THE FASCINATING STUDY OF ANCIENT STOICISM

Ancient Stoics such as Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca — 'The Younger' — told lessons from their time of war, exile and infectious diseases that some say are directly relevant to our lives under the coronavirus pandemic. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Have you ever used the word "stoic" to describe a person or an event? i.e. "He was very stoic in his handling of the situation." 

The word "stoic" commonly refers to someone who is indifferent to pain, pleasure, grief, or joy. The modern usage as a "person who represses feelings or endures patiently" was first cited in 1579 as a noun and in 1596 as an adjective. In contrast to the term "Epicurean", the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's

entry on Stoicism notes, "the sense of the English adjective 'stoical' is not utterly misleading with regard to its philosophical origins."

All very interesting, but how much do we really know about the history of Stoicism which amazingly pre-dates Christianity?

Truth be told, I certainly did not have an understanding of the origins of Stoicism until I invested in some pretty heavy research and (ongoing) study into the subject which I discovered to be fascinating. I don't mind admitting that I find myself buying into some of the ancient concepts and philosophy and being impressed with the advanced thinking of that time period.

Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century BC. It is a philosophy of personal ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world. According to its teachings, as social beings, the path to eudaimonia (happiness, or blessedness) is found in accepting the moment as it presents itself, by not allowing oneself to be controlled by the desire for pleasure or fear of pain, by using one's mind to understand the world and to do one's part in nature's plan, and by working together and treating others fairly and justly.

The Stoics are especially known for teaching that "virtue is the only good" for human beings, and that external things—such as health, wealth, and pleasure—are not good or bad in themselves (adiaphora), but have value as "material for virtue to act upon". Alongside Aristotelian ethics, the Stoic tradition forms one of the major founding approaches to virtue ethics. 

The Stoics also held that certain destructive emotions resulted from errors of judgment, and they believed people should aim to maintain a will (called prohairesis) that is "in accordance with nature". Because of this, the Stoics thought the best indication of an individual's philosophy was not what a person said, but how a person behaved. To live a good life, one had to understand the rules of the natural order since they thought everything was rooted in nature.

Stoicism flourished throughout the Roman and Greek world until the 3rd century AD, and among its adherents was Emperor Marcus Aurelius. It experienced a decline after Christianity became the state religion in the 4th century AD. Since then it has seen revivals, notably in the Renaissance and in the contemporary era (modern Stoicism).

Beginning around 301 BC, Zeno taught philosophy at the Stoa Poikile ("Painted Porch"), from which his philosophy got its name. Unlike the other schools of philosophy, such as the Epicureans, Zeno chose to teach his philosophy in a public space, which was a colonnade overlooking the central gathering place of Athens, the Agora.

Zeno's ideas developed from those of the Cynics, whose founding father, Antisthenes, had been a disciple of Socrates. Zeno's most influential follower was Chrysippus, who was responsible for the molding of what is now called Stoicism. Later Roman Stoics focused on promoting a life in harmony within the universe, over which one has no direct control.

Stoicism became the foremost popular philosophy among the educated elite in the Hellenistic world and the Roman Empire, to the point where, in the words of Gilbert Murray "nearly all the successors of Alexander professed themselves Stoics."

According to the Stoics, the Universe is a material reasoning substance, known as God or Nature, which was divided into two classes: the active and the passive. The passive substance is matter, which "lies sluggish, a substance ready for any use, but sure to remain unemployed if no one sets it in motion". The active substance, which can be called Fate or Universal Reason (Logos), is an intelligent aether or primordial fire, which acts on the passive matter.

 
Stoic theology is a fatalistic and naturalistic pantheism: God is never fully transcendent but always immanent, and identified with Nature. Abrahamic religions personalize God as a world-creating entity, but Stoicism equates God with the totality of the universe; according to Stoic cosmology, which is very similar to the Hindu conception of existence, there is no absolute start to time, as it is considered infinite and cyclic. Similarly, the space and Universe have neither start nor end, rather they are cyclical. The current Universe is a phase in the present cycle, preceded by an infinite number of Universes, doomed to be destroyed and re-created again, and to be followed by another infinite number of Universes. Stoicism considers all existence as cyclic, the cosmos as eternally self-creating and self-destroying.

Stoicism just like Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, does not posit a beginning or end to the Universe. According to the Stoics, the logos was the active reason or anima mundi pervading and animating the entire Universe. It was conceived as material and is usually identified with God or Nature.

The first philosophers to explicitly describe nominalist arguments were the Stoics, especially Chrysippus.

Ancient stoics are often misunderstood because the terms they used pertained to different concepts than today. The word "stoic" has since come to mean "unemotional" or indifferent to pain because Stoic ethics taught freedom from "passion" by following "reason". The Stoics did not seek to extinguish emotions; rather, they sought to transform them by a resolute "askēsis", that enables a person to develop clear judgment and inner calm. Logic, reflection, and concentration were the methods of such self-discipline. Temperance is split into self-control, discipline and modesty.

For the Stoics, reason meant not only using logic, but also understanding the processes of nature—the logos or universal reason, inherent in all things. Living according to reason and virtue, they held, is to live in harmony with the divine order of the universe, in recognition of the common reason and essential value of all people.

The four cardinal virtues of Stoic philosophy is a classification derived from the teachings of Plato: Courage, Justice and Temperance.

Following Socrates, the Stoics held that unhappiness and evil are the results of human ignorance of the reason in nature. If someone is unkind, it is because they are unaware of their own universal reason, which leads to the conclusion of unkindness. The solution to evil and unhappiness then is the practice of Stoic philosophy: to examine one's own judgments and behavior and determine where they diverge from the universal reason of nature.

In his introduction to the 1964 Penguin Classics edition of "Meditations", the Anglican priest Maxwell Staniforth discussed the profound impact Stoicism had on Christianity. He claimed the author of the Fourth Gospel declared Christ to be the Logos, which "had long been one of the leading terms of Stoicism, chosen originally for the purpose of explaining how deity came into relation with the universe." In St. Ambrose of Milan's Duties, "The voice is the voice of a Christian bishop, but the precepts are those of Zeno."

It is known that the apostle Paul met with Stoics during his stay in Athens, reported in Acts 17:16. In his letters, the Apostle Paul reflected heavily from his knowledge of Stoic philosophy, using Stoic terms and metaphors to assist his new Gentile converts in their understanding of Christianity. 

The Fathers of the Church regarded Stoicism as a "pagan philosophy"; nonetheless, early Christian writers employed some of the central philosophical concepts of Stoicism. Examples include the terms "logos", "virtue", "Spirit", and "conscience". But the parallels go well beyond the sharing and borrowing of terminology.

Both Stoicism and Christianity assert an inner freedom in the face of the external world, a belief in human kinship with Nature or God, a sense of the innate depravity—or "persistent evil"—of humankind, and the futility and temporary nature of worldly possessions and attachments. Both encourage Ascesis with respect to the passions and inferior emotions, such as lust, and envy, so that the higher possibilities of one's humanity can be awakened and developed.

Stoic writings such as Meditations by Marcus Aurelius have been highly regarded by many Christians throughout the centuries. The Eastern Orthodox Church and Oriental Orthodox Church accept the Stoic ideal of dispassion to this day.

Middle and Roman Stoics taught that sex is just within marriage, for unitive and procreative purposes only. This teaching is accepted by the Catholic Church to this day.

In my next Wrights Lane post I will talk about Stoicism as it relates to the 21st Century.