The Stoics believed that our wealth, status, power, possession and stature are neither good or bad, and they have no social importance with respect to our relationships with one another. We are equals. They held that external differences, such as rank and wealth, are of no importance in social relationships. Stoic Belief - The Philosophy Of Virtue And Ethics

1. Founded
by
ZENO of
Citium

11. Stoicism
 Stoicism originated as a Hellenistic
philosophy, founded in Athens by Zeno of
Citium (modern day Cyprus), c. 300 B.C.E.
 It was influenced by Socrates and the
Cynics, and it engaged in vigorous debates
with the Skeptics, the Academics, and the
Epicureans.
 The name comes from the Stoa Poikile, or
painted porch, an open market in Athens
where the original Stoics used to meet and
teach philosophy.

12. Stoicism
 Stoicism is a type of eudaimonic virtue ethics, asserting that
the practice of virtue is both necessary and sufficient to
achieve happiness (in the eudaimonic sense).
 Eudaimonia was the term that meant a life worth living,
often translated nowadays as “happiness” in the broad
sense, or more appropriately, flourishing.
 However, the Stoics also recognized the existence of
“indifferents” (to eudaimonia) that could nevertheless be
preferred (for example, health, wealth, education) or
dispreferred (for example, sickness, poverty, ignorance),
because they had (respectively, positive or negative)
planning value with respect to the ability to practice virtue.

13. Stoicism
 Man is a part of the universal order, a spark of the divine
fire, a small universe (microcosm) reflecting the great
universe (macrocosm).
 Hence it behooves him to act in harmony with the purpose
of the universe, to seek to fit his own purposes into the
larger design envisaged by the divine purpose, to reach the
highest possible measure of perfection.
 In order to do this, he must put his own soul in order;
reason should rule in him as reason rules the world. H e
ought to subordinate his w ill to the w ill of the world,
submit to the law of the universe, take his place in the great
order, and strive to do consciously, intelligently, and
voluntarily that which it is his office to do as a part of the
cosmos.

14. Stoicism
 To live according to nature, is, for a human being, to act in
conformity with reason, the logos.
 This is the full meaning of the Stoic injunction that we live
according to nature.
 For the Stoic ethics, virtue is the highest good and the
highest happiness, for only a virtuous life can be a happy
life.
 To live thus is to realize one’s self, and to realize one’s true
self is to serve the purposes of universal reason and to work
for universal ends.
 The Stoic ethical ideal implies a universal society of rational
beings with the same rights; for reason is the same in all,
and all are parts of the same world-soul.

15. Stoicism
 The same conclusions may be reached by a consideration of the
natural impulses of man; for, according to the Stoics, the universal
logos expresses itself in the lower instincts no less than in human
reason.
 Every being strives to preserve itself; self-preservation, not
pleasure, is the goal of impulse, and pleasure is merely a
concomitant of the successful realization of impulse.
 Yet individual self-preservation is not the only goal, for there is in-
herent in all living creatures an instinct to preserve the species, a
desire for something beyond themselves.
 With the development of reason man comes to regard his rational
nature as his true self, and finds-satisfaction in the perfection of
reason and the promotion of rational purposes everywhere.

16. Stoicism
 What he loves in him self he cannot but love in others. Theoretical
speculation is not, for Stoicism, an end in itself; reason is valued highly
only because it reveals to us our duty.
 Virtue is the only good and vice the only evil, all else is indifferent.
 According to the Stoic ideal, health, life, honor, wealth, rank, power,
friendship, success are not in themselves good; nor are death, disease,
disgrace, poverty, humble birth in themselves evil.
 Neither pleasure nor happiness is an absolute good; either may result
from action but neither should be made an end.
 The attainment of such things as pleasure and happiness is not in our
power; though the attitude we adopt toward them is in our control. Their
value depends on what use we make of them, on their bearing upon our
character; in themselves they are nothing. Virtue alone is intrinsically
worthwhile, and it alone can make man truly happy.

17. Stoicism
 A truly virtuous act is one that is consciously directed
toward the highest purpose or end, and is performed with
conscious knowledge of moral principles.
 Thus, virtuous conduct implies complete and certain
knowledge of the good and a conscious purpose, on the
part of the doer, to realize the supreme good.
 To act unconsciously and without knowledge is not virtue. If
we look at the matter in this way, virtue is one, for here
everything depends on the disposition, on the good will: a
man either has it or he has it not; there is no middle ground;
he is either a wise man or a fool. In this sense, where one
virtue is, all others are. The virtues are expressions of one
and the same disposition and, therefore, inseparably
connected with one another.

18. Stoicism
 The doctrine of the unity of virtue is the typically Stoic view
which Chrysippus alone among the Stoics did not accept.
 He held that virtue is not natural in man, but is acquired by
practice and through instruction.
 In as much as virtue implies complete knowledge, only a
mature man can possess it.
 The assumption underlying this view is that a man will act
according to his judgment, that he will naturally strive for
what appears good to him , and avoid what is evil. Hence,
evil conduct is the result of wrong judgment, or false
opinion: the Stoics sometimes regard evil as the cause,
sometimes as the effect, of the passions or immoderate
impulses.

19. Stoicism
 There are four such passions: pleasure, desire, grief, and fear.
 A false judgment of a present good arouses—or is aroused by—pleasure; of a future
good, desire; of a present evil, grief or pain; of a future evil, fear.
 All these passions and their many variations are diseases of the soul which it is our
business, not merely to moderate, but to eradicate, since they are irrational,
exaggerated feelings—the result of false opinion.
 Apathy or freedom from passion is, accordingly, the Stoic ideal. To attain it, complete
knowledge is necessary and such knowledge is connected with strength of will or
character.
 To be free from passion means to be brave and temperate, and it lies within the power
of the individual him self to decide whether he will obey the moral law or not.
 The will of man is, in this sense, free. It has been said that the Stoics in their metaphysics
teach determinism, and in their ethics free will; but the moral freedom postulated by the
Stoics is not really incompatible with the metaphysics of determinism.

20. Stoicism
 As influential as Zeno of Citium has been, nothing that he wrote has survived to modern day.
 Around 300 BC in Athens, he was one of the most revered teachers. His claim to fame is that he
founded Stoicism, a school of philosophy chiefly interested in how we ought to live.
 Our understanding of his approach to Stoicism, then, comes from second-hand sources. While the
philosophy has continued to evolve, with popular interpretations coming from great Romans like
Seneca and Marcus Aurelius, much of it grew on the roots Zeno nurtured.
 He divided his thinking into three categories: logic, which he equated with the study of things like
knowledge, perception, and thought; physics, which was his approach to nature and science; and
ethics, which concerned itself with the daily conduct of living and being.
 Out of these three, however, it was ethics that he was primarily interested in, seeing the other two
categories as means – a framework to support and carry his conclusions.
 Zeno’s ideas were built on older methodologies of the Cynics and the thinking of Socrates, but rather
than lean toward one side or the other, he mixed and matched as he saw fit.
 Naturally, there is some disagreement about what exactly Zeno’s system laid out and the finer details
of his approach, but in broad strokes, we can paint a fairly accurate picture.1
 It’s easy to get caught in the deeper mysteries of reality, and in the process, we sometimes forget to
pay attention to what it actually means to live as a matter of daily conduct. The Stoics, like Zeno,
showed how we can close this gap by:
• Living in accordance with our nature
• Seeing virtue as the source of goodness
• Having a neutral valuation of the world
 Today, the word stoic connotates resilience and fortitude, but there is more to it than that.

21. Stoicism
Living in Accordance With Our Nature
 Currently, science studies the natural world and tries to pinpoint it as either a means to other
ends, like controlling and predicting our surroundings, or simply as a thing of value in itself.
 In a Stoic worldview, these reasons may be good enough, and they can fit into the broader
framework, but they stop short of the primary reason for studying nature and its phenomena: to
better understand ourselves and how our personal actions fit into the cosmic dance.
 As beings of evolution, we have aspects of nature embedded into us. We have inclinations
toward both change and harmony, competition and cooperation, pursuits and comforts.
 Now, of course, certain traits have a stronger pull in some people than others, and when we are
young, many of these traits are raw, but as we age and as we experience, we can use reason
to move us away from instinct toward an understanding that accords with the world.
 If we follow this path of reason, what we are often left with are core motivations that drive us to
pursue our interests, core motivations that move us to take care of those around us, and core
motivations to overcome different challenges that life throws our way.
 The key thing to note here is that the Stoics were against blind romanticism, where feelings and
pleasures guide what we do. No, Zeno taught that we use experience and then refine it with
reason as a way to harmonize with the world and that’s what should guide us.
 Once a certain refinement has been reached, then its pull works like a compass, one we
shouldn’t fight if it’s telling us that we should go in the other direction when we are stuck.
 At any point in life, there is a larger wave around our body that gives form to many of our
characteristics, and it’s on us to both ride this wave and to let it flow through us as we do.

22. Stoicism
Seeing Virtue as the Source of Goodness
 Once we have a clear understanding of our relationship to both our nature and the broader nature, we are
absolved from all of the uncertainties that we are likely to face but one.
 This brings us to the core of the Stoic worldview: their ethics. At the end of the day, very little of this matters
unless, in some way, we change our actions, conducts, and ways of being.
 While using reason and experience to align ourselves with our surroundings is a start, it’s not the end. There
are still conflicts that we are likely to face, namely those that challenge us, where the broader nature is putting
undue stress on our own personal experience.
 When, for example, we get hurt, or when reality fails to meet our expectations, or when we lose people we
care about, there is clearly a conflict, and harmonizing things isn’t easy.
 Here Zeno would say that any action or conduct is right if it is simply good. And what does he mean by good?
Well, something is good if it is virtuous: when you use your reason to change what it is in your control (which
is your reaction) and let go of what isn’t (a problem).
 When you put virtue at the center, as the most meaningful thing to strive toward, you take full responsibility for
how you experience reality because virtue is born within you; not in the outside world. If something is wrong,
it’s because you are not matching your responsibility.
 It may be true that people are treating you unfairly, or that it wasn’t your fault, or that life in general is just hard,
but once a non-reversible event has occurred, you can do one of two things: fight it or harmonize with it. And if
you can’t change the world, the only way to harmonize with it is to change your reaction: to create goodness
by doing the virtuous thing.
 The better your reaction, the more virtuous of a life you live, and the more good you create.

23. Stoicism
Having A Neutral Valuation of the World
 The importance of virtue highlights the value of managing our internal reality: that what is good
and true comes from looking inward. Fair enough, but what about the outside world?
 If the only source of goodness is the part of us in charge of managing our reaction to outside
events, then what exactly is the point of caring about anything in the world surrounding us?
 This question is where Zeno and his followers diverged away from the Cynics, a different brand
of philosophers, who Zeno built his ideas on. The Cynics claimed that the outside world didn’t
matter at all. As long as you kept your internal world in check, you were fine.
 The Stoics, however, argued that it does matter. The objects we experience and live around
may not carry positive or negative values in themselves, but they play an important role.
 Everything in the outside world is neutral. In itself, it’s neither good nor bad; it simply is. That
said, the way our internal virtue and goodness interacts with this world is of consequence. For
example, it’s more preferable to avoid sickness by being cautious than to walk into it.
 Striving for health and wealth and community, things that help to preserve us, are natural and
preferable, as long as we don’t confuse them as the source of our virtue and goodness.
 Once we have refined our innate reason, and once we pursue the core motivations that it has
imbued in us, not interacting with this world of external objects would be an act against the
harmony. It would be creating a conflict where there otherwise would not be one.
 Many Stoics that lived after Zeno had a different relationship with the external reality and its
demands, making a case for things like duty, but they all agreed that it plays a key role.

24. Stoicism
 All You Need to Know
 It’s a simple idea: control what you can and let go of what you can’t. But it takes more than just
saying it and knowing it for it to truly kick into effect in the day to day business of living.
 Zeno of Citium, the first Stoic, may not have left behind a perfectly clear system for us to study,
but there is enough there to guide us toward our own variations of the framework.
 There are three key things we can learn from him:
1. Live in accordance with nature. By using our experience to study nature and then refining this
experience with reason, we can harmonize our drives with the broader reality around us. We are
a very small part of the cosmic dance, one that moves through us, and it’s our job to ensure that
we are living in ways that are honest to it.
2. See virtue as the source of goodness. If there is a conflict between our experience and the
broader nature, we can either fight against it or seek to harmonize with it. It’s our responsibility to
adjust our reactions to things once they have occurred and once they are outside our control.
Virtue and goodness are born from how well we do this.
3. Have a neutral valuation of the world. Things that exist externally aren’t good or bad in
themselves; they are neutral. Nonetheless, even though virtue is born within and goodness can
only be created internally, the external world does have a role to play. Health and wealth and
community are preferable to the alternatives.
 We may have our own terminology for it, but something like virtue is inherent in all of our
conceptual model of reality. Our job is simply to remember what we already know.
 Being stoic has a lot to do with being resilient and strong, yes, but it’s also a way of life.