Stoicism

Classification

Period

c. 300 BCE - 200 CE

Regions

Europe (origin)

Domains

Ethics, Logic, Metaphysics

Overview

Stoicism teaches that virtue is the only true good, that the universe is governed by rational providence (Logos), and that wisdom consists in aligning one's will with nature. Founded by Zeno of Citium around 300 BCE, it became one of the most influential philosophies of the ancient world, guiding emperors and slaves alike toward equanimity in the face of fortune.

Key figures

Zeno of Citium · Cleanthes · Chrysippus · Seneca · Epictetus · Marcus Aurelius

Methods used

• Examination of Impressions · Open in Methods
• Socratic Elenchus · Open in Methods

Positions held

• Compatibilism

  Chrysippus held that every action is fated, yet our assent to what appears to us is up to us, so we are rightly held responsible even though we could not have done otherwise.

  Question scope: Free Will

• Suffering as False Judgment

  Question scope: The Origin and Cessation of Suffering

• Virtue Ethics

  Question scope: The Basis of Right Action

Influenced by

• Cynicism
• Heracliteanism
• Platonism

Reacts to

• Epicureanism

  The two schools competed directly on ethics (virtue versus pleasure) and physics (a providential logos versus the random swerve of atoms).

Later connections

• Neoplatonism Influenced by this tradition
• Patristics Influenced by this tradition
• Social Contract Tradition Influenced by this tradition
• Virtue Ethics Revival Influenced by this tradition
• Academic Skepticism Reacted to this tradition
• Pyrrhonism Reacted to this tradition

  The engagement is that of the later Pyrrhonists: Aenesidemus and Sextus Empiricus argued against the Stoics as dogmatists who claim to have found the truth, setting against that claim the skeptic who is still investigating and suspends judgment.

References

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stoicism
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stoicism, introduction and §1.1 — Formation: Zeno founded the school at the Stoa Poikile in Athens around 300 BCE.
• Cicero, On Fate (De Fato) 39–43: Chrysippus's cylinder, which needs a push to start rolling but rolls because of its own shape, just as an impression prompts an action while our assent to it remains in our power
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Ancient Theories of Freedom and Determinism, §2.5 'The Stoics on what is “up to us”' (the cylinder analogy; assent is up to us, so we are rightly held responsible although every action is causally determined) and §2.6 (the Stoics' 'clearly determinist and compatibilist theory')
• Epictetus, Enchiridion §§1 and 5: distress follows our judgments about events, and examining what is in our power supplies the remedy
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stoicism, §4 'Ethics', esp. §4.2 'Virtue' and §4.3 'Indifferents' (virtue as the perfection of human reason and the only good)
• Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers VII.2–4 (Zeno's apprenticeship under Crates the Cynic)
• A. A. Long, Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics (2nd ed., University of California Press, 1986)
• Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers VII.1–4 (Zeno's studies in the Academy under Polemo)
• Epictetus, Discourses I.20 and III.12; Enchiridion 1 and 20
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Epictetus
• A. A. Long, Epictetus: A Stoic and Socratic Guide to Life (Oxford University Press, 2002)
• Meditations — Marcus Aurelius
• Letters from a Stoic — Seneca
• Discourses — Epictetus