Notes on The Basics of Stoicism
Notes on The Basics of Stoicism Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy that developed in Ancient Greece and Rome. For them, the only good that is worth striving for is virtue which is living in agreement with nature. But what does it mean to live in agreement with nature? There is no metaphysics in Stoicism as there is nothing beyond the material world. Even our souls and God or Zeus are composed of passive matter of a refined fire. Yet there is an active intelligent principle that orders the universe. The active principle that orders is the logos or a universal principle of reason or pneuma and is intelligent and identified with God which permeates everything. The whole of everything is in sympathy with itself as it extends throughout materially. Therefore, if reason is God which permeates through everything then nature itself is perfect and ordered deterministically that must be appreciated. Humans participate through having a rational mind. This is what i...