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Ideas developed by the Stoics 1. Necessity of cosmic order; destiny, providence 2. Definitions of logic and dialectic; theory of significance; inductive reasoning 3. Theory of cosmic cycle; God as soul of world 4. Analysis and rejection of human emotions 5. Idea of self-sufficiency and absolute freedom of philosopher Ideas developed by the Stoics 6. Notion of duty 7. Notion of value 8. Identification of freedom with necessity 9. Theory of natural law 10. Cosmopolitanism 11. Emphasis on specialisation in knowledge Main goal: pursuit of happiness through exercise of virtue Philosophy identified with study of virtues 3 main virtues: rational, natural, moral logic physics ethics Early Stoa: c. 300 BC Founded by Zeno of Citium in stoa poikile (Painted Portico) in Athens Cleanthes of Assos Chrysippus Middle Stoa: Mid-2nd to mid-1st c. BC Panaetius of Rhodes (180-110 BC) Posidonius (175-90 BC) Later Stoa: Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (4 BC-65 AD) Marcus Aurelius (r. 161-80 AD) Stoic Logic Science of logoi = discourses Divided into (1) Rhetoric and (2) Dialectic Criterion of truth: ability to grasp/comprehend object, then connected judgment Role of empirical observation Universals as concepts with no inherent reality Stoic Logic Interest in how human thought functions Theory of meaning Examination of hypothetical propositions regardless of actual truth or not Stoic Physics Key idea: unchanging, rational, perfect, necessary order to universe, identified with God Active principle = reason = God Passive principle = unqualified matter All is corporeal except meaning, time, space, void Stoic Physics God as fire = pneuma = life-giving breath, warmth, preserving, nourishing, revitalising God as logos spermatikos (seminal reason) of everything God as ruler and also substance of world Four elements: earth, air, water and fire Stoic Physics Life of world as cyclic Destiny as necessary law of world, following plan, which is divine reason However, some elements of chance and human freedom as part of plan of destiny Evil as necessary background for good Freedom = recognising rationality of all things Stoic Ethics Use of reason to establish agreement btw. man and nature (order of universe that is destiny or God) = natural goal Evil as corrective Action in conformity with rational order = kathekon (duty), which is basis of morality Justification of suicide Stoic Ethics Duty ≠ goodness Good result of habit of virtue Virtue as actualisation of rational order of universe All that is not virtue is indifferent things, incl. emotions Cosmopolitanism, objection to slavery Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (4 BC-65 AD) From Cordoba, Spain Wealthy, cultivated family Lawyer (quickly rich), writer and orator (famous) Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (4 BC-65 AD) c. 33 AD Quaestor 41 AD Banished to Corsica 49 AD Recalled, tutor to Nero Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (4 BC-65 AD) 54 AD Nero becomes emperor 59 AD Relations becoming strained 62 AD Seneca retires Lucilius 65 AD Seneca implicated in conspiracy. Nero orders him to commit suicide, which does