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The Stoic School was founded in 322 B.C. by Zeno of Cittium and existed until the closing of the Athenianschools (A.D. 429), (it took the name from theStoa poikile, thepainted hall orcolonnade in which the lectures were held.) Its history may be divided into three parts: (1)Ancient Stoicism; (2)Middle Stoicism; (3)New Stoicism.
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 theschool; Chrysippus ofSoli (b. 280), succeeded and was scholarch until 204. Thesephilosophers, 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 Stoicdoctrine, 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 thetrue, if it exists, can only be immediate; the wise man is self-sufficient; the political constitution is indifferent), derived from theSophists 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 abelief in a universal nature that is at one and the same time Fate infallibly regulating the course of events (eimarmene, logos); Zeus, or providence, the eternal principle of finality adapting all other things to the needs of rational beings; thelaw determining the natural rules that govern thesociety ofmen 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 perfectknowledge 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 fromAristotle 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 ofevil in the world. On the last two subjects they propounded, all the arguments that were advanced later up to the time of Leibniz.
Stoicism during this period was no longer a Greekschool; it had penetrated into the Roman world and had become, under the influence of Scipio's friend, Panætius (185-112), who lived inRome, and of Posidonius, (135-40) who transferred theschool toRhodes, 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 theidea of humanity. Posidonius at once a savant, historian, geographer, mathematician,astronomer and a mystic who commenting onPlato's works, revives his theories on the nature and destiny of thesoul.
The new Stoicism is moreethical and didactic. Science is no longer theknowledge of nature, but a kind oftheologicalsumma 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, thephilosopher endeavored to render hisethical principles practical. The letters of Seneca (2-68) to Lucilius, the conversations of Musonius (time ofNero), and of Epictetus (age ofDomitian), the fragments of Hierocles (time ofHadrian), the members ofMarcus Aurelius (d. 180), give but an incompleteidea. Stoicism, which generally disappeared as the official School, was the most important of the Hellenistic elements in the semi-orientalreligions of vanishingpaganism.
ZELLER,Phil. D. Griechen, III pt. i, tr.Stoics by Riechel (London, 1892); DYROFT,Die Ethik der Stoa (Berlin, 1897); BROWN,Stoics and Saints (New York 1893); LEONARD ALSTON,Stoic and Christian (London, 1906); ARNIM,Stoicorum veterum fragmenta (Leipzig, 1903, 1905); BAKE,Posidonii reliquæ (Leyden, 1810); BONHOFFER,Epiktet u. die Stoa (Stuttgart, 1890); STEIN,Psychologie der Stoa (Berlin, 1886); IDEM,Die Erkenntnisselehre der Stoa (Berlin, 1888); BART,Die Stoa (Liepzig, 1908); BRÉHIER,Chrysippe (Paris, 1910).
APA citation.Bréhier, E.(1912).Stoics and Stoic Philosophy. InThe Catholic Encyclopedia.New York: Robert Appleton Company.http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14299a.htm
MLA citation.Bréhier, Emile."Stoics and Stoic Philosophy."The Catholic Encyclopedia.Vol. 14.New York: Robert Appleton Company,1912.<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14299a.htm>.
Transcription.This article was transcribed for New Advent by C.A. Montgomery.
Ecclesiastical approbation.Nihil Obstat. July 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
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