5. Ethics

Ethics is the part of the Stoics’ legacy that is most prominent and influential today. Their theory of the good life for human beings falls into the family of theories associated with Socrates and his followers. This tradition includes Plato and most Platonists, Xenophon, the Cynics, Aristotle, and later Aristotelians, all of whom share the view that virtue, the excellence of a human being, is the highest value and is its own reward. ‘Ethics’ discusses the Stoics’ views on human nature and rationality; the four basic virtues: justice, courage, wisdom, and moderation or self-control; and the doctrine that the fully rational and wise person will be free of passions.

2. Reading Stoics today

For modern readers, despite not being typical representatives of the school, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius are the foundation for our understanding of Stoicism for two reasons. First, except for Seneca, theirs are the earliest and almost only complete works we have from the ancient Stoics. Second, both Epictetus and Marcus are atypical in the way they wrote and the kind of audience they chose to address. ‘Reading Stoics today’ considers why Seneca is not more important in our contemporary popular understanding of Stoicism. How did the Stoic whose legacy was of such basic importance in the later middle ages and Renaissance come to take a back seat in general culture?

4. Physics

One of the main dividing lines in Greek physical theory was the question of the nature of matter. ‘Physics’ explains that the Stoics fit squarely into the non-atomistic tradition, being definitely committed to the infinite divisibility of matter, the rejection of void, and the fundamental role of four basic forms of matter—earth, air, fire, and water—with no need for a special kind of stuff for the heavenly bodies. It considers the ‘big picture’ of Stoic cosmology and their providential determinism. If the determined world is part of a grand plan aimed at producing the good, why is there so much bad in the world?

3. The origins of the school

The earliest Stoics shared a great deal with Plato and his followers, so why didn’t the early Stoics just join Plato’s Academy? The problem was metaphysics. Plato’s most distinctive doctrine was his theory of Forms, but in the view of Aristotle and the Stoics, Platonic Forms cannot be distinct and separate substances that cause physical particulars to be what they are. ‘The origins of the school’ explains that the Stoics had to develop a metaphysical status for such things that acknowledged their ‘reality’ without treating them as bodies. It explains the Stoics’ nominalism and how Stoics adopted the division of philosophy into logic, physics, and ethics.

7. Stoicism, then and now

‘Stoicism, then and now’ describes how, despite the contrast between the contemporary reception of Stoicism and the study of the ancient school that inspires it, by looking at the history of Stoicism’s influence since its rediscovery in the Renaissance we have seen one way these approaches can be brought into contact with each other: the prominence of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius (and to a lesser degree Seneca) in the contemporary reception of Stoicism has made it natural to focus primarily on its potential as a source for moral advice and self-improvement. But what about Stoic physics? How does the modern Stoic deal with the now obsolete science of our world?

6. Logic

‘Logic’ explains that logic has a broad and a narrow sense in Stoic theory and deals with a subset of sayables and meanings. Their logic is close to what we would call propositional logic. Chrysippus was the pioneer and genius of Stoic logic. He seems to have held that in simple assertoric logic all valid inference forms could be reduced to combinations of five basic and indemonstrable argument forms, with the assistance of several other logical and metalogical principles. The Stoics also worked extensively on modal syllogistic and other areas of research in logic with a sophistication not paralleled in some cases until the 20th century.

1. Ancient Stoicism and modern life

In the ancient world of the Greeks and Romans, the idea of philosophy as a way of life had its fullest and clearest development in Stoicism. ‘Ancient Stoicism and modern life’ provides an overview of Stoicism’s major figures. The Stoic school was founded by Zeno in the late 4th century bce. His students, Cleanthes and Aristo, developed different interpretations of Stoic philosophy—Large Stoicism and Minimal Stoicism, respectively. However, it is the work of much later writers—Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius—that is accessible today. The application of Stoicism to modern life by French philosopher Pierre Hadot and American fighter pilot James Stockdale is also considered.