Stoicism

Founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium, Stoicism held that virtue alone is the highest good and that external circumstances — wealth, power, health — are indifferent to the well-lived life. By the Roman era, Stoics like Marcus Aurelius had developed it into the most practical and enduring philosophy of antiquity: a guide to equanimity in the face of fate.

Core Ideas

Virtue (wisdom, justice, courage, temperance) is the only true good

External events are 'indifferent' — only our judgements of them are in our control

The logos: a rational, providential principle governs the cosmos

Live according to nature — align the will with universal reason

Received From

← Aristotelianism

Passed Forward

Neoplatonism →

Philosophers