ESTOICISMO - SABEDORIA ROMANA - Os Estoicos e a arte de viver - NOVA ACRÓPOLE

It's always a pleasure to talk about philosophy, and this opportunity here I hope you enjoy as much as I intend to enjoy here with you. Our topic today, we're going to talk about Stoicism, basically, I'll explain it right now what it is, and this subject is part of the philosophy course. It's one of the subjects that we address within our course as a kind of sample. Obviously, within the course we have more time, we can go deeper, talk about the authors with more time. Today our idea is to give a general view of Stoicism, a

line of thought so that we can understand some of the works that I hope you are excited to read. I hope that leaving here you are excited to read the works of the Stoics, which are really very, very nice. So we will give this general view. Whoever likes it, I hope we can meet in the philosophy course, as Flavia said, at the end of the month, on Monday, and next month, on August, on Tuesday. So we're going to talk about Stoicism, and I'm going to start talking about the Stoic school, the Stoic philosophy, where it

comes from, where it comes from, so we can situate ourselves a little bit. The Stoic philosophy, the Stoics, they start... It's a group of people who are in ancient Greece with a citizen named Zenon, Zenon of Scythia. He is considered the founder of the Stoic school. And why do they have this name? Because they made their speeches in a place called Stoa. They went to the street, they went to the square to do philosophy. A very interesting thing, because today we have the idea that philosophy is academic, and it can only be done inside the

academy, inside universities, with our due master's, doctorate and graduation. However, philosophy, throughout its history, it was very street. It was a lot of going to people, in ancient Greece, to encourage people on the street to do philosophy. Socrates did it very well, the Stoics too. Over time, right? As history progressed, philosophy changed this style, and today we have it more academic than practical. And one of the things that New Acropolis tries to rescue is precisely this practical sense. That philosophy can be a good subject for any place. As incredible as it may seem, philosophy can

be a good subject at a birthday party. I swear, it doesn't have to be mine, it can be anyone's. Why? Because the subjects that philosophy deals with are subjects that interest all of us. Any subject that interests you, I can probably find a philosopher who has addressed it. Economy, there are philosophers who have addressed it. Education, there are philosophers who have addressed it. I talk about art, I talk about love, and I talk about a very, very interesting topic called happiness. Look at that. And a lot of philosophers have addressed it. So, many of the

subjects of philosophy are extremely of our interest. They are interesting in themselves, they are of our interest. That's why it's very common. Sometimes we say that we do philosophy without knowing it, precisely because when we talk about important things for us, we are doing philosophy. And in ancient times this was still more common, despite having the Academy of Plato, the Lyceum of Aristotle, you have a whole philosophical line, a series of names that will do philosophy on the street, talking to people. And the Stoics did it like that too. I'm going to show you the

place here, more or less, just so we can have an idea. Here is a map, a reproduction of what would be the Agora of Athens. So here is Acropolis, which is where you will spend the next holiday. The one you are going to see here. And here today we have archaeological sites and temples, and you can see this construction here, which is Stoa, which is the place where the Stoics went. So it's a square, a public square, an open place. You have a place for the city's fire, you have a place for the god Jupiter,

you have several constructions. And here is the Agora, which is not the one in Athens, but it's more or less like that. A construction where paintings, sculptures, a place of art inside the square, and where the Stoics went. So you wanted to talk about life, you said, I wanted to say, this guy is in Stoa, this guy is in Stoa, this guy is in Stoa, he is a Stoic. And that's where the name came from. And it's a school of moral philosophy, which we call it. Right? Because its focus, one of its most important parts,

will be precisely to talk about the conduct of the human being. And this is very interesting, because little by little we return to philosophy as a rescue, right? Of conduct direction. When we do this, we say we are within the moral aspect, of the philosophical school. And in the case of the Stoics, they give a lot of emphasis to that. The moral part already explains why. So when we talk about Stoicism, which begins in Greece, it goes on, and after a while it enters Rome. We will talk about Roman Stoicism, specifically. And it enters at

this time here, more or less, at the end of the Republic, the entrance of the Empire. So what you have here at the end of the Republic, you begin to have the entrance of the Stoics within the Roman civilization. And what happened here for this? You see that Rome. There are three stages. Monarchy, Republic, Empire. And you have here, when the monarchy falls and enters the Republic, they have a very serious moral problem. And then the monarchy system falls, right? And the Republic enters. And this process repeats itself. I will describe the situation, you will

tell me that it is really impossible to conceive. Look, here at the end of the Roman Republic, they complained a lot about the politicians. They said that the politicians were stealing a lot of the beloved Rome. That they, deep down, didn't like the homeland anymore. That they were governing for their own interests. Some even stole. Can you imagine something like that? Guys, it's hard, but it has already happened. And in ancient Rome, look, in ancient Rome. It was a very complicated time at the end of the Republic. The politicians no longer had credibility, they fought

a lot for power. And you had a series of situations where you called a military dictator to defend Rome. And people started to say, I'm going to return power to corrupt people. So it was a very delicate situation. And because of that, what history is showing us, is that because of this moral decadence, the philosophies, the schools of moral philosophy, they rise. They become very interesting and very necessary. They are almost a remedy for a society's decadence. You see? It's almost like a reaction. So when Stoicism enters Rome, it enters more or less as a

reaction to a civilizatory decadence, a social decadence. And it's interesting, we study in our course, in the philosophy part of history, that history is cyclical. It usually repeats itself, sometimes with a slightly different face, but it usually repeats itself. And then I started to try to look on the internet for a cover of the magazine Stoède, some years ago. I didn't find the cover of the magazine, but there's no problem. I found many other things. Showing philosophy returning to our time. Have you noticed that a lot of people are talking about philosophy? It's very common.

It started with that, more Plato, less Przak, right? It started to become more common. Then, today we have many philosophers talking about ethics, mainly. Even because we lack a lot, right? So we talk a lot about the subject. And you see that the subjects addressed are 90% immoral. So I keep imagining, right? Maybe it's easy to understand why Rome went through that. Nowadays, we talk a lot about a loss of values, a very corrupt government, the impracticable country. And I keep imagining Cicero making his speeches, which later became known as the Catilinarias. He talks about

Catilina, who was a boy who stole a lot, a series of... misdeeds of conduct. And he says, Catilina, how long will we have to put up with you? You don't love Rome. How do you do that? You steal like that? So I can see his speech today in many people, right? In many of our speakers, many of our lawyers. We have similar speeches. So we can make an analogy of that historical moment when Stoicism entered Rome and the historical moment we have and this boom we are having of philosophy within its moral aspect. And why

does this happen? Because when there is a lot missing within civilization, we... we focus on the moral part and we let the metaphysics go. We talk a lot about the conduct part, but we are not necessarily deepening in metaphysics. So it's a risk we run. In Acropolis we always try to address both. Why? Because the metaphysical part will be... will talk about the causes, it's when Plato talks about the world of ideas, it's when you talk about the cause of the world, things, subjects that are not so fashionable. Now you talk about ethics, honesty, virtues,

it's super fashionable. So talking about Stoicism, you will see that it's talking a lot... The things Stoics talk about are very useful, not only for Stoics of the time, but for Rome of the time, for us today, and for sure for any civilization that goes through similar things to what we are going through today. Okay? So that's why the subject is interesting, that's why the subject is current, and it's worth studying, it's worth reading and rereading. Okay? So it's a school of moral philosophy, very much for the time of crisis, and metaphysics itself is a

little bit on the side, right? The interest of people is more for the moral than for the metaphysics, and it's a phenomenon that you can see in our society without much effort. Okay? So let's talk a little bit about Stoicism. How did I set it up? I set it up to talk about the principles of Stoicism, try to make us imagine a little how they think, and then some texts, some excerpts, so that we can exemplify these principles, right? So are you all ready to understand the head of the Stoic? Has everyone here heard of

the Stoics? Anything? Is anyone falling off a parachute? Like, my God, who is this man? No? Okay. No one is falling off a parachute. No, because sometimes it happens, right? We get to a lecture, I think I marked it, the thing is different. Let's go then. Principles of Stoicism. They have a first principle, it's an idea, a conception of the world. It's a assumption that they have to base all the thought itself and all the consequences that we will see. They will say that the universe is governed by a law. It's more or less like

this. You look at nature, you look at the facts, the facts of life are more complicated because they often seem random, right? But you look at nature, you look at life, a child developing, you imagine the world happening and they, like other schools of philosophy of the time, will comment that they didn't believe that this was by chance, that the things that happen in the world are done by chance, that they have an intentionality, that they have a purpose. So this law that rules all the world, it can be perceived in our lives. So the

idea is that you can see the existence of a universal law. It's interesting that nowadays a lot of physics looks for, I don't know how they call it, the law of everything, is that it? That it's the search for a law, the theory of everything, right? That explains all the phenomena, all the laws of the universe, all the laws of the universe, all the laws of the universe, all the laws that explain phenomena. So, they didn't get there. But what's interesting here? The idea that this is possible, the idea that you can conceive a law

that explains things. We work a lot on this in physics. When I see a physical phenomenon, we're talking about Newton's physics, when I see a physical phenomenon, I look for what behind? A law that explains that phenomenon, that explains what's happening, then something comes that I don't understand what the people do, look for some law that now explains the particles, the rooms, another type of physics being developed to explain the law that is behind another aspect of nature, so it's like we were always looking for this law that the Stoics left from the predisposition that

it exists, the difference here is that they do not restrict the physical things that can be explained, they thought that what we still couldn't explain was a matter of time, over time you will be able to explain, you will be able to find out what law is this, but that it would also be present in the facts of life, in the things that happen in my life, in the facts that happen in history, in a human group, so all of this would be together, right, behind me, right? all this a law, so far all right

with this idea? So they agreed to this predisposition that the universe is cosmos, Greek mythology said that at the beginning it was chaos and chaos was organized by divine thought and it became cosmos, what is the cosmos? It is the organization of chaos, this is the Greek vision that we have, but it exists because it is organized by some reference with some law, so this is the idea, it is nice for us to understand because it will explain a lot of the view of the Stoic forward, so we are governed here by this law, but

there is a detail in this law, they say that the law is fair, and here I can have a lot of people disagree, right, they say that the law is fair because this qua ncerance has anризon, because Logos is wonderful because it speaks to the cl Hashklit, mod сейчас é a rio do diagramальных e eu não Communication linguagem de Português it's important to understand these two,τά ensino de的話 que eles consideram essa lei just like the existence of everything,hemaer uma palavra ago que eu tenho que falar para você mas antes de eu falar a parte de

uma outra coisa para as experiences do course da lei que eu tenho é a lei que eu falava sobre a palavra that I believe 香港 tinhillet Vamos voltar ao local unknown and youh It's like you say, I'm going to organize the closet at home. To organize the closet at home, I'm going to look for a law, do you agree? Then there are the specialists, right? Then you can choose, there is an order, there is an organization. I'm going to put the colors here, I'm going to put by size, I don't know. We will choose a

pattern. Now, I'm going to clean my closet without any kind of justice, without any kind of law, I'm going to organize my closet unfairly, it will stay the way it is, it will not give me anything. It will be messy there, after all, do you agree? So when you talk about organization, naturally arises in the historian's head this idea of justice. So the law, in addition to existing in all environments, is a fair law. And then the historian's face begins. The historian is known for being a very strong person, very firm in his decisions and

in his postures. And here begins the idea of why he is like that. Because he believes that the law is fair. And if I believe that the law is fair, I develop a behavior of accepting things, of accepting things that happen in my life as being fair. So what is the first profile we see? The first profile is that the law does not waver. You know that thing like this? It doesn't. Why? Because he looks at a fact of life and he says, this happened according to a law. What does that mean? What am I

going to do from now on? We have a teacher, who is Professor Zé Henrique, who loves his classes, we laugh a lot. And he gives an example that I thought was the best. He says, you look at a universal law, you look at the universe, the whole universe is organized, the planets, the perfect galaxy, the planets in harmony, no one slams anyone, the perfect cycles, the distance from the sun, everything works. You get into the human body, a perfection, a harmony, the intelligence, the organisms, the health, everything is perfect, it is a wonderful law. But

when it came my turn, she made a mistake. In my turn, because I'm very unlucky, in my turn she makes a mistake. So she is fair to everyone, especially the neighbor, that guy who has everything, at work, that one is fair, but with me, with me she made a mistake. This is our reasoning. That the law is fair to everyone, but when it comes my turn, she is disorganized, she is unbalanced. That's why I complain. But Stokke didn't think so, he had a different idea, he thought that at his turn the law had been right

too. So if that happened in his life, there is a reason, and he will consider it fair. He will have what we call an active acceptance of things that happen in life. And why active? Because we will not be whining in the corners, we will do something. The problem is that you don't know if you can react if you don't accept. Have you ever tried to take care of someone who thinks he is not sick? It is an impossible mission. The person doesn't take medicine, doesn't get food, doesn't go to the bathroom, because she says

she is not sick. If she accepts that she is sick, does she accept that? It's not like, now I will get sick for the rest of my life. No, now she treats herself, now she takes care of herself. So it's more an acceptance, she is not going against the destiny and reacts faster. That's why the stock doesn't whine. He tries to look, accept and see what I can do from here. So the second principle of stoicism is the acceptance of destiny, an active acceptance. Then my question to you is this, what are you sure will

happen in your life? In a destiny, I hope, that is distant. You are very catastrophic today, but that's it. That's the only certainty we will have, do you agree? If I talk about accepting destiny, accepting the things that will happen, the only certainty I can start working on, that I will not make mistakes, is that I will die. The rest of it can happen, it can not happen. It may be that you get married, have children, don't have children, get rich, get poor, stay here, go to Portugal, anyway, anything can happen, I don't know. But

death, one day it will come, it's just a matter of time, right? It will appear. So the idea of death is very strong in the Stoics. They will look at death as an idea of something they are preparing for a long time to find. And this is a difficult topic today, because people don't like to talk about death. It seems that it brings bad luck, right? How was it for you, Elidio, who talked about death? I said, prepare yourself, prepare for death, leave me out of it. Because people don't like to talk about the subject,

as if it were to disappear. If it disappeared, people, I wouldn't give this lecture. If I stop talking about death, guarantee that I will live forever, I change the subject, no problem at all. But it doesn't work like that. So we avoid an extremely important topic in the idea that if I talk about it, it will attract, it will bring bad luck. And this gives a civilizing idea a little bad. Some civilizations, like Egypt, that's why I pulled that image, worked in a very interesting way with the idea of death, too. You prepare for the

moment of death, as a moment of death, as a counselor. Death is an excellent counselor, I just don't advise you to call too much, to give too much, because it is very hard. But she is an excellent counselor. If you want to know if something is really valid or not, just send her a zap, she answers quickly if that has value or not. Agree? What is really valuable in the face of death? Oh, nothing, no, it's nothing. Some things do. Some things are very valid, even in the face of death. And these things, it's like

if death helped us to see them before dying, because it takes time. Do you understand the strategy? It takes time. If you leave it there, it will be more difficult. But we can do this exercise before. So, learning to deal with the idea of death, in fact, is to value your own life. If I ask you, for what are you willing to die? I ask, are you willing to die for what? I'll let you think while I'm dying. Let me see if you are thinking, because the faces change. To die for what? How so? Do

you agree that, regardless of the answer you give me, it will be the same answer to this other question, for what do you live? For what do you live? For what do you live? For what do you live? For what do you live? It will be the same answer. Now, if I have nothing to die for, something I am willing to sacrifice, I probably don't have anything that I am willing to live for. So, there are two sides of the same coin. So, I have nothing, but I have nothing to die for. So, the importance

is, if you ask one, you find the other. And then you value life. The correct way to deal with death is to value life. It's not a funeral idea, that we will be pessimistic, things like that. On the contrary, Egypt was well known for being extremely happy, colorful, party, we think that Bahia knows how to party, they learned from the Egyptians, right? They were very happy. And they were extremely connected to funeral rites, to the question of death. So, the story also rescues this vision. Accepting fate, and in a way, accepting death. So, the subject

is always close. Then I brought here a passage by Marco Aurelio, who was a Roman emperor and who wrote a diary. And he writes this diary, which is later published with the name of Meditations, which are excerpts, they are not just a book, they are thoughts. It's like his diary, which he wrote during the war, which he wrote for himself, that's why the book is interesting, because it's not a book for others, it's a book he wrote for himself. And he puts some things that are typical of the stoic thought. He is considered a stoic

philosopher, not just an emperor. He was a Roman emperor. Look at this acceptance. From the dawn of the day, I say to you, today I will find an ungrateful, an insolent, an unloyal, an envious, an selfish. The person leaves the house satisfied with the idea. We think it won't happen to us, because we don't accept things. How many times do we leave the house today and manage to walk in traffic without taking a bus, without honking? It's going to be different. Today there won't be traffic, today everyone will be calm. He already starts to assume

that you will find these people. All this occurs to them because they don't know the nature of good and evil. The one who makes mistakes is also my brother. We were created to cooperate like two feet, hands and eyes. To act against each other as enemies is against nature. So what does he put? He puts an idea of acceptance of the fact and of people. Why? Because they are all human beings. So, because they are human beings, I would have to understand them. I would have to understand them. Right? Another interesting thing I put here

too, he talks about fame. Who knows her? There are a lot of people who look at her and say she is a woman. She is a woman. And the woman is very famous, wonderful. And nowadays, most of the people you ask really don't know her. Who knows her understands, who doesn't know her says you really don't know her. He always thinks about the speed in which things fall into oblivion. Like fame. And the abyss of the past and future. Notice how the echoes of applause are gone. And the lack of discernment of the admirers and

the narrow limits of human glory. For the whole Earth is but one point. So he talks about the idea of a passing life. Of something that is small. And we are looking for applause in life. And then, soon after, it will be forgotten. This is a very stoic mentality. Very stoic. Right? So, people tell me that when there were Roman triumphs, if you go to see Hollywood movies, they show some of them, that he goes to that biga, and there is a citizen behind him, holding the laurels of victory. Yes, yes. Then they say that

he kept saying to the emperor, you are human. You are human. You are only human. You are only a human being. Because imagine the emperor of Rome, boy, come on, everyone, that glory, applause. Success is easy to climb the head. I know people who feel the maximum for much less. So it's like if it were, it passes. Why? Because death is right. It will come, these things have very little value. Ok? So there, another view of the Stoics. An idea that passing things they really have a very small value. And the third principle, then, within

Stoicism, is to live or live according to nature. People say, hey, let's go to the waterfall. Brazilians always want to go to the waterfall. Let's go to the waterfall to live according to nature. That's not it. The Greeks had an idea that things define themselves by what they have only of them. So if I want to define a human being, I would have to discover something that only the human being has. And then, I live according to nature, which is living according to human nature. That is, not to live like an animal. Not to live

like a plant. There are many people who are very plant. I don't say that there are people who are stone because people are offended. That thing standing there, that doesn't leave the place. This is more difficult. But plant everyone thinks it's cute. But plant wants what? Expand. Energy wants to expand. Grow. How many people have plant projects? Sometimes we go to a professional career and it's almost a plant. With a lot of flowers. So the question is what is the nature of man? What is typical of the human being? That's the question. And according to

this, I will save my life. And then they answer, I will save you. They will say that human nature is human reason. Because what is the part that I have that characterizes me as a human being? Use reason. Reason is not thinking. Because thinking, thinking alone, then those things start. Animals when they make some kind of instrument to hunt, right? The most classic example we have is the monkey that makes that rod to catch ants. There is some kind of thinking there, do you agree? My sister's dog is super intelligent. Who here doesn't know an

intelligent dog? He says, this one thinks. So it's not that. I'm not discussing this point. But there are points that are human. The dog questions itself the meaning of life probably if he is not doing it. When he is there looking, calm, calm. He is not thinking about it. The meaning, the reason of being, the reason of things happening in the life of the dog, the poor puppy. So the reason is not just thinking. All right? Then in the course we can talk more about what the reason is in fact, which is a very interesting

subject. But it's not just thinking. It's how to think, from what to think, how to structure the subjects we think about. Because if I only think about food, about survival, I think like an animal. It doesn't matter if my survival is of a mark or not. It's on the plane, it's on the satellite. It doesn't matter. I'm thinking about things that are not exactly human. Okay? So the use of reason would be human nature. So we will say that we should live according to our nature. Which is human nature, which is the reason. Because it

is the only one capable of bringing us happiness. And here it is cool, because we think that reason is a hindrance. Someone will think too much, will be very unhappy. That's why many people don't do philosophy. This is opposition intrigue. It's not true. You can think as much as you want, you will be very happy. It doesn't spoil anything. But do you agree that there is this idea? That someone thinks too much, it will spoil. We think that it makes things difficult, that it takes away the taste of things. So we have an idea of

thinking almost negative. And here, what are they doing? They are associating their happiness with the use of reason. I will give you an example. The last time you had a very serious problem, very serious, remember? That serious one, you didn't know why it had happened. That thing of, my God, what is this? How do I do it? Remember? Just one, guys. When you understood that and found an answer, wasn't it good? Wasn't it good? When you managed to solve it, when you managed to understand the why, wasn't it good? When you understood that you were

happy, understanding life brings a lot of happiness. Understanding life brings a lot of happiness. Understanding life needs reason. And this is typical of human nature. So, if you don't want to be happy, use reason. Live according to human nature. So these are the three principles. We have a fair law, governing things. All the things that happen come from this fair law. So I have a law, a position of active acceptance of my destiny, and I live according to nature. That is, from the moment I live according to human nature, now I am able to live

according to my principles. Because they are the fruits of human reason. I am able to live from my virtues and my values. Now the stoic was a big shot. He was already fast, he didn't flutter, now he was a big shot. Why? Because this is right and I will do it this way because it is right. So, do you see how he builds that stoic figure? A strong, firm, determined figure, excellent for the Roman Empire. It is no wonder that he enters there as a solution within the decadence that the Roman Empire lived. Ok? And

why did I put a Japanese garden here? I have to explain these things. Why did I put the little garden here? Because a Japanese garden is not with the idea of embellishing, it is not exactly the same idea as a garden of bursaries. A garden, a botanical garden, as we have. The Japanese garden is a constant exercise of will over nature. That's why it is so perfect. The whole grass, it is as if he were saying, I have something that is wild, because if he leaves it, it is not wild. The things grow, the roots

break everything. So it is the constant power of the human being, of the human will, of the human reason, working with nature, giving shape, giving beauty, giving harmony to something that is wild. This is the man using his reason. When you do something like that, you are not living according to nature, like, ah, leave it there, right? Let the garden grow, that's not it. What are you doing? You are using your reason, your aesthetics, your harmony and your will to make what is wild now beautiful, human, captivating, beautiful, like this. This is living according to

nature. To tame this nature, wild with human reason. That's why I put the Japanese garden here, to inspire us. Right? So, on top of these three principles, I brought one of the works that I find most interesting, if anyone wants to start, that is Seneca and about the brevity of life. I usually joke saying that it is philosophical foundations for time management. If you want to do some course of time management and you are unmotivated, read this book. You will quickly want to discover how we use our time better, right? And it is, then, by

Seneca, and it is going to talk about the brevity of life. It is a set of letters that are written between Seneca and his father-in-law, and he is trying to convince his father-in-law to be a philosopher. Smart! So, they are several letters, in fact, that came together and assembled as this book, because they speak precisely about the brevity of life. And Seneca will tell them precisely that it is worth dedicating to philosophy, which is a way to enjoy time very well. Then I took a series of passages to give us an analysis. And the first

is this one. You must learn to live for all your life, and no matter how much you may be a spant, all your life is a learning to die. For a Stoic, to die of fright is complete and total defeat. You know, that one where we say, oh, that guy died sleeping, he didn't feel anything, he didn't even see. A Stoic would be crying for him, and he would challenge him. He would say, how come? He prepared his whole life, and when it came to death, he didn't realize. Oh my God, you can't! Bring him

back, so we can do the right thing. Because they had the idea that death is a almost initiatory moment. It is a unique moment. And it really is, it is the closing of an existence. Plato used to say that you can only honor people after they died. Like giving the name of a bridge, putting a bust, because it is possible that the person dies in a way contrary to everything he said. So it is better to wait a little, then when the person closes, then you can honor. Why? Because it is a closing. And in

this closing moment of our existence, we have already passed the rule, closed the account. We no longer have to wear masks. We will not take refuge in a search for a future that will no longer exist, we know. Do you understand? We are obliged to deal with the purest of our conscience, as much as we can. It does not mean that we will be able to do the right thing, but that we will have this moment. The more we can be conscious in this moment, the better, because you prepared for it. And that moment will

show deep down who you are and what you actually did. That little movie, people say it goes through. I liked it, I liked it. Because it's just the things that mark the moment, right? So, learning to live is similar to learning to die. Then he will talk about the brevity of life, which is the title of the book. So he says, it is not short the time we have, but of it, we lose a lot. Life is long enough and with generosity it was given to us for the realization of the greatest things if we

employ it well. So we can say that life is short. I will say, it is not short, it is in the right size. The law is not fair, It is in the right size. But you have to know how to use it. If you use it badly, anything is little. And if it were really little, there is one more reason for us to use it better. If you are in the middle of the desert and you only have a bottle of water, do you agree that you have to use this resource very well? Because it

is little. So if life is really short, one more reason to use it in an even more conscious way. You say, it is not short, but you have to know how to use it. Then he continues, right? But when it goes to luxury, indifference, when we do not employ it in anything good, then finally constrained by fatality, we feel that it has already passed through us without us having noticed it. Then comes that damn cry. Oh, but I wanted it longer. He says, constrained, it is as if we were caught in the middle of the

road. But I thought it was more than 230 years. But the deal was not that. The deal was like this, right? Average of 80, 90, you can get to 100 and a little, but 230 will not work. We work as if we had a lot, he says, we treat as scammers the only resource that we know that ends. Because I can generate more money, do you agree? It does not need to end. How do I generate more time? It's 24 hours every day, it's over, the day is over, you can not accumulate, you can not

apply, you can not generate profits, there is no, he is that, you understand? He is scarce, and he is short, and he is small, and we use as if it never ended. That's why he says, we are caught constrained by fatality. I did not expect. And we do not wait because we do not think. We do not think, we do not prepare. When we prepare, we prepare more in relation to retirement, to resources, not to spend the need, to have money for medical needs that can come with age. We prepare more in this sense, but

not for death. In death, we hardly stop to prepare. Oops! Was this one? This one, right? If each one knew how many years he has left, he would surely take advantage of it in another way. But it is more difficult to take advantage of it without knowing how many years are left. Here, who has already accompanied people with terminal diseases, fatal diseases, when the person knows the time of life that she has, usually, she turns around, she does not stay the same person, regardless of the reaction she has, but it is very strong, the knowledge.

And even so, people say, how many people are disbelieved that they will be cured later, it is not even possible to know. But the feeling is very much this. In this case, nothing is worth the prudence that accumulates things to live better, thinking about the future in which we cannot do what we want, a future that may not come, we waste the present. The best time, the best day is this one that is happening now. Because if we talk about the future, today life is very difficult, a little upset, a little depressed, but there is

no problem, in five years everything will be fine, because I will have done this, I will be fine. Who says you will last five years? Ah, no, but... Ah, no, no, we do not know. So this is the first point, we do not know if you will have these five years. And the other is the following, if we cannot be happy now, which is what he is talking about, the best moment, which is this one now, we will also not know how to be happy in the future. Because it is a learning. If you want

a happy future, learn to be happy now, because this is the way, I will give a tip that is worth gold, worth gold. If you want to guarantee a happy future, the only way is a happy present. It is the only way to guarantee. If you are happy now, you have a chance to guarantee your happiness in five years. But it has to be now, it is not worth it to be tomorrow morning when I wake up. It has to be now, you are sitting here in this chair. Now, you know? It is not when

I leave, no. Because if it is not now, who guarantees that something will happen at night? Do you understand? So this idea of giving value in the present, not waiting for a future that we do not know if it will come, that he is putting there. Then he puts here, look, everyone rushes their lives and suffers for the desire of the future and for the boredom of the present. The future will be so good, that I start to find the present boring. I want so many things ahead that I pass not being able to give

value for now. I put my head in, dear, dying of boredom. Another thing he says is, let's do it in a way that, like precious stones, our life is worth not for its duration, but for its weight. So, depending on how long it lasts, because the things we do have weight and this is really worth it. There is a part of the book where he is talking to the father-in-law and then the father-in-law says that life is short, a young man, so they are there debating. Then he says, look, that's why it is good to

do philosophy, because when you do philosophy, you bring together your life and the history of all the great men of humanity. So you don't have only your age. Imagine us now, with more than two thousand years, you don't have only your age, you have your age and that of so-and-so. He starts to describe the great names of the Roman thinkers, of so-and-so, of Beltrano. All your life experience adds up to the history of humanity. That's why you are neither old nor new. I say, if one day you feel sad, don't worry. Think that we sit

down and talk about philosophy. I like this image. That you are sitting talking about philosophy, about life, about history, about things, and suddenly our life expands and it is no longer short. It is actually now temporary. This is a very beautiful vision that Seneca says that we can achieve through this idea of philosophy. I close our lecture with an idea by Marco Aurelio, which is a very misunderstood phrase. There is a statue of Marco Aurelio in Rome. The little animal is very misunderstood, that's why I like to close with it. Live today as if it

were the last day of your life. A Stoic would say, forget it, today is the last day, let's do what we want. I'll go to the bakery, I'll talk about what I never said, I'll do what I never did. Is that what he is saying? With the face of a Stoic. There is even a little samba, that the world is not over yet. She said that the world was going to end, then everyone did what they wanted, then the world did not end, the next day everyone is like my God, what now? It's not an

idea that we can do anything because as it ended, we have no consequence of anything. The idea of ​​living today as if it were the last day is because if you think about the last day of your life, if it were in fact, what would you be doing? Then normally, I would apologize to someone, I would see my mother, I would do something else, so why not do it? If you think that on the last day of your life, you regret so much what you did, then solve it. Because this day will come. If you

think that this will cause a problem there, will it get in the way? Solve it. So this is the last day of life, it's like someone says, the most important things must be done today. So obviously we can't do only the most important things, we have to survive, we have to work, we have to eat, the boss has to go, we have to do trivial things. But at some point, we have to know that all these trivial things are done so that the important things can be done. We have to be healthy, we have to

have a place to live, we have to have resources, so that we can have an existence that gives answers. Trivial things, they don't exist by themselves, they don't make sense by themselves. They exist so that we can be in existence, be in existence, and have the answers that are really important. So when we say, today would be the last day of my life, how would I live? What state of consciousness would I want to have? Would I be annoyed by the things that I'm annoyed with? Wouldn't I be sorry for something that nowadays takes me

seriously? If today were the last day, would this really have value? But don't always do it, because we're all crazy, do it too much, just once in a while. So that we can really have this value again. Because the experience is very heavy, because we see that our life is very superficial. And few are the things that really are worth it. So let's see how much before, just to try to change, and start doing the things that really matter. This is our goal, with the Philosophy School, with the Philosophy Course. So I'm going to open

now to your questions, and if you can answer here, I'll be available. Remembering that we have the class on the last day of the month, on the last Monday of the month, a Philosophy Course class. Who liked it, will surely like the course. So you can come, meet the teachers, attend the first class. And who can't, on Tuesday, in August, we will also have an open class. And our goal is to show the philosophy view that New Acropolis proposes, precisely for you to be able to learn more about it. That's the idea. So we'll go

deep and we can talk.