philosophy, which grew up in Athens around 300 B.C. Its founder was Zeno,
who came originally from Cyprus and joined the Cynics in Athens after being
shipwrecked. He used to gather his followers under a portico. The name
“Stoic” comes from the Greek word for portico (stoo). Stoicism was later to
have great significance for Roman culture.
Like Heraclitus, the Stoics believed that everyone was a part of the
same common sense—or “logos.” They thought that each person was like a
world in miniature, or “microcosmos,” which is a reflection of the “macro-
cosmos.”
This led to the thought that there exists a universal right-ness, the so-
called natural law. And because this natural law was based on timeless
human and universal reason, it did not alter with time and place. In this, then,
the Stoics sided with Socrates against the Sophists.
Natural law governed all mankind, even slaves. The Stoics considered
the legal statutes of the various states merely as incomplete imitations of the
“law” embedded in nature itself.
In the same way that the Stoics erased the difference between the
individual and the universe, they also denied any conflict between “spirit” and
“matter.” There is only one nature, they averred. This kind of idea is called
monism (in contrast to Plato’s clear dualism or two-fold reality).
As true children of their time, the Stoics were distinctly “cosmopolitan,” in
that they were more receptive to contemporary culture than the “barrel
philosophers” (the Cynics). They drew attention to human fellowship, they
were preoccupied with politics, and many of them, notably the Roman
Emperor Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 121-180), were active statesmen. They
encouraged Greek culture and philosophy in Rome, one of the most
distinguished of them being the orator, philosopher, and statesman Cicero
(106-43 B.C.). It was he who formed the very concept of “humanism”—that is,
a view of life that has the individual as its central focus. Some years later, the
Stoic Seneca (4 B.C.-A.D. 65) said that “to mankind, mankind is holy.” This
has remained a slogan for humanism ever since.
The Stoics, moreover, emphasized that all natural processes, such as
sickness and death, follow the unbreakable laws of nature. Man must
therefore learn to accept his destiny. Nothing happens accidentally.
Everything happens through necessity, so it is of little use to complain when
fate comes knocking at the door. One must also accept the happy events of
life unperturbed, they thought. In this we see their kinship with the Cynics,
who claimed that all external events were unimportant. Even today we use the
term “stoic calm” about someone who does not let his feelings take over.
The Epicureans
As we have seen, Socrates was concerned with finding out how man
could live a good life. Both the Cynics and the Stoics interpreted his
philosophy as meaning that man had to free himself from material luxuries.
But Socrates also had a pupil named Aristippus. He believed that the aim of
life was to attain the highest possible sensory enjoyment. “The highest good is
pleasure,” he said, “the greatest evil is pain.” So he wished to develop a way
of life whose aim was to avoid pain in all forms. (The Cynics and the Stoics
believed in enduring pain of all kinds, which is not the same as setting out to
avoid pain.)