Any Philosophy Majors in the House?

(Don't know if this is the right forum... The topic certainly doesn't seem like a "chit-chat" kinda thing... but I'm flexible. )

I'm curious if we've any philosophy majors here...

I'm trying to understand Stoicism, with the intent to find "Senecan tags" (as a few essays/websites put it) in Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'. (My ultimate intent is to understand Stoicism enough to not only pick the ideas out of the play, but to use that understanding in my re-telling of 'Macbeth', to show his mis-steps in logic (or at least make the mis-steps apparent to the reader without going into pages of exposition...))

Right now, I'm re-reading the Stoicism article from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

I wish to start a discussion, if possible. (I'm reading, but my brain doesn't quite understand what the sum total of the words mean, if that makes any sense.)

For example: If I said, "Action X has been fated, and so it is proper for me to do it" -- would that be a (correct) Stoic line?


I'll post back later when I come up with more questions... my brain takes awhile to sift through the information and become discontent with this or that idea.

So I must offer my apologies, as it's difficult to start a discussion with little to nothing on the table.

*BUMP*


Not a single person who's read or knows anything about Stoicism?

I find it hard to believe that on such a big site, there's not one philosopher... (I don't count myself, as I'm a tyro who managed to pull a minor outta her butt!! )