A Stoic Approach To Envy
Since many of you asked, I decided to deliver. As a sequel to my video about jealousy, let’s talk about envy. What is envy? How should we handle it? What can we learn from the Stoics in regards to envy? And is it really a bad thing?
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Now, let’s dive in. I’ve previously discussed jealousy and proposed several solutions based on the works by Stoic philosophers Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and Seneca. There’s a difference between jealousy and envy. The first one comes from a fear of losing something or someone to another person. The second one is the desire for something that belongs to someone else, like a car, a house, looks, and social status.
In a general sense, I’d go along with the consensus that envy isn’t a good thing. But it’s a bit more complicated. If we narrow it down, we see that envy is a form of desire, specifically focused on things that belong to other people. Desire means that we want to reach out for something that we consider as desirable, thus, as something we want for ourselves.
When the thing we’re envious of is something external, like someone else’s money, partner, car, job, et cetera, we desire pleasure rather than happiness. The focus of our envy is directed towards what the Stoics call ‘preferred indifferents’, which are nice to have but not necessary for happiness. Moreover, external things are not in our control; they could be taken away in a heartbeat, which makes them unreliable and weak.
When we’re envious about something internal, like the virtuous actions of someone else and their inner peace and happiness, it might be a sign that we have work to do on ourselves. Needless to say: the Stoics would encourage the desire of being virtuous. Paradoxically, when we pursue virtue and strengthen our own faculties, we’re likely to get rid of envy altogether.
As Epictetus stated: "You may be unconquerable, if you enter into no combat in which it is not in your own control to conquer. When, therefore, you see anyone eminent in honors, or power, or in high esteem on any other account, take heed not to be hurried away with the appearance, and to pronounce him happy; for, if the essence of good consists in things in your own control, there will be no room for envy or emulation." End quote.
Unfortunately, some people cling to envy so much that they engage in immoral behavior like stealing, infidelity, and even murder. In the Old Testament and the Quran, we find a story about the rivalry between the brothers Cain & Abel; sons of Adam & Eve. Cain was a farmer and Abel was a shepherd. Cain offered God a part of his crops, while Abel offered God the firstlings of his flock. Cain killed his brother after God accepted Abel’s offerings while He rejected his.
The ancient scriptures don’t explicitly mention envy, but interpretations of this story magnify the theme of envious rivalry between siblings, which is quite common to this day. However, the ancient scriptures don’t mention why God did this: was He capricious and treated Cain and Abel differently for no reason? This could be the case.
Another possibility is that Abel acted more virtuously, by giving God the best of his flock as well as a blood offering, while Cain’s offerings were of lesser quality. Interestingly enough, both scenarios are great starting points to look at envy from a Stoic point of view, and use them as metaphors for dealing with envy in our daily lives.
The first scenario is that Abel indeed acted more in a virtuous way and was, therefore, rewarded by God. In this case, we can see the blood offering by Abel as a metaphor for what the Stoics would call an act of virtue. According to the Stoics, virtue leads to eudaimonia, which can be translated as human flourishing or, simply, happiness.
Thus, we could say that Cain was envious of Abel…