Mainly based on info from “A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy” – William B. Irvine

The First Stoics

• Zeno – (333-261 BC) = the first Stoic

• started as a Cynic
  • “same” as today’s homeless
  • Antisthenes
    • pay attention to your enemies, for they are the first to discover your mistakes
  • the Cynics were renowned for their wit and wisdom
  • Diogenes (pupil of Antithenes) – the most famous Cynic
    • Bad man obey their lusts as servants obey their masters.
    • because they cannot control their desires, they can never find contentment
  • lived on the streets of Athens.. same as Sokrates
  • constantly pushing their philosophy on other people
• found to be more interested in theory than the cynics.. hence .. a combination & lifestyle & theory
  • as Socrates had done
• Zeno’s school of philosophy enjoyed immediate success
  • his followers became known as Zenonians first… but.. because he gave lectures in Stoa Poikile.. it turned into…. STOICS
  • one reason for it’s success.. The Stoics favored a lifestyle that, although simple, allowed creatures comforts
• Zeno’s philosophy had ethical, physical, and logical components
• Stoics believe that man’s distingushing feature is his rationality
• Ethics was the most important component of Zeno’s Stoicism
  • not “modern” ethics.. rather eudaemonistic ethics
  • it is concerned with having a “good spirit”
  • living a good, happy life
  • moral wisdom
  • …to flourish
• ..we differ from other animals in one important respect: We have the ability to reason…. in other words.. we were designed to be reasonable.
  • designed to do certain things, that we have certain duties
  • most significantly.. we have duties to our fellow men
    • we should honor our parents
    • be agreeable to our friends
    • and be concerned with the interests of our countrymen
• If we lived in perfect accordance with nature – if, that is, we were perfect in our practice of Stoicism – we would be what the Stoics refer to as a wise man or sage
  • a stoic sage is, in short, “godlike”
    • such “godlikeness” is exceedingly rare
  • they talk about sages primarly so they will have a model to guide them to aim at…
  • the sage, in other words, is to Stoicism as Buddha is to Buddhism
    • Most buddhists can never hope to become as enlightened as Buddha, but nevertheless, reflecting on Buddha’s perfection can help them gain a degree og enlightenment

• Cleanthes(331-232 BC) – pupil of Zeno
  • became the leader when Zeno died
  • when he got old.. started losing students to other schools
• Chrysippus(c. 282-206 BC) – pupil of Cleanthes
  • became leader after Cleanthes
  • the school regained it’s former prominence
• Panaetius of Rhodes
  • known as an “exporter” of the philosophy
  • took Soicism with him to Rome in 140 BC
  • founder of Roman Stoicism
  • the Roman’s showed less interest in logic & physics.. by the time Marcus Aurelius, the last great Roman Stoic, logic and physics had essentially benn abandoned
• Roman Stoics main goal – attaining of tranquility
• Stoic tranquility was a psychological state marked by the absence of negative emotions, such as grief, anger, and anxiety, and the presence of positive emotions, such as joy.
• The Roman Stoics had less confidence than the Greeks in the power of pure reason to motivate people
• By highlighting tranquility in their philosophy, the stoics not only made it more attractive toancient Romans but made it, I think, more attractive to modern individuals as well