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Stoicism

Stoicism is a branch of philosophy that originated during the Hellenistic period of the ancient Greeks. The name is derived from the Greek word “stoa”, which referred to the “stoa poikile”, a covered porch area in the Athens marketplace where the original disciples of the school would gather for their meetings. It was founded circa 300 BC by Zeno of Citium and was generally thought of as the contrasting philosophy to Epicureanism, another popular movement of the day. Well-known Stoics include Cicero, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius.

The Stoics held three fields of interest above all else: naturalistic ethics, formal logic and materialistic physics, with the focus on ethics as being of the highest importance to human knowledge because it served as a roadmap and guide to living a good life. They sought to empower the individual by way of virtue, wisdom and integrity and advocated the disconnection from emotions that prevented one from achieving intellectual and moral fulfillment. They promoted virtue, the natural law and reason as the tools by which man could conquer untoward or distracting negative emotions and sufferings and believed that the ultimate way to diminish suffering was to diminish desires. In this sense, they held similar beliefs as the Buddhists of Eastern philosophy.

Web Resources On Stoicism

SEP: Stoicism
IEP: Stoicism

Book Resources On Stoicism

Stoicism: Traditions and Transformations by Steven K. Strange (Editor), Jack Zupko (Editor)
The Cambridge Companion to the Stoics by Brad Inwood (Editor)

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