STOICS

STOICS
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Ethical philosophy of equality
“All men are equal by divine right since all men are of
divine origin”

Epictetus viewed the natural law as a discipline

engraved, as it were, in the heart and mind of human
beings.

Natural Law
-the core of human personality and dignity enabling
a person to act with righteousness and justice.
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•The ancient Stoics were PANTHEIST

•Natural Law
• The means by which a rational being lived in accordance
with cosmic order
• Indifferent to the divine or natural source of the law

•Believed that God is everywhere and in everyone

•They think of philosophy is a “way of life”
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4 UNIT-IDEAS WHICH EXPRESS
HOW MANS LINKED TO
GOD’s UNVERSAL LAW
Reason
Common Notions
Seeds
Sparks
REASON
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Man, distinct in this from all other things,
has a REASON of his own.

Animals, having only natural impulse to

guide them, follow impulse in acting
naturally.

Men, being endowed with natural reason,

in acting naturally follow not impulse but
REASON.
COMMON NOTION
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Certain ideas arise in the reasoning of all men and these are
the PRECONCEPTONS or COMMON NOTIONS
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“By nature, we are all born with the SEEDS of virtue….
We must develop them with learning of virtue” ---a Geek fragment
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SPARKS
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Nature, as the primary element fire, implants SPARK in man.
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At birth man has the faculty to reason, the
ability to form common notions, the seeds
of knowledge, and the spark of divinity.

This gift gives man not the full blown

knowledge of natural law, but the
potentiality to attain this knowledge.
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NATURAL LAW IS KNOWABLE BY MEN WHO
DEVELOP THEIR GOD-GIVEN FACULTIES.