Sociological Stoicism

In Matters of Faith: Christianity vs. Stoicism

Adam Smith's Stoicism and Self-command

With different nuances, the Stoics’ influence on Adam Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment is generally taken for granted. The many references to the Stoics, mainly in Smith’s TMS, and the importance of this classical tradition within the Scottish Enlightenment, have led scholars to acknowledge this apparently obvious influence. However, this influence is at times more elusive than obvious. If ...

Sociological Marxism

From the middle of the 19 century until the last decade of the 20, the Marxist tradition provided the most systematic body of ideas and social theory for radical critics of capitalism as an economic system and social order. Even those critics of capitalism who did not directly identify with Marxism relied heavily on Marxist ideas about class, exploitation, commodification, the state, ideology. ...

Stoicism, the physician, and care of medical outliers

BACKGROUND Medical outliers present a medical, psychological, social, and economic challenge to the physicians who care for them. The determinism of Stoic thought is explored as an intellectual basis for the pursuit of a correct mental attitude that will provide aid and comfort to physicians who care for medical outliers, thus fostering continued physician engagement in their care. DISCUSSION...

Sociological Rational Choice Theory

Although rational choice theory has made considerable advances in other social sciences, its progress in sociology has been limited. Some sociologists’ reservations about rational choice arise from a misunderstanding of the theory. The first part of this essay therefore introduces rational choice as a general theoretical perspective, or family of theories, which explains social outcomes by cons...