Stoicism

Before reading the text answer the questions:

 

1. What Hellenistic philosophies do you know?

2. What have you heard about the school of Stoicism?

 

Read the following text quickly without a dictionary and find out the following information:

 

1. Why was the therapy called Stoicism?

2. What are the main ideas of this philosophy?

3. Why was it thought that human beings were essentially brothers?

4. How do you understand the phrase: "Stoicism was a therapy of choice for individuals who were still trying to bring order out of the chaos"?

 

The school of Stoicism was founded by Zeno (c.336-c.265 B.C.) in the late 4th century. Zeno was born at Citium, a small Phoenician-Greek city on Cyprus. His father, Mnaseas, was a merchant and, according to Diogenes Laertius, he brought back many Socratic books to Zeno when he was still a boy. At the age of twenty-two Zeno went to Athens and in 300 he started his school, first called the Zenonians and later called the Stoics because he gave his lectures in the Stoa Poikile, or Painted Colonnade, where he soon became a familiar part of Athenian intellectual life. His followers were known as the Stoics or "Colonnaders.

Zeno taught that a single, divine plan governed the universe. To find happiness, one must act in harmony with this divine plan. By cultivating a sense of duty and self-discipline, one can learn to accept their fate – they will then achieve some kind of inner peace, freedom and tranquility. The Stoics believed that all people belong to the single family of mankind and so one should not withdraw from the world, but try to make something of the world. The Stoics believed that the universe contained a principle of order, called the Divine Fire, God or Divine Reason (Logos). This was the principle that formed the basis for reality -- it permeated all things. Because men was part of the universe, he too shared in the Logos. Since reason was common to all, human beings were essentially brothers -- it made no difference whether one were Greek, barbarian, free man or slave since all mankind were fellow citizens of a world community. It was the Stoics who took the essentials of Socratic thought -- a morality of self-mastery based on knowledge -- and applied it beyond the Athenian polis to the world community.

By teaching that there was a single divine plan called Logos, and that the world constituted a single society, it was Zeno who gave perfect expression to the cosmopolitan nature of the post-Alexandrine world. Stoicism, then, offered an answer to the problem of alienation and fragmentation created by the decline of the polis. Surrounded by a world of uncertainty, Stoicism promised individual happiness.

Stoicism is therapy which reflected the change in man's social and political life during the Hellenistic Age. On the one hand, therapy suggests a disenchantment with the overtly political world of a Pericles or Thucydides, Athenian or Spartan. So, it can be seen as direct reactions to the philosophy of both Plato and Aristotle. On the other hand, the Stoics also reflect profound social changes within Greece itself. Greek society had become more complex and more urban as a result of Alexander's conquests. Politics fell into the hands of the wealthy few and the citizens were left with nothing. And Hellenistic politics became little more than an affair of aristocrats and their bureaucratic lackeys and experts.

Hellenistic philosophers questioned such an order and in general, turned to the inner harmony of the individual – a form of therapy with which to deal with an increasingly cold and impersonal world. This is an ironic situation. A culture congratulates itself that it has been able to progress from simplicity to complexity. But with complexity – improvement? progress? – the control of one's life seems to fall away. We are not in control since control is in the hands of unidentifiable entities.

Given this, Hellenistic Greeks turned to personal philosophies – therapies – for comfort. What do we turn to? Do we turn inward? No! the majority of us "find ourselves" reflected in things external to us. We become members of "the club," losing our own identity in collective identities. We are asked to say, "don't worry, be happy." In the Hellenistic world, Stoicism became the point of view and therapy of choice for individuals who were still trying to bring order out of the chaos of Hellenistic life.

 

Ex. 1. Use the context of the article to work out the meaning of these words:

- divine plan

- to withdraw

- to permit smth

- to reflect

- profound

- simplicity

- complexity

 

Ex. 2. Give a short summary of the article in 4-5 sentences.