Origin 300 BCE to 180 CE
Stoicism is the Hellenistic philosophical school founded at Athens by Zeno of Citium around 300 BCE, named for the Stoa Poikile, the painted colonnade where he first taught. It holds that the cosmos is pervaded by a single rational principle, the logos, and that virtue, understood as living in agreement with that reason, is the only true good, with everything else indifferent to happiness. The school passed through an early Athenian phase under Zeno, Cleanthes and Chrysippus, then took root at Rome, where Seneca, Epictetus and the emperor Marcus Aurelius gave it its most widely read literary form before its distinct institutional life faded in late antiquity.
Facts
Origins
Origin Period Origin PeriodLate 4th century BCE to the 2nd century CE, its classical Athenian and Roman phase 1 Place of OriginAthens, Greece, later centred also at Rome 1 FounderZeno of Citium (c. 334 to c. 262 BCE), who began teaching at the Stoa Poikile in Athens around 300 BCE 1 Classification
Branch of philosophy Branch of philosophy Status
Standing as a Comparative CategoryA standard analytic category in the study of religion 1 Connections
Associated With
Athens, Cities This source names Athens directly: "philosophical school founded at Athens by Zeno of Citium around 300 BCE, named for the Stoa Poikile, the painted colonnade where he first taught."
Source Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, ScepticsA. A. Long
Rome, Cities This source names Rome directly: "and Chrysippus, then took root at Rome, where Seneca, Epictetus and the emperor Marcus Aurelius gave it its most widely read literary form before its distinct institutional life faded in late..."
Source Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, ScepticsA. A. Long
Founded By
Its own founder fact and its own description both state Stoicism was "founded at Athens by Zeno of Citium around 300 BCE."
Source Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, ScepticsA. A. Long
Objects and Practices of This Tradition
Source Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, ScepticsA. A. Long
Source Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, ScepticsA. A. Long
Stoicism is the philosophical school that developed and disputed the doctrine.
Source Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, ScepticsA. A. Long
Source Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, ScepticsA. A. Long
Source Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, ScepticsA. A. Long
Source Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, ScepticsA. A. Long
Source Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, ScepticsA. A. Long
Source Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, ScepticsA. A. Long
Source Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, ScepticsA. A. Long
Source Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, ScepticsA. A. Long
Source Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, ScepticsA. A. Long
Source Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, ScepticsA. A. Long
Source Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, ScepticsA. A. Long
Source Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, ScepticsA. A. Long
Held Differently
Fortitude, Virtues The Stoics named this virtue andreia, courage, one of the four generic virtues Zeno and Chrysippus taught as constituents of the single good, wisdom; the later Christian cardinal-virtue scheme adopted the same fourfold structure under the Latin name fortitudo.
Source Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, ScepticsA. A. Long
Justice, Virtues The Stoics named this virtue dikaiosyne, one of the four generic virtues Zeno and Chrysippus taught as constituents of the single good, wisdom; the later Christian cardinal-virtue scheme adopted the same fourfold structure under the Latin name iustitia.
Source Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, ScepticsA. A. Long
Prudence, Virtues The Stoics named this virtue phronesis, practical wisdom, one of the four generic virtues Zeno and Chrysippus taught as constituents of the single good, wisdom; the later Christian cardinal-virtue scheme, via Ambrose and Aquinas, adopted the same fourfold structure under the Latin name prudentia.
Source Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, ScepticsA. A. Long
Temperance, Virtues The Stoics named this virtue sophrosyne, temperance or self-control, one of the four generic virtues Zeno and Chrysippus taught as constituents of the single good, wisdom; the later Christian cardinal-virtue scheme adopted the same fourfold structure under the Latin name temperantia.
Source Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, ScepticsA. A. Long
In the Other Atlases
Same As
Also in Philosophy Atlas: the same subject.
Sources
1. Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics
2. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Stoicism
Internet Encyclopedia of PhilosophyIntroduction ethics
Stoicism is a type of eudaimonic virtue ethics, asserting that the practice of virtue is both necessary and sufficient to achieve happiness (in the eudaimonic sense).
Introduction logic
Stoicism was very much a philosophy meant to be applied to everyday living, focused on ethics (understood as the study of how to live one’s life), which was in turn informed by what the Stoics called “physics” (nowadays, a combination of natural science and metaphysics) and what they called “logic” (a combination of modern logic, epistemology, philosophy of language, and cognitive science).
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