Philosophy as Medicine
Philosophy heals the soul just as medicine heals the body; its purpose is therapeutic rather than merely theoretical.
Stoics explicitly compared philosophy to medicine. Just as the body's diseases are treated by medicine, the soul's diseases — false judgments, disordered desires, irrational passions — are treated by philosophy. Philosophical arguments are prescriptions; philosophical practices are treatments; wisdom is health.
Philosophy promises first of all: common sense, humanity, and fellowship.
The therapeutic conception of philosophy is shared across ancient schools (Epicurean, Buddhist, Stoic) and is being recovered in contemporary philosophical counseling.
Epistulae Morales
Written about in
- What Stoicism says about starting again after a fall
The Stoics framed philosophy as treatment for the soul the way medicine treats the body: false judgments are the disease, arguments are the prescription, practices are the course of treatment. Under that frame a fall is a symptom to be treated, not a sentence to be served.