Asceticism
Asceticism is deliberately giving up comfort and pleasure as a form of training, usually for a spiritual or ethical goal.
Full definition of Asceticism →:: COMPARE ::
AsceticismvsStoicism
The short answer
Stoic practice trains your attachment while holding externals indifferent; asceticism gives the object up, usually as training rather than as a verdict on it. The two overlap enough that reference works count Stoicism itself among the ancient ascetic schools — the difference shows in wealth, which a Stoic can hold without contradiction and an ascetic cannot.
Side by side
| Aspect | Asceticism | Stoicism |
|---|---|---|
| The object is | Given up, often as training | Indifferent |
| Wealth is | Renounced | Permitted |
| Trains | The appetite | The judgement |
| Shares | askēsis | askēsis |
What each one means
Stoicism
In ordinary English, uncomplaining endurance of hardship without showing what it costs. In philosophy, a school founded in Athens and carried on in Rome by Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius: virtue is the only real good, we should live in agreement with nature and reason, and peace comes from telling what is in our control from what is not.
Full definition of Stoicism →