Stoicism

Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy that flourished in ancient Greece and Rome.^[1] The Stoics believed that the universe operated according to reason, i.e. by a God which is immersed in nature itself.^[2] Of all the schools of ancient philosophy, Stoicism made the greatest claim to being utterly systematic.^[3] The Stoics provided a unified account of the world, constructed from ideals of logic, monistic physics, and naturalistic ethics.^[4] 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.^[5]

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 BCE. Chrysippus's logic differed from term logic because it was based on the analysis of propositions rather than terms.

Stoicism experienced a decline after Christianity became the state religion in the 4th century AD. Since then, it has seen revivals, notably in the Renaissance (Neostoicism) and in the contemporary era.^[6]