images is also the way Foer learned to remember the names of people he meets. Everyone I know has trouble remembering names, but of course we all have cellphones to remember for us. Foer explains that part of the difficulty with names is explained by the Baker/baker Paradox. A psychologist shows two people the same photograph of a face. To one subject she says the name of the person is Baker. To the other, she says the person is a baker. Sometime later the person who associates the face with the occupation baker is much more likely to remember it than the person who tries to recall the name Baker. It takes a long time and many encounters to associate a name with the person, but a shortcut is to create a memorable image based on the name. One of Foer’s mentors said he could imagine Joshua Foer “joshing me…and I’d imagine my self breaking into four pieces…”

This useful and, well, memorable book is about Joshua Foer’s adventure into memory contests and his remarkable development of a world class memory. Foer does not much dwell on what is most important about memory itself, the real meaning of Memory itself, its fundamental importance, its telos, its true value. Foer’s book does have interesting information about some of the strange characteristics of long-term memory. Many severe types of forgetfulness include the loss of only short-term memory while the distant past may be able to be recalled. The passage of time, the processes of sleep, even light and day have dramatic effects on memory and sometimes what is recalled about the past can change and shape-shift over time. However, the book generally deals with memory improvement, memory tricks of the trade, and Joshua Foer’s remarkable improvement in memory.

Nonetheless, Joshua Foer is aware of the centrality of memory to everyone and to our basic humanity and he makes clear that memory and its improvement is no game show. Philosophers recognize that it is memory that creates and shapes selfhood. What are we without our memories, the things we have learned and the experiences that have shaped us? The philosopher Peter Singer, who has defined “personhood” to include humans and all manner of sentient animals, places memory at the center of selfhood, along with the cognizance of self, the avoidance of pain and death, and the desire for a future.  We are built of our memories. Foer mentions a man known to science as EP who has completely lost his memory and thus cannot “place himself in time or space, or relative to other people.” Another man, Gordon Bell, is digitizing everything about himself and everything he hears and does into a computer bank in order to externalize memory. But this is a vain escape from the fundamental meaning of memory and selfhood. Foer thinks that we should cultivate memory because human action depends on memory. “Our memories make us who we are. They are the seat of our values and source of our character.” He says that his journey into the world of memory challenges is not about party tricks but “it’s about nurturing something profoundly and essentially human.” And there is this from the writer Haruki Murakami: “People’s memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive.”