Stoicism
Stoicism is a school of philosophy that, in general, dictates an indifference to pleasure or pain (not to be confused with anhedonia or CIPA) by allowing oneself to be guided strictly by logic and virtue.
Stoicism is commonly associated with such Greek philosophers as Zeno of Citium, Cleanthes, or Chrysippus and with such later Romans as Cicero, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus. Organized in Athens c. 310 BC by Zeno of Citium and Chrysippus, the Stoics provided a unified account of the world that comprised formal logic, materialistic physics, and naturalistic ethics. Later Roman Stoics emphasized more exclusively the development of recommendations for living in harmony with the universe, over which one has no direct control. Their group would meet upon the porch of the agora at Athens, the stoa poikile. The name stoicism derives from the Greek stoa, meaning porch.
The Stoic philosophy developed from that of the Cynics whose founder, Antisthenes, had been a disciple of Socrates. The Stoics emphasized ethics as the main field of knowledge, but they also developed theories of logic and natural science to their ethical doctrines.
The foundation of Stoic ethics is the principle, proclaimed earlier by the Cynics, that good lies in the state of the soul itself, within wisdom, self-control and restraint. Stoic ethics stressed the rule "Follow where reason leads"; one must therefore strive to be free of the passions—love, hate, fear, pain, and pleasure (unlike Epicureanism).
Living according to reason and virtue, they held, is living in conformity with the divine order of the universe and in dissent with the chaos of evil. The four cardinal virtues of the Stoic philosophy are wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance; a classification derived from the teachings of Plato.
Like Heraclitus, they held Logos to be an animating, or 'active principle', of all reality. The Logos was conceived as a circuit for divine power that, in essence, orders and directs the universe; at this time it was considered synonymous with God, and therefore it was virtuous. Human reason and the human soul were both considered adjuncts of the Logos, and therefore immortal.
A distinctive feature of Stoicism is its cosmopolitanism. All people are manifestations of the one universal spirit and should, according to the Stoics, live in brotherly love and readily help one another. They held that external differences such as rank and wealth are of no importance in social relationships. Thus, before the rise of Christianity, Stoics recognized and advocated the brotherhood of humanity and the natural equality of all human beings. Stoicism became the most influential school of the Greco-Roman world and produced a number of remarkable writers and personalities.
Quotes
Wherever I go, it will be well with me. — Epictetus
Books
- Aurelius, Marcus, Meditations.
- Hadas, Moses (ed.), Essential Works of Stoicism, Bantam, 1961.
- Becker, Lawrence, A New Stoicism, ISBN 0691009643, 1999.
- Strange, Steven (ed.), Stoicism: Traditions and Transformations, ISBN 0521827094, 2004.
- Seneca the Younger & Cambpell, Robin (trans.), Letters from a Stoic: Epistulae Morales Ad Lucilium, ISBN 0140442103, 2004.