Stoicism has lived more than two millennia, with the best evidence of its survival being recent books about how to maintain tranquility in the face of turmoil. Despite its staying power, Stoicism has had to fend off several criticisms. For one, some read Stoicism as recommending a life of apathy or indifference to circumstances, including the pain of others. If you cannot alleviate the suffering of another human being, even a child, you should not feel awful. If you did what you could to help but failed, then what happened was meant to be. So Seneca, the Stoic philosopher, said pity is not a virtue but a “mental defect.” As quoted by Bertrand Russell in A History of Western Philosophy, Seneca said:

Pity is the sorrow of the mind brought about by sight of the distress or sadness caused by the ills of others which it believes comes undeservedly. But no sorrow befalls the wise man.

This led Bertrand Russell, surely one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century, to conclude that there is “a certain coldness in the Stoic conception of virtue. Not only bad passions are condemned but all passions.”

One of the reasons that Stoicism had such appeal for 500 years was that it coincided with the Christian tradition, even as it was waning as a philosophical movement. Stoicism provided comfort for the Christians, who were under the yoke of a cruel and corrupt Roman government. Like the Stoics, the Christians could derive freedom from detachment, since they knew that the pains of this world are ultimately insignificant in the course of eternity. A purpose can be found in even the most horrible of evils.