Sam asked:

I would like to know how relevant is the Stoic approach to life, in the world today?

============

The Stoic approach to life is as relevant as it ever was. Early Stoics took virtues such as endurance,
self-reliance and simple habits as duties by which man can overcome pain. This is difficult to live by
because it doesn't take account of man's emotional nature and his frailty.

The later Stoic, Seneca, accepted human frailty and if you read his letters you will find them dense
with words of wisdom on death, pain and sickness, friendship and pleasure. He didn't preach fortitude
but saw philosophy as a way of consolation and his letters are full of advice. An example is that you
will suffer personal pain if you live only for yourself, but if you live for others and their friendship you
will not have personal setbacks. On death and the loss of friends he says "Thinking of departed
friends is to me something sweet and mellow. For when I had them with me it was with the feeling
that I was going to lose them and now that I have lost them I keep the feeling that I have them with
me still".

Philosophy as wisdom and consolation doesn't have a place in philosophy today, and Seneca
wouldn't like analytical philosophy. He thought logic was "childish fatuity" and wrote scornfully that
"one is led to believe that unless one has constructed syllogisms of the craftiest kind and reduced
fallacies to a compact form in which a false conclusion is derived from a true premise one will not be
in a position to distinguish what one should aim for and what one should avoid."

Rachel Browne