Stoics
the name applied to a body of philosophers who flourished first in Greece about the 4th century, but whose influence finally spread over the whole classical world. Their place in the history of philosophy is immediately after Plato and Aristotle. They divided philosophy into three parts-logic, physics, and ethics. "Logic supplies the method for attaining to true knowledge; physics teach the nature and order of the universe; and ethics draw thence the inferences for practical life." The only means we have of knowing about a thing is by the impression it makes on us: but we have many impres- STOICS sions which are certainly false: how are we to discriminate between the false and true? The Stoics answered this by asserting that a true impression would come home to us by a sort of "striking evidence." The irresistible force of truth would influence our minds in a way that false impressions were utterly unable to do. Being true, they would force us to believe they were true. In their physics (which were really metaphysics) the stoics enunciated a theory of pantheism.
Material goods are of no importance to the individual, save in so far as they aid him in the pursuit of virtue. The ideal of virtue is painted in the stoic picture of the "Wise Man." Living absolutely in accord with the central principle of the universe, he possesses all knowledge and all aptitudes. He alone is the true statesman, king, educator, critic and physician. In social life none but he can be a true friend. Absolutely independent of earthly things, he leads a life undisturbed by their ceaseless mutations.
The founder of stoicism was Zeno (340-260 в. c.), who opened his school in the "many colored portico" (Stoa poecile); hence the name of the sect.
After him came Cleanthes, surnamed the Ass from his stubborn patience. Then Chrysippus of Soli in Cilicia who died about 208 B. C. He wrote, it is said, 705 different works, and to him is due the regular exposition of stoicism as a system of philosophy. After him we have a new period. When Greece was brought under subjection to Rome, her systems of philosophy became known to her conquerors, and no system had more adherents than stoicism. Panætius and Posidonius, later rulers of the Porch, were friends of the younger Scipio, Cicero, and Pompey. It is essentially the philosophy of Cicero; its influence is felt in Tacitus, and many references in Horace, Juvenal, and Persius as to the external and internal characteristics of the school show its place in the Roman world.
Among its later adherents were Seneca the tutor and victim of Nero; the slave Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor. Its influence was felt in the composition of the Roman law.
Specially stoical, though not stoical alone, was the conception of the Law of Nature, "which Nature teaches all animals."
Though stoicism as a system fell to pieces with the ancient world, it essentially reappeared in the ascetic forms of Christianity and other religions. But the reason is, not that they were descended from stoicism, but that both came from a common source.
STOKHOD