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date: 28 March 2025

Stoicismlocked

Stoicismlocked

  • Julia Annas

Extract

Stoicism, philosophical movement, founded by *Zeno (2) of Citium, who came to Athens in 313 bce, and, after studying with various philosophers, taught in his own right in the *Stoa Poecile (Painted Porch). We know little of the institutional organization of the school, except that at Zeno's death one of his pupils, *Cleanthes, took over the ‘headship’ of the school. He was not, however, the most famous of Zeno's pupils, and the original position got developed in different directions. *Ariston (1) of Chios stressed ethics to the exclusion of physics and logic; *Herillus emphasized knowledge at the expense of moral action. Cleanthes stressed a religious view of the world, interpreting Stoic ideas in works like his Hymn to Zeus. Stoicism was in danger of dissolving into a number of different positions, but was rescued by Cleanthes' pupil *Chrysippus of Soli. He restated and recast Zeno's position in his voluminous writings, defending it with powerful arguments. It was correctly thought later that ‘if there had been no Chrysippus there would have been no Stoa’; the work of Zeno's earlier pupils came to be seen as unorthodox, and Chrysippus' works became the standard formulation of Stoicism. Although Chrysippus claimed to adhere to Zeno's ideas, modern scholars have often held that there are divergences between them; but this is hazardous given the fragmentary state of our sources. Chrysippus' own innovations were mainly in the technical area of logic.

Subjects

  • Philosophy

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