Stoicism

(From the Ecole Initiative at http://www2.evansville.edu/ecoleweb/)

Stoicism was one of the most important and influential traditions in the philosophy of the
Hellenistic world. It had considerable influence on the development of early Christianity.
The Roman Stoics, Epictetus, Seneca (4 BCE-65 CE), and Marcus Aurelius were widely
read and absorbed by the Western cultural tradition. Indeed, the very word 'stoic' has, in
the popular sense, become synonymous with 'philosophical' and has come to represent
that courage and calmness in the face of adverse and trying circumstances which was the
hallmark of the ancient Stoics.

Background

Its founder, Zeno (c 336-264 BCE), discussed philosophical ideas at the agora in the
Stoa Poikile, Painted Colonnade, or porch and thus his followers came to be called
Stoics or "philosophers of the porch." Like so many others, Zeno was impressed
with the thought and character of Socrates. Zeno admired most in Socrates his
strength of character and independence of external circumstances. From Zeno's
point of view, virtue resided not in external fortune, wealth, honor, and the like, but
in self-sufficiency and a kind of rational ordering of intention.

Principal Ideas

Stoic Metaphysics

Stoics rejected Plato's notion of forms. There are no abstract universals as Plato
would have it. Only particular things exist and our knowledge of them is based on
the impressions they make upon the soul. Our knowledge of particular objects is
therefore based on sense perception, as is our knowledge of our mental states and
activities; our soul itself being a material thing.

Metaphysically, the Stoics were materialists. The Stoics identified the active principle
of reality with the Logos, Reason, or God. Unlike later Christian versions, the Stoic
view of the Logos is both materialistic and pantheistic. God has no existence distinct
from the rational order of nature and should not be construed as a personal,
transcendent deity of the sort essential to later Western theism.

The fundamental proposition of the Stoic physics is that "nothing incorporeal

exists." Plato placed knowledge in thought, and reality, therefore, in the ideal form.
The Stoics, however, place knowledge in physical sensation, and reality -- what is
known by the senses -- is matter. All things, they said, even the soul, even God, are
material and nothing more than material. This belief they based upon two main
considerations. Firstly, the unity of the world demands it. The world is one, and must
issue from one principle. Secondly, body and soul, God and the world, are pairs
which act and react upon one another. The body, for example, produces thoughts
(sense impressions) in the soul, the soul produces movements in the body. This would
be impossible if both were not of the same substance. The corporeal cannot act on the
incorporeal, nor the incorporeal on the corporeal. There is no point of contact.
Hence all must be equally corporeal.

All things being material, what is the original kind of matter, or stuff, out of which
the world is made? The Stoics turned to Heraclitus for an answer. Fire (logos) is the
primordial kind of being, and all things are composed of fire. The primal fire is God.
God is related to the world exactly as the soul to the body. The human soul is likewise
fire, and comes from the divine fire. It permeates and penetrates the entire body.
Just as the soul-fire permeates the whole body, so God, the primal fire, pervades the
entire world.

They held Logos to be the animating or 'active principle' of all reality. The Logos
was conceived as a rational divine power that orders and directs the universe; it was
identified with God, nature, and fate. Human reason and the human soul were both
considered part of the divine Logos, and therefore immortal.

In spite of their materialism, the Stoics declared that God is absolute reason. Since
God is reason, it follows that the world is governed by reason, and this means two
things. It means, firstly, that there is purpose in the world, and therefore, order,
harmony, beauty, and design. Secondly, since reason is law as opposed to the lawless,
it means that universe is subject to the absolute sway of law, is governed by the
rigorous necessity of cause and effect.

The human soul is part of the divine fire, and proceeds into humans from God.
Hence it is a rational soul, and this is a point of cardinal importance in connection
with the Stoic ethics.

Stoic Ethics

The Stoic ethical teaching is based upon two principles already developed in their
metaphysics; first, that the universe is governed by absolute law, which admits of no
exceptions; and second, that the essential nature of humans is reason. Both are
summed up in the famous Stoic maxim, "Live according to nature." For the universe
is governed not only by law, but by the law of reason, and we, in following our own
rational nature, are conforming ourselves to the laws of the larger world. Though
we will in any case do as the necessity of the world compels us, it is given to us alone,
not merely to obey the law, but to assent to our own obedience, to follow the law
consciously and deliberately, as only a rational being can.
Virtue, then, is the life according to reason. Morality is simply rational action. It is
the universal reason which is to govern our lives, not the caprice and self-will of the
individual. Now the definition of morality as the life according to reason is not a
principle peculiar to the Stoics. Both Plato and Aristotle taught the same. In fact, it
is the basis of every ethic to found morality upon reason, and not upon the
particular foibles, feelings, or intuitions, of the individual self. But what was
peculiar to the Stoics was the interpretation which they gave to this principle. The
Stoics looked upon the passions as essentially irrational, and demanded their complete
annihilation. They envisaged life as a battle against the passions, in which the latter
had to be completely annihilated. Hence their ethical views end in a rigorous
asceticism.

The Stoics were determinists, holding that whatever happens, happens necessarily.
Not only is the world such that all events are determined by prior events, but the
universe is a perfect, rational whole. The practical aspect of Stoicism is especially
prevalent in the Roman Stoic, Epictetus (c 50-138 CE):

"Do not seek to have events happen as you want them to, but instead want them to
happen as they do happen, and your life will go well" (Handbook, ch. 8).

Essential to appreciating this Stoic theme is the recognition of the difference

between those things that are within our power and those not within our power.

Our opinions are up to us, and our impulses, desires, aversions--in short, whatever is
our doing. Our bodies are not up to us, nor our possessions, our reputations, or our
public offices, or, that is, whatever is not our doing... (Handbook, ch. 1)

The only thing over which we have control, therefore, is the faculty of judgment.
Since anything else, including all external affairs and acts of others, are not within
our power, we should adopt toward them the attitude of indifference (apatheia).
Toward all that is not within our power we should be apathetic, that is, without
passion.

What upsets people is not things themselves but their judgments about the things. For
example, death is nothing dreadful (or else it would have appeared so to Socrates),
but instead the judgment about death is that it is dreadful, that is what is dreadful.
(Handbook, ch. 5)

To avoid unhappiness, frustration, and disappointment, we, therefore, need to do

two things: control those things that are within our power (namely our beliefs,
judgments, desires, and attitudes) and be indifferent or apathetic to those things
which are not in our power (namely, things external to us).

Toward those unfortunate things that are not within our power which we cannot
avoid (for example, death and the actions and opinions of others) the proper attitude
is one of apathy. Distress and suffering are is the result of our attitudes towards
things, not the things themselves. It is absurd to become distraught over externals
for the same reason that it is absurd to become distressed over the past; both are
beyond our power.

Above all, pleasure is not a good. One ought not to seek pleasure. Virtue is the only
happiness. And people must be virtuous, not for the sake of pleasure, but for the
sake of duty. It is tempting to characterize Stoicism as an emotionally cold, not to
say sterile, moral outlook. Yet this is misleading. It is not so much emotion as
passion understood as excessive attachment which is the Stoic’s target.

Virtue is founded upon reason, and so upon knowledge. Hence the importance of
science, physics, logic, which are valued not for themselves, but because they are the
foundations of morality. The prime virtue, and the root of all other virtues, is
therefore wisdom. The wise man is synonymous with the good man. The four cardinal
virtues are wisdom/ insight, courage/bravery, temperance/self-control, and justice.( a
classification derived from the teachings of Plato.) Stoic ethics stressed the rule
"Follow where Reason leads"; one must therefore resist the influence of the
passions-love, hate, fear, pain, and pleasure.

But since all virtues have one root, those who possess wisdom possess all virtue, and
those who lack it lack all. The number of the wise, they thought, is small, and is
continually growing smaller. The world, which they painted in the blackest colors as
a sea of vice and misery, grows steadily worse.

Legacy:

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.

A recognizable Stoic school persisted for some five hundred years in antiquity.
While it differed from Christianity in fundamental ways (it was materialistic and
pantheistic), nonetheless Christianity defined itself in an intellectual environment
pervaded by Stoic ideas of the logos. Furthermore, for much of modern Western
history, Stoic ideas of moral virtue have been second to none in influence. Stoic ideas
regarding the natural order of things and of each rational soul as a divine element
provided one basis upon which later ideas of natural law were erected. The notion of
virtue as conforming to the rational order of things suggests the Christian idea of
conforming one's will to divine providence. The influence of Stoicism on subsequent
Western ethical and religious thought testifies to its continuing importance.