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Stoicism is a school of
Hellenistic philosophy that flourished in ancient Greece and Rome. The Stoics
believed that the universe operated according to reason, i.e. by a God which is
immersed in nature itself. Of all the schools of ancient philosophy, Stoicism
made the greatest claim to being utterly systematic. The Stoics provided a
unified account of the world, constructed from ideals of logic, monistic
physics, and naturalistic ethics.
These three ideals constitute virtue which is necessary for 'living a well
reasoned life', seeing as they are all parts of a logos, or philosophical
discourse, which includes the mind's rational dialogue with itself.
Stoicism was founded in the ancient Agora of Athens by Zeno of Citium around
300 BC, and flourished throughout the Greco-Roman world until the 3rd century
AD, and among its adherents was Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Along with
Aristotelian term logic, the system of propositional logic developed by the
Stoics was one of the two great systems of logic in the classical world. It was
largely built and shaped by Chrysippus, the third head of the Stoic school in
the 3rd century BC. Chrysippus's logic differed from term logic because it was
based on the analysis of propositions rather than terms.
For the Stoics, logic was the part of
philosophy which examined reason. To achieve a happy life; a life worth living,
requires logical thought. The Stoics held that an understanding of ethics was
impossible without logic. In the words of Inwood, the Stoics believed that:
'Logic helps a person see what is the case, reason effectively about practical
affairs, stand his or her ground amid confusion, differentiate the certain from
the probable, and so forth'.
To the Stoics, logic was a wide field of knowledge which included the study of
language, grammar, rhetoric and epistemology. However, all of these fields were
interrelated, and the Stoics developed their logic within the context of their
theory of language and epistemology.
My Icon: A statue of Zeno of Citium. |