Chapter 9 of Massimo Pigliucci’s How to Be a Stoic (buy a copy and read along) wrestles with the source of human virtue. The author, Massimo Pigliucci, is a professor of philosophy who holds PhDs in philosophy, genetics, and evolutionary biology and has published extensively on nature versus nurture. In this chapter, he uses science as a lens to explore Stoic ideas focusing on role models as an area where nurture is effective.
The author posits a model for how humans develop virtue from three sources:
- Natural Disposition — This source is attributed to the “nature” side of the argument and typically impacts a person before the age of reason.
- Early Life Habit — This source is behavior and occurs after the age of reason. The behavior in this case is driven by choice.
- Intellectual Acquisition — The author argues this is the weakest source but some virtue can be learned.
Regardless of the model or weighting, the acquisition of virtue occurs through a mix of nature and nurture.] Role models can play a role, especially after a person attains the age of reason. A quick review of the literature on role models suggests that role models have the greatest impact on behavior during adolescence. The amount of impact fades as people age, but some impact still exists late in life (as someone who still professes to have and learn from role models I am happy I am not wasting my time).
The parallel trajectory took me on the path of considering definitions of role models and mentors. So I asked GPTChat and the results of my prompt were:
- A role model inspires others through their behavior, achievements, or values.
- A mentor is an experienced and trusted advisor who provides guidance, support, and encouragement to someone less experienced, often referred to as a mentee.
The two roles have differences but are overlapped (think VENN diagram). A person can have role models and mentors in some cases these might be the same person. Currently, I have three people in my life who fit both roles; providing both inspiration through their ethics and behavior and whom I talk with to seek their wisdom and guidance. I have told my wife that when I grow up, I want to be like these people. Interestingly, she told me I should learn to behave and interact with others before I recognized that I should. Reflecting on times when I have had role models and mentors, there were large swaths of my professional life where I would have been hard-pressed to identify (or perhaps see the need) for either. On reflection, not seeking a mentor or an appropriate role model was a mistake.
Interestingly, while the literature suggests that the percentage of people who indicate they have a role model or a mentor decreases over time, I would have hypothesized that mentorship would increase while the use of role models fell. would bolster my belief in this hypothesis based on the number of articles and mentions of mentors in the literature. Use of the term mentorship has skyrocketed since 1960 according to Google’s Ngram Viewer. In studies (see sources below) the percentage of people indicating they have mentors is always less than role models. Note the use of the term role model reported in the Ngram Viewer follows a parallel but higher,
This chapter makes the case that virtue can be learned from role models. Mentors also are a source of learning that is related to the idea of role models. Examples of the more intimate mentorship model are part of Stoic literature. The student-teacher relationships between any of the early Stoics and their students were much closer to a mentor-mentee relationship than a role model. In the end, what is important to remember is that we can all benefit from the inspiration of a role model and the help a mentor can provide in our journey toward improving skills, ethics, and virtue.
Catch on all of the entries in the re-read of How To Be A Stoic by Massimo Pigliucci (buy a copy and read along)
Week 1: Logistics and Opening Thoughts
Week 2: The Unstraightforward Path
Week 3: A Roadmap For The Journey
Week 4: Some Things Are In Our Power, Others Are Not
Week 5: Live According To Nature
Week 6: Playing Ball With Socrates
Week 7: God or Atoms?
Week 8: It’s All About Character
Week 9: A Very Crucial Word
