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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Stoics and Stoic Philosophy</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14299a.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="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)"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="14299a.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/s.htm">S</a> > Stoics and Stoic Philosophy</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Stoics and Stoic Philosophy</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>The Stoic School was founded in 322 B.C. by Zeno of Cittium and existed until the closing of the Athenian <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> (A.D. 429), (it took the name from the <em>Stoa poikile</em>, the <a href="../cathen/11395a.htm">painted</a> hall or <a href="../cathen/04128c.htm">colonnade</a> in which the lectures were held.) Its history may be divided into three parts: (1) <em>Ancient Stoicism</em>; (2) <em>Middle Stoicism</em>; (3) <em>New Stoicism</em>.</p> <h2 id="section1">Ancient Stoicism (322-204)</h2> <p>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 <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a>; Chrysippus of <a href="../cathen/14134a.htm">Soli</a> (b. 280), succeeded and was scholarch until 204. These <a href="../cathen/12025c.htm">philosophers</a>, 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 <a href="../cathen/05075b.htm">doctrine</a>, 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 <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a>, if it exists, can only be immediate; the wise man is self-sufficient; the political constitution is indifferent), derived from the <a href="../cathen/14145c.htm">Sophists</a> 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 <a href="../cathen/02408b.htm">belief</a> in a universal nature that is at one and the same time Fate infallibly regulating the course of events (<em>eimarmene, logos</em>); Zeus, or providence, the eternal principle of finality adapting all other things to the needs of rational beings; the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> determining the natural rules that govern the <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a> of <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">men</a> 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 <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> 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 <a href="../cathen/01713a.htm">Aristotle</a> 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 <a href="../cathen/05649a.htm">evil</a> in the world. On the last two subjects they propounded, all the arguments that were advanced later up to the time of Leibniz.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <h2 id="section2">Middle Stoicism (second and first centuries B.C.)</h2> <p>Stoicism during this period was no longer a Greek <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a>; it had penetrated into the Roman world and had become, under the influence of Scipio's friend, Panætius (185-112), who lived in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, and of Posidonius, (135-40) who transferred the <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> to <a href="../cathen/13024b.htm">Rhodes</a>, 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 <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of humanity. Posidonius at once a savant, historian, geographer, mathematician, <a href="../cathen/02025a.htm">astronomer</a> and a mystic who commenting on <a href="../cathen/12159a.htm">Plato's</a> works, revives his theories on the nature and destiny of the <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a>.</p> <h2 id="section3">New Stoicism (to A.D. 429)</h2> <p>The new Stoicism is more <a href="../cathen/05556a.htm">ethical</a> and didactic. Science is no longer the <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> of nature, but a kind of <a href="../cathen/14580x.htm">theological</a> <em>summa</em> 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 <a href="../cathen/12025c.htm">philosopher</a> endeavored to render his <a href="../cathen/05556a.htm">ethical</a> principles practical. The letters of Seneca (2-68) to Lucilius, the conversations of Musonius (time of <a href="../cathen/10752c.htm">Nero</a>), and of Epictetus (age of <a href="../cathen/05114b.htm">Domitian</a>), the fragments of Hierocles (time of <a href="../cathen/07104b.htm">Hadrian</a>), the members of <a href="../cathen/02109a.htm">Marcus Aurelius</a> (d. 180), give but an incomplete <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a>. Stoicism, which generally disappeared as the official School, was the most important of the Hellenistic elements in the semi-oriental <a href="../cathen/12738a.htm">religions</a> of vanishing <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">paganism</a>.</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes">ZELLER, <em>Phil. D. Griechen,</em> III pt. i, tr. <em>Stoics</em> by Riechel (London, 1892); DYROFT, <em>Die Ethik der Stoa</em> (Berlin, 1897); BROWN, <em>Stoics and Saints</em> (New York 1893); LEONARD ALSTON, <em>Stoic and Christian</em> (London, 1906); ARNIM, <em>Stoicorum veterum fragmenta</em> (Leipzig, 1903, 1905); BAKE, <em>Posidonii reliquæ</em> (Leyden, 1810); BONHOFFER, <em>Epiktet u. die Stoa</em> (Stuttgart, 1890); STEIN, <em>Psychologie der Stoa</em> (Berlin, 1886); IDEM, <em>Die Erkenntnisselehre der Stoa</em> (Berlin, 1888); BART, <em>Die Stoa</em> (Liepzig, 1908); BRÉHIER, <em>Chrysippe</em> (Paris, 1910).</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Bréhier, E.</span> <span id="apayear">(1912).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Stoics and Stoic Philosophy.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14299a.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Bréhier, Emile.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Stoics and Stoic Philosophy."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 14.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1912.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14299a.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by C.A. Montgomery.</span> <span id="dedication"></span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> July 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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