If we look at Stoicism as a philosophical system,
we can divide it in three pillars:
Ethics, Logic and Physics. Some scholars
arrange these aspects of Stoicism in the form
of an egg. The yolk represents the Physics;
the white, the Ethics; and the shell
the Logic. According to the scholars, Physics
is at the core of Stoicism because without knowledge about
the workings of the Universe, Ethics are
kind of difficult to determine. In comparison to the
fluidity of Ethics, the solidity of Logic
forms the shell. Based on the Stoic egg,
I will present you the three pillars of Stoicism.
Before I explain each aspect of Stoic
philosophy, starting with the shell and
ending with the yolk, I want to point out
that these aspects are interdependent, and
without the one or the other, the system will collapse.
So, let's dive in.
1: Logic
We might take our rational thinking about cause and effect for granted,
but, in the past, human thinking didn't always
work that way, and to be honest,
there are still many people these days that feel to come up with logical
arguments, and are entirely led
by their emotions. Logic is an art.
Wise men among the Stoics were skilled
in philosophical debate. Diogenes, one
of the surviving sources for Stoic Logic,
said, and I quote:
We could say that Logic is not only the
hard shell that holds Ethics and Physics together,
but also the firm and solid art of reasoning
that must be mastered in order to engage in
other aspects of Stoic philosophy. Stoic
Logic is based in language rules, like propositions
that are either good or false. An example:
if you are watching this video during the day,
take a look out of the window. Most likely,
it's light outside. Thus, you can make the following proposition:
"It is light".
If it's indeed daytime, this proposition is true,
but in the middle of the night, this proposition is false.
To explain this we can add a bit more complexity
to the argument and make the following proposition:
"If it is day, it is light".
According to the Stoics, the system of reason is
what governs our universe. They call this "Logos",
hence the word "Logic", which is
widely used around the globe to indicate the
principles of existence.
2: Ethics
What acts are appropriate and what acts are not appropriate. Let's use the
drawing hand for this one. To keep it a bit organized,
the Stoics argued that once we have mastered the
art of reason, we can determine our
Ethics. They distinguished virtue, which
always contributes to happiness, and vice,
which always contributes to misery.
The Stoics subdivided virtue into
four classifications: Moderation,
Justice, Courage and Wisdom.
In the same way, they subdivided vice into
Injustice, Cowardice, Intemperance
and Foolishness. Between vice and
virtue lies a huge gray area
of things that are not necessarily bad nor
necessarily good. This class is
called "indifferents" by the Stoics. Whether
or not to display moral behavior
by engaging in this indifferents depends on the context
and, again, your ability to reason
helps you decide how to act.
In other words, indifferents aren't necessarily harmful
or contributing to happiness, it
depends on the way you use them.
So, how to use them? According to Zeno of Citium
founder of the Stoic school of philosophy, the goal
of life is to smoothly float along with the
natural course. He stated, and I quote:
Of course, virtue is in perfect agreement with nature,
while vice goes against nature.
When it comes to indifferents, the Stoics distinguished
preferred indifferents and dispreferred indifferents
Examples of preferred indifferents are:
strength, wealth, pleasure and
a good reputation. These attributes are positive
in regards our natural condition, but don't necessarily
lead to happiness. Examples of dispreferred
indifferents are: disease, weakness,
ugliness, poverty,
and low reputation. These attributes are negative
in regards to our natural condition, but don't
necessarily lead to misery. Again,
the way these indifferents are used determines
if they lead to a happy life or not. I must
that there's more to Ethics within Stoicism, but these
are the basics.
3: Physics
Leaving according to nature requires and understanding of nature. The Stoic concept of Physics
can as well be named "nature",
because we cannot really compare it to our modern
metaphysics. In short, Stoic Physics
are simply the understanding of the universe. Like
Ethics, Stoic Physics is a vast system
of ideas and concepts, so I will talk about
the basics. The Stoics believed in a god-like entity
named "Logos", which was the all-encompassing
force of reason. In their view, existence is
based in matter and pneuma. "Matter" is
everything our senses can perceive, but is
passive and lifeless on itself, and also destroyable.
The active force behind the ever-chaning manifestation of the cosmos
is what the Stoics called "pneuma", which is
completely mingled with the [???] of matter, and
cannot be destroyed. The famous Stoic Chrysippus
described pneuma as the vehicle of Logos,
that structures matter. Simply put,
pneuma makes the universe alive.
The movement of stars and planets, the existence of
life, the waves of the sea,
all is propelled by pneuma, and is based on the
rational principle of Logos.
The Stoics believed that everything is already determined.
However, they also argued that there are countless
of other realities depending on what choices
we make, and thus, many different paths
to follow. This soft determinism is
very similar to islamic and christian views. On one
hand, our destinies are written in the stars
and, on the other hand, we still have free-will.
It isn't a surprise that Stoicism had a
profound impact on christianity, and has
a lot of common [???] with islam as well. Also,
Taoism and Buddhism are suspiciously similar
to Stoicism in several ways.
Well, that's it. Thank you for watching.