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The Only Certainty Is Uncertainty Itself | Gene Nasser | TEDxEdisonHighSchool
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Dr. Gene Nasser is a history teacher at Edison High School. With a PhD in
philosophy, he is passionate about stoicism, the ancient Roman concept of focusing
on the present rather than dwelling on the past. In this talk, Dr. Nasser reminds
us of the benefits of stoicism, considering the mental stress of the pandemic.
Eugene Nasser has been a history teacher at Edison High School for fifteen years
and also teaches philosophy at Middlesex County College. He spends his free time
reading, writing, and playing disc golf. This talk was given at a TEDx event using
the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn
more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
Transcript

00:00
[Music]
00:14
we're going to take a look tonight at a
00:16
little bit of
00:17
philosophy and how philosophy might be
00:19
able to help us
00:20
cope with the inherent uncertainty
00:22
that's out in the world we
00:24
got the coronavirus just to kind of
00:27
go through this one last time um you
00:30
know uh
00:31
hopefully we can start putting this
00:32
behind this this virus but
00:34
you know once the virus set in and it
00:36
became sort of the new normal for
00:37
society
00:39
um the uncertainty just kind of
00:42
went up in volume right so it was i mean
00:45
look at the date december 2019
00:47
this is when the coronavirus became a
00:49
global pandemic
00:50
and you can see a picture there sort of
00:52
the new normal if you will
00:54
um face mask gloves
00:58
hand sanitizer right these things are
00:59
still with us right now we got a double
01:01
mask
01:02
to get to get the numbers where we want
01:03
them right um and you can see the
01:05
coronavirus a picture of it right there
01:07
and so this little you know
01:09
this virus is throwing the world to
01:11
quite a quite a
01:12
different trajectory right and so we
01:15
start to wake up every day
01:16
and the first thought that's you know
01:19
was on my mind for sure you know
01:21
how and when will this end you know we
01:23
know we know we have vaccines
01:26
so we know how it's going to end right
01:28
we've got great vaccines out there
01:30
tremendous efficacy rates right
01:33
but still the uncertainty
01:36
lingers and so when is it going to be a
01:39
return of some normality
01:41
when can i go to the movies again right
01:43
these kinds of questions
01:44
and so what i wanted the argument i want
01:47
to make and what i want to submit to
01:48
everyone is that no matter
01:49
when a more certain future arrives
01:52
some aspects of life will nevertheless
01:54
remain the same
01:56
so as chaotic as things are now there
01:58
there are some things that just will
01:59
not change for us
02:03
and one thing that will not change
02:07
they'll still be uncertain so
02:10
it's a little little bit of descartes
02:11
here if you're willing to philosophy but
02:14
um you know i think therefore i am or i
02:17
doubt therefore i exist
02:18
so the twist on that is the only
02:20
certainty is the uncertainty itself
02:24
even with vaccines even with a return to
02:27
a different world than we live now
02:29
it's still going to be modified and
02:30
won't be exactly the same
02:32
um social fabric is completely different
02:36
because of pandemics right history
02:38
merits this out
02:39
and we can look at economic data right
02:41
now and
02:42
just see the way society's being changed
02:44
politically
02:45
to all right so all these different
02:47
facets and
02:49
still even you know despite all these
02:51
things it's going to be changed
02:52
it's still going to be uncertain we
02:54
don't necessarily know how
02:55
things will be different in the future
02:57
just that they will be different
02:58
and this can make us very very anxious
03:01
about the future itself
03:03
and so what we would like to do is we
03:07
want to ask
03:07
questions that will help us retain power
03:10
and cope with this uncertainty
03:12
the same very thing that we're doing
03:14
right now at this great ted tax talk
03:16
right
03:17
and so when we start to ask ourselves
03:19
these questions about the future about
03:21
what's you know what's in our control
03:23
what's outside our control
03:25
we soon find out that much of what's
03:27
happening just like the pandemic itself
03:29
is outside of our control
03:31
and the pandemic maybe kind of shifts
03:33
our focus
03:34
onto other aspects of our life that
03:36
aren't in our control on a day-to-day
03:38
basis
03:40
and so when we start to ask these
03:42
questions
03:43
and really sort of dig into what is
03:46
making us
03:47
feel this anxiety um
03:50
the mere fact that we are sitting down
03:52
thinking about them
03:54
becomes a sort of meditation
03:55
intellectual rumination is a type of
03:57
meditation
03:59
you slow your mind down by asking
04:02
questions
04:03
what's important what's not what can i
04:05
control but can't i control right
04:08
and this has a common effect
04:11
and so i would like to ask everyone
04:14
right
04:15
just recall the past experience
04:18
where you had to put reason in charge so
04:21
this could you know when it's going to
04:22
be different for everyone um
04:26
so it could be a position where you were
04:29
uh
04:29
with your parents and they're you know
04:31
you did something wrong or there's a
04:32
misunderstanding your parents are kind
04:34
of
04:34
really coming at you and they you know
04:36
they're going to discipline you and
04:37
you're like
04:39
you know that they're kind of wrong and
04:40
you're right but you don't say anything
04:42
because it's not going to change
04:44
anyone's mind or
04:46
you're at a job and you've got this real
04:47
annoying co-worker
04:49
but you need to you need this job and
04:52
there's plenty of times that you just
04:54
want to yell at this co-worker but you
04:56
can't
04:56
reason's got to get in charge and you
04:58
can't become too emotionally
05:01
charged as a result of this and so
05:05
what we start to see is that when we
05:07
recall experiences like this
05:10
um and i can think of ones with my two
05:13
younger brothers
05:14
just they've emotionally got me
05:16
emotionally worked up all the time
05:18
uh you know just gotta let it go that's
05:20
them right
05:21
some people aren't gonna change and you
05:23
just recognize that and you move on
05:25
so on these notes right we've got this
05:27
reason
05:28
and emotion right we've got our good
05:31
sort of sense
05:32
and our emotional side you know we
05:34
struggle with this sort of reptilian
05:36
part of our brain right that amygdala
05:37
that emotional part
05:39
and it's really hard work to put your
05:41
good sense in charge
05:43
um in fact this is what they call in
05:44
some ways growing
05:46
up right some people never grow up so
05:48
we'll use that phrasal verb
05:49
for what it's worth but you know to to
05:52
grow up in some way means become
05:53
conscious of yourself where you put
05:56
reason and charge over emotions
05:58
and the reason why when we start to slow
06:01
down and think about
06:02
whether or not something we should get
06:04
worked up about something is that
06:06
thinking informs the worth of value so
06:08
you go you know what
06:09
it's just not and so
06:13
what i would uh would like to present is
06:16
that we want to use stoic philosophy
06:18
that takes this general um
06:22
this general point of view of the world
06:24
and says okay
06:26
what is worth worrying about and what is
06:28
not
06:29
is this particular thing i'm worried
06:31
about
06:32
should i get worked up about it now is
06:34
it something i can change is something i
06:36
can't change
06:36
it's outside of my control right and so
06:39
um
06:40
stoic philosophy isn't comes out of the
06:42
ancient world right ancient rome
06:44
although we'll see it's got its roots in
06:46
ancient athens
06:48
um it helps keep your mind on the
06:50
present and
06:51
this is very much in line with what
06:53
meditation says
06:54
um that when you're focused on the
06:56
present you're again
06:57
less anxious about the future and you're
07:00
not worried about a past that people
07:02
tend to get um a little depressed about
07:04
right so those are sort of
07:06
the two extremes there when you're
07:08
focused on the present focused on the
07:09
now
07:10
your thoughts are within your control
07:13
and there's a picture here of ancient
07:15
rome uh and we just i think it's
07:17
important to recognize the context of
07:19
stoic philosophy
07:21
at least we're going to look where it
07:22
was developed by the three main sort of
07:24
proponents of the most well-known
07:26
um ancient rome america right we come
07:29
right out of ancient rome our federal
07:31
form of government comes from rome
07:33
um the whole reason why we study history
07:36
is to learn lessons
07:37
and so um stoic philosophy is very much
07:40
a bow today
07:41
it's back in fashion i should say and um
07:44
the fact that we uh our comparisons to
07:47
ancient rome
07:48
um in a broad way are very salient okay
07:52
i'm not talking about
07:53
sort of uh any particular comparison
07:55
from the broad strokes of history the
07:57
whole reason why we study history
07:59
is that um this is not only just in our
08:02
heritage but we seem to be as a nation
08:04
sort of in maybe the same spot as
08:06
ancient rome many people have written
08:07
about this
08:08
so i encourage you to look into the
08:09
similarities between modern america and
08:11
hbro
08:13
okay so stoicism let's get a definition
08:16
of it right
08:17
it's a type of virtue ethics and what
08:20
they argue that um
08:21
virtue practicing virtue or happiness is
08:24
necessary and sufficient uh thing to do
08:28
right so if you do not practice virtue
08:30
in your own life you will not be happy
08:32
according to the stones
08:34
um now stoicism is founded by a guy
08:37
named zeno
08:37
uh he's preaching on the stowa porch
08:41
this is an ancient athens
08:43
and um the stoicism we're going to look
08:44
at in rome it's kind of a little more
08:46
evolved
08:46
300 years plus a little bit later and
08:50
what they come to find out is in this
08:52
big sprawling
08:54
uh imperial power of rome that there are
08:57
many things outside of your control
08:59
and that the imperial structure is so
09:01
large in the roman government you're so
09:03
big the
09:04
the um army so expansive so on and so
09:07
forth
09:08
that you feel as an individual like
09:10
you're lost because so much is out of
09:12
your control
09:13
and so what this with the stoics
09:15
emphasized was that
09:16
indifference to certain aspects of
09:18
society could help you practice
09:20
virtue by not worrying about every
09:23
little thing
09:24
but focusing on the important thing
09:26
which was your character
09:27
and developing it and worrying about the
09:29
things that were
09:31
necessary to worry about okay um and
09:35
last we have the bottom there revival in
09:36
the 21st century
09:38
with cognitive behavioral therapy and
09:40
similar approach so
09:41
again very much back today um
09:44
i'll just say this on ancient greece
09:46
stoicism is a bit of a blending
09:48
of plato and aristotle at the end of the
09:52
day
09:52
uh they're going to sort of fall in line
09:55
with plato
09:56
but they're sort of developing the
09:58
praxis or practical side of virtue
10:00
because in order to achieve excellence
10:03
in your life is going to require you to
10:04
pee
10:05
to practice and that's got to become
10:06
habitual
10:08
so the three we'll look at three quotes
10:10
your three famous stoics
10:12
seneca the younger epictetus and marcus
10:16
aurelius all right so epic so seneca
10:19
first here
10:21
um you can see as this is moral letters
10:24
to the silliest
10:26
if you would put off all worry assume
10:28
that what you fear may happen
10:30
will certainly happen in any event and
10:32
whatever the trouble may be
10:34
measure in your mind and estimate the
10:36
amount of your fear
10:38
you will thus understand that what you
10:40
fear is either insignificant
10:42
or short-lived so the point when seneca
10:45
is
10:45
i think trying to make here is that many
10:48
times
10:49
we'll just take let's say you've got a
10:50
big assignment dude right and you just
10:52
put it off and you put it off and you
10:54
put the assignment off
10:56
and you're like at some point the
10:58
assignment's going to be due
11:00
right and so you have to you have to
11:02
tackle it and then
11:03
you actually sit down and you tackle the
11:06
assignment you go for it
11:07
and you go wow it's actually
11:11
not that bad so sometimes the things
11:14
that we fear or we look
11:16
uh we're not looking forward to doing
11:18
they're actually not that bad in other
11:20
words
11:21
it's not that things are good or bad but
11:23
thinking them
11:24
makes it so sometimes right and so
11:28
we are sort of deluding ourselves in
11:30
that in that respect
11:33
all right next one epic tears all right
11:36
so we go from
11:36
seneca who was a statement epictetus
11:38
who's a freak he becomes a free slave
11:40
start to school
11:42
um he is free who lives as he wishes to
11:45
live who is neither subject to
11:46
compulsion nor to hindrance nor to force
11:49
whose movements to action are not
11:50
impeded whose desires
11:52
attain their purpose and who does not
11:54
fall into that which he would avoid
11:57
so the stoics are on to this
12:00
sort of um route to happiness that
12:04
it's not it's important what you do
12:07
that's extremely important but of equal
12:10
importance is what you avoid
12:12
and so happiness it just doesn't have
12:15
this positive connotation to it where
12:17
you can go out and achieve it and make
12:19
it happen
12:19
through your own willpower but you have
12:23
to avoid things
12:24
that are going to get in the way of you
12:26
practicing your virtue right
12:27
to become happy and so the that's that's
12:30
what they refer to sort of a negative
12:32
uh view of happiness right uh it's that
12:35
it's the absence of those things
12:38
so if you want to avoid them make sure
12:40
you avoid them
12:42
because they're not going to help you
12:43
attain your purpose right
12:45
and the last person here is is the most
12:48
famous stoic of them all
12:49
today um he writes the very famous the
12:53
meditations
12:54
and marcus aurelius is the last good
12:56
emperor of rome um
12:57
the of the five and um
13:01
his book the meditations has become um
13:06
almost biblical in some ways in
13:07
leadership circles as we'll see
13:09
um but here we go do not act as hebrew
13:13
as if you were going to live 10 000
13:15
years
13:16
death hangs over you while you live
13:18
while in your power
13:19
be good so if you become too emotionally
13:22
charged about some things you will
13:24
actually and you let other things
13:25
distract you throw you off balance
13:28
you're going to forget to live your life
13:31
because you're going to be too busy
13:32
worrying about fears that are really
13:35
really
13:36
may not be in your control kind of at
13:39
the end of the day
13:40
aren't really fierce because you thought
13:41
they were but they really weren't
13:44
and again focus on the present here
13:46
right
13:47
it's time to get going right yes
13:50
um you can be uh get emotionally charged
13:53
by getting emotionally charged about the
13:54
right things right time is precious
13:58
and so um does the application of this
14:00
ancient wisdom does it really help
14:02
to achieve success or happiness in life
14:05
um this is big business nowaday uh
14:08
ladies and gentlemen
14:10
all right this is um uh we can look over
14:13
here stoicism
14:14
20 of the best books right um harvard
14:17
business school
14:18
books about leadership on stoicism
14:20
because if you make a bad business
14:22
decision
14:23
you can't let that you know detract you
14:25
from the mission
14:26
right of the company or whatever it is
14:28
uh maybe you're an entrepreneur
14:30
you know there's a purpose here and if
14:33
you let
14:34
a bad past decision always come into
14:36
your mind
14:38
that's good that's just gonna be very
14:39
faithful okay
14:41
so you have to sort of order the inner
14:44
part of us it's got to mirror what we
14:47
want on the outside right so we've got
14:49
to sort of
14:50
brush off the bad experience that we
14:52
have
14:53
and so barack obama down here uh famous
14:56
professed
14:56
stoic right he says he is um how to be a
15:00
stoic in the workplace
15:01
kind of talked about that earlier down
15:03
here i always like to shout out the
15:04
garden state right here in new jersey
15:06
um two guys from new jersey wrote a book
15:09
this on stoicism how it's helped them
15:12
and
15:12
um podcast you know
15:15
so still podcast um the daily stoic
15:19
is um started by getting holiday
15:22
and you can get a stoic affirmation kind
15:24
of sent to you every single
15:26
day because again this takes practice to
15:28
remind ourselves
15:29
that we can't let everything sort of
15:31
bother us we've got to keep our mind
15:34
on the aim and what it is and so just
15:37
just key takeaways here so we'll kind of
15:39
wrap up
15:41
um stokes kind of remind us to stop and
15:43
reflect on what really matters in life
15:45
and what's within our control
15:48
don't waste your time because you'll
15:49
never get it back right
15:52
virtue requires putting reason in charge
15:54
of her emotions to avoid
15:55
unnecessary uh anxiety by practice
16:00
so we build this sort of clarity of mind
16:02
and certainty in our mind
16:04
by through practice and through having
16:07
and at the end of the day
16:08
you have to be confident in your own
16:09
judgment um
16:11
you know oscar wilde you know famously
16:13
said ever be yourself everyone else is
16:15
taken
16:17
and i think that's good advice here and
16:19
stokes remind us that um
16:21
you know your character is your
16:22
character and it um to go a little bit
16:24
further in their philosophy
16:26
they think that the universe is part of
16:27
a big grand design
16:29
and that your inner um
16:33
character what you're interested in what
16:34
you want to pursue in life
16:36
that this is also part of the grand
16:40
design
16:40
and so for you not to pursue your
16:43
happiness
16:44
what's going to make you know make you
16:45
feel like a like authentic person
16:48
uh you're not really following what you
16:49
were put here for and
16:51
you're depriving us of your greatness as
16:53
well so be the best you possible
16:56
right and so at the end here just kind
16:59
of bring it back full circle
17:01
there's still going to be uncertainty in
17:03
the world once this coronavirus uh
17:05
pandemic you know
17:06
ends or gets muted or comes to a
17:08
conclusion whatever the case may be and
17:10
we evolve to
17:11
another aspect of it and hopefully we
17:12
can put it behind us
17:14
but you know the world's still going to
17:16
be uncertain we're still going to have
17:18
to judge
17:20
reason versus our emotion right and
17:24
um there's where the certainty lies that
17:26
our thoughts are within
17:28
our control and so we'll just we'll just
17:32
uh end right here again with marcus real
17:34
it's a quote by him
17:35
that is in your power whenever you will
17:37
to choose to retreat
17:38
into yourself
17:42
thank you
17:48
you

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