Has anybody else picked this up yet? It’s really done a number on me. Prior to reading it I would consider myself a Stoic. One of my central philosophies being that “The choices I make define who I am”.
So obviously being told that my choices were never even mine to begin with was kind of a slap in the face.
It rings true though. The choices we make at any given time are a result of our genetics, or environment, the media we’ve consumed, how tired we are…
I’m not a stranger to the concept of Ego death but it had been a hot minute since I thought about it.
Free will and personal agency are not mutually exclusive; they should not be understood synonymously. If you identified as a Stoic, then you should recall how a deterministic metaphysics was made compatible with the freedom to choose as a personal agent. It’s actually one the cleverest and most elegant developments offered by Stoic philosophy.