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Sherman: Stoic resilience uses conditional clauses to avoid rigid attachment

Nancy Sherman · #126 Nancy Sherman: Soldiers and Stoics · Dec 14, 2021 · at 43:23

Nancy Sherman, a philosopher and expert on Stoic ethics, explains the Stoic concept of mental reservation (the reserve clause) to host Shane Parrish on The Knowledge Project.

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“The Stoics sort of have this idea that you put this little if clause, we're going to do it unless, or if it doesn't, and you're going to be really responsive to what the conditions are in that clause, such that if things change, you're going to change your intention. That's pretty resilient because back to our earlier conversation, it means you're not going to get stuck on an attachment to a certain object of desire or pleasure or object of loss”

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