1. What stoicism is?

The Stoics believed that virtue is enough to achieve eudaimonia, a well-lived, flourishing life. They identified
the path to achieving it with a life spent practicing certain virtues in everyday life such as courage or
temperance and living in accordance with nature.
The Stoics are especially known for teaching that “virtue is the only good” for human beings, and that external
things—such as health, wealth, and pleasure—are not good or bad in themselves (adiaphora), but have value as
“material for virtue to act upon”. Many Stoics—such as Seneca and Epictetus—emphasized that because “virtue
is sufficient for happiness”, a sage would be emotionally resilient to misfortune.
In a more general sense, stoicism also refers to the endurance of pain or hardship without the display of feelings
and without complaint.

2. History and growth

Early Stoa (300BC – 100BC): Zeno of Citium developed his school of Stoicism from the ideas of Cynicism,
which prioritize virtue and simplicity and started his teaching in the Stoa Poikile (the Painted Porch) in the
center of Athens, which why the name of his philosophy was called Stoicism
Middle Stoa (100BC – 0): The center of Stoicism started to shift from Athens to Rhodes and Rome. Moreover,
Panaetius, the seventh scholarch, simplified Stoic ideas about physics and was less interested in logic, which
moved the Stoic philosophy closer to Neoplatonism and made it more accessible
Late Stoa (1st and 2nd century AD): The only sources about stoicism still in existence are from this period

3. Logic of Stoicism
Was shaped by Chrisippus, the third head of the Stoic school in the 3rd century BCE
The smallest unit in Stoic logic is an assertible (the Stoic equivalent of a proposition) which is the content of a
statement such as “it is day”. Assertibles have a truth-value such that they are only true or false depending on
when it was expressed
Dialectic: This is the formal abstract reasoning that constitutes logic in antiquity
Rhetoric: This is another principal division of Stoic logic, dealing with the art of effective or persuasive
speaking or writing
Philosophy of Language and Truth (Epistemology): This examines the nature and scope of knowledge,
including the relationships between truth, belief, and justification
Canonic (Epistemology), which refers to the theory of how we gain knowledge or certainty
 4. Doctrine of indifferents
It holds that virtue alone is good and vice alone is bad. Everything else traditionally assigned a positive or
negative value – health or illness, wealth or poverty, sight or blindness, even life or death – is considered
'indifferent’
These ‘indifferents’ are neither good nor bad in themselves, but they can be used as material for virtue to act
upon. This doctrine encourages the belief that we should focus on things that are under our control and not
worry about external forces

5. Stoic physics
It refers to the natural philosophy of the Stoic philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome, which they used to
explain the natural processes at work in the universe
-Monism: The cosmos is a single cohesive unit, with all parts depending on mutual exchange.
-Materialism: The Stoics asserted that everything, including abstract qualities such as wisdom and justice, are
bodies
-Dynamism: Nature of the world is one of unceasing change, driven by the active part or reason (logos) of God.
-Cosmology: The cosmos proceeds from an original state in utmost heat and eventually will be reabsorbed into
the primary substance.
-Determinism: All things are determined, but humans have freedom and responsibility within the causal
network of fate.
-Human soul: The good for a human is to be fully rational, behaving as Nature does in the natural order.

6. Impacts to the world and society

-Modern thought: It has influenced contemporary intellectual movements such as existentialism, cognitive-
behavioral therapy, and positive psychology
-Christianity: Stoicism subtly influenced the development of Christianity
-Revolutionaries: The example of Cato, a famous Stoic, inspired the American revolutionaries
-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Stoic principles inspired CBT, the most common form of talking
treatment
-Relevance in Modern Times: Modern Stoicism targets the roots of our problems, the way that humanity
perceives and processes adversity and hardship
-Influence during Renaissance and Reformation: In the development of a philosophy of public law based upon a
study of human nature, Stoic elements are found in works by Thomas More and Hugo Grotius
-Promotion of Unity: Stoic moral theory is based on the view that the world is a unity and humans have an
obligation to all things in that city
-Mental Health: Stoicism promotes mindful attention to one’s own emotional state and behavior, leading to
wellbeing