Stoics, stoicism

and

Stoic Philosophy

The Stoic School was founded in 322 B.C. by Zeno of Cittium and existed until

the closing of the Athenian schools (A.D. 429), (it took the name from the Stoa

poikile, the painted hall or colonnade in which the lectures were held.) Its history

may be divided into three parts: (1) Ancient Stoicism; (2) Middle Stoicism; (3)

New Stoicism.

(1) Ancient Stoicism (322-204)

Zeno of Cittium (b. 366; d. in 280) was the disciple of Crates the Cynic and the

academicians Stilpo, Xenocrates, and Polemon. After his death (264), Cleanthes

of Assium (b. 331; d. 232) became head of the school; Chrysippus of Soli (b.

280), succeeded and was scholarch until 204. These philosophers, all of Oriental

origin, lived in Athens where Zeno played a part in politics and were in

communication with the principal men of their day. The Stoic doctrine, of which

Zeno laid the foundations, was developed by Chrysippus in 705 treatises, of

which only some fragments have been preserved. In addition to the principles

accepted by all thinkers of their age (the perception of the true, if it exists, can

only be immediate; the wise man is self-sufficient; the political constitution is

indifferent), derived from the Sophists and the Cynics, they base the entire moral

attitude of the wise man conformity to oneself and nature, indifference to external

things on a comprehensive concept of nature, in part derived from Heraclitus, but

inspired by an entirely new spirit. It is a belief in a universal nature that is at one

and the same time Fate infallibly regulating the course of events (eimarmene,

logos); Zeus, or providence, the eternal principle of finality adapting all other

things to the needs of rational beings; the law determining the natural rules that

govern the society of men and of the gods; the artistic fire, the expression of the

active force which produced the world one, perfect, and complete from the

beginning, with which it will be reunited through the universal conflagration,

following a regular and ever recurring cycle. The popular gods are different forms

of this force, described allegorically in myths. This view of nature is the basis for

the optimism of the Stoic moral system; confidence in the instinctive faculties,

which, in the absence of a perfect knowledge of the world, ought to guide man's

actions; and again, the infallible wisdom of the sage, which Chrysippus tries to

establish by a dialectic derived from Aristotle and the Cynics. But this optimism

requires them to solve the following problems: the origin of the passions and the

vices; the conciliation of fate and liberty; the origin of evil in the world. On the last

two subjects they propounded, all the arguments that were advanced later up to

the time of Leibniz.

(2)Middle Stoicism (second and first centuries B.C.)

Stoicism during this period was no longer a Greek school; it had penetrated into

the Roman world and had become, under the influence of Scipio's friend,

Panætius (185-112), who lived in Rome, and of Posidonius, (135-40) who

transferred the school to Rhodes, the quasi-official philosophy of Roman

imperialism. Its doctrines were considerably modified, becoming less dogmatic in

consequence of the criticism of the new Academician, Carneades (215-129). In

Stoic morality, Panætius develops the idea of humanity. Posidonius at once a

savant, historian, geographer, mathematician, astronomer and a mystic who

commenting on Plato's works, revives his theories on the nature and destiny of

the soul.

(3)New Stoicism (to A.D. 429)

The new Stoicism is more ethical and didactic. Science is no longer the

knowledge of nature, but a kind of theological summa of moral and religious

sentiments. Very little has been preserved of the short popular treatises and

discourses, wherein a vivid style introduced under the influence of the Cynic

diatribe, the philosopher endeavored to render his ethical principles practical. The

letters of Seneca (2-68) to Lucilius, the conversations of Musonius (time of Nero),

and of Epictetus (age of Domitian), the fragments of Hierodcles (time of Hadrian),

the members of Marcus Aurelius (d. 180), give but an incomplete idea. Stoicism,

which generally disappeared as the official School, was the most important of the

Hellenistic elements in the semi-oriental religions of vanishing paganism.

ZELLER, Phil. D. Griechen, III pt. i, tr. Stoics by Riechel (London, 1892); DYROFT, Die Ethik der

Stoa (Berlin, 1897); BROWN, Stoics and Saints (New York 1893); LEONARD ALSTON, Stoic and

Christian (London, 1906); ARNIM, Stoicorum veterum fragmenta (Leipzig, 1903, 1905); BAKE,

Posidonii reliquæ (Leyden, 1810); BONHOFFER, Epiktet u. die Stoa (Stuttgart, 1890); STEIN,

Psychologie der Stoa (Berlin, 1886); IDEM, Die Erkenntnisselehre der Stoa (Berlin, 1888); BART,

Die Stoa (Liepzig, 1908); BRÉHIER, Chrysippe (Paris, 1910).

EMILE BRÉHIER

Transcribed by C.A. Montgomery

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIV

Nihil Obstat, July 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor

Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

The Catholic Encyclopedia: NewAdvent.org