Star Wars and Philosophy (Popular Culture and Philosophy Series) - Kevin Decker [13]
Clearly Yoda has many Stoic traits. Yoda is free from the emotions that subvert reason. Yoda is not reckless or impatient, as Luke is at first. Nor is Yoda frivolous. Like a Stoic, Yoda never becomes perturbed or excited. Most significantly, Yoda does not succumb to anger. The ancient Roman Stoic Seneca (ca. 3- ca. 65 C.E.) called anger “the most hideous and frenzied of all the emotions.” Seneca thought angry people were insane, saying of anger:
Oblivious of decency, heedless of personal bonds, obstinate and intent on anything once started, closed to reasoning or advice, agitated on pretexts without foundation, incapable of discerning fairness or truth, it most resembles those ruins which crash in pieces over what they have crushed.25
Yoda also exhibits the positive emotions allowed to a Stoic. Since Yoda doesn’t fear, get angry, or hate, he doesn’t suffer. Yoda concentrates on what is up to him and what he can do in the present. He thus enjoys impassivity, the lack of disturbing passions the Stoics called apatheia. Yoda is calm and even-tempered. He can tell the difference between the good and bad sides of the Force, and knows what is good, what is bad, and what is neither. Knowing that only virtue is good, only vice is bad, and everything else is really indifferent to one’s happiness is the heart of Stoic wisdom.
Yoda is also benevolent and cautious. His quirky humor displays a quasi-Stoic joy. His odd wit and unusual pattern of speech humanize him by tempering his seriousness. One of the ancient Greek names for the Stoic sage is spoudaios, which means “serious person.” Perfecting one’s mind by conditioning it to make only rational judgments about all things that occur is a very serious business that requires commitment. The Stoics called this arduous training and disciplined practice askêsis (from which we get the word “ascetic,” a person devoted to austere self-discipline). Yoda too displays the virtue of commitment and lives an ascetic lifestyle in both his sparse quarters in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and his simple mud-hut on Dagobah.
The Stoics believed that the wise man, the virtuous person, was as rare as the phoenix, due to the difficulty of disciplining oneself to make consistently rational judgments. Such mental discipline, they thought, required an entire life to cultivate. That is why the Stoics distinguished between those who are simply vicious and those who are making progress toward virtue, though still suffering from vice. Even if becoming a sage turns out to be unachievable over the course of an entire life, progress toward this ideal state is possible. Someone who is progressing toward virtue they called a “progressor.” Similarly, Luke can be seen as a “progressor.” He is an apprentice—first of Obi-Wan, then of Yoda—as he strives to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi.
To recap, the virtues the Jedi shares with the Stoic sage are patience, timeliness, deep commitment, seriousness (as opposed to frivolity), calmness (as opposed to anger or euphoria), peacefulness (as opposed to aggression), caution (as opposed to recklessness), benevolence (as opposed to hatred), joy (as opposed to sullenness), passivity (as opposed to agitation), and wisdom. Given all these virtues, Yoda certainly resembles what the ancient Stoics described as the sage—the ideal person who has perfected his reason and achieved complete wisdom. In contrast with Luke’s youth and inexperience, Yoda has had over eight centuries to study and attune himself to the Force.
The perfection of the Stoic sage’s character in his human reason mirrors the perfection of all of Nature, which the Stoics believed was coherently structured through and through. The sage acts in accord with and accepts events that occur in the world since his personal reason and his will harmonize with cosmic reason and fate. The sage understands the principles of regularity by which the universe operates. His knowledge of Nature thus guides his conduct. Is this similar to following the Force?
Yoda says that life creates the Force and makes