STOICISM

ORIGINS

• Zeno of Citium (333-264 BCE)
• Chrysippus (280-270 BCE)
• Epictetus* (130-50 BCE)
• Seneca (3-65 CE)
• Marcus Aurelius* (121-180 CE)

ORIGINS (CONT)

• A life resigned to fate acknowledging limits of self-control and obligations of duty
• Aiming for a tranquility of mind and evenness of emotional life
• Extremely influential in Roman era, as well as in early Church doctrine.

MEANS: TO UNDERSTAND THE NATURE OF THINGS

• Understand what is or isn't under one's control
• No control over the events of life, but one's reaction to those events
• So, reason-guided life in accord with the nature of things

PRECEPTS

• Fatalism: world determined by divine providence
• Conventionalism in moral action & social responsibility, including modesty
• Cosmopolitanism: reason is divine spark that unites individuals