"Philosopher Scott LeBaron has pointed out that ancient thinkers understood that viewing the natural order as well-designed has a tactical, therapeutic value: a world that is too harsh would be unexplainable. Accordingly, the Stoic Epictetus asks: Has rationality been given us by the gods for misery and unhappiness, for us to spend our lives in sorrow? He prods us to answer "no.""
"The Stoics took it upon themselves to answer, but their effort at explanation stops short of others. They do not suggest we should rejoice in the idea that loved ones might make it to heaven; they do not offer a cosmology in which our loved ones return to the world over and over. Instead, the Stoics emphasize that loss is part of nature's order. It is capable of devastating us, but it is not evil."
Ancient thinkers noted that seeing the natural order as well-designed reduces existential harshness and has therapeutic value. Epictetus challenges the idea that reason was given for suffering and urges rejection of a life spent in sorrow. Stoics explain loss as part of nature's order: devastating but not evil, not resulting from human fault or divine cruelty. Many lives include the deaths of closest loved ones, such as children and spouses, which raises questions about design. Grief stems from beliefs that treat attachments as essential goods. Stoic practice seeks to uncover and revise those mistaken beliefs rather than suppress emotion, to mitigate destructive grief.
Read at Psychology Today
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