Stoicism

Stoicism begins in Athens around Zeno of Citium in the early third century BCE. It is more than a method for staying calm. Its logic asks us to examine an impression before assenting to it; its physics describes an ordered world; its ethics asks what to do when circumstances resist us.

For the Stoics, happiness (eudaimonia) rests on a virtuous life: judging well and acting with courage, justice, and moderation. Health, money, and reputation matter in ordinary choices, but cannot by themselves make a life good. Misfortune grants no license to act unjustly. For Epictetus, distinguishing our judgement from what lies beyond it is a daily exercise, not a promise to control the world.

Stoic nature is more than a backdrop. Early Stoics describe it as pervaded by divine reason, the logos; they also speak of Zeus and providence. This god is immanent in the cosmos. It is not identical to the personal, transcendent God of classical Jewish, Christian, and Muslim theology, even though these traditions also speak of providence. Epicurus rejects providential control of events and makes undisturbed pleasure, rather than virtue alone, the end of a happy life.

The surviving texts do not speak with one voice. Seneca writes close to power, Epictetus teaches through exercise, Marcus Aurelius addresses himself, and fragments of the early teachers require caution. Their possible disagreements deserve more than a motivational quotation stripped of context.

Period: 3rd century BCE to the present