Stoicism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

Philo stepped up to the plate and proposed that the possible is a proposition that is capable of being true in its own nature and the necessary is a proposition that is true and in its own nature cannot be false; definitions of the non-necessary and the impossible followed from these.

This rejection of a separate divine sphere marks another and very important difference between the Stoics and the Aristotelian/Platonic traditions. Stoics regarded the universe as a more radical unity, with the divine power that sustains it (something that both Plato and Aristotle believed in, unlike the atomists) not hived off into a distinct meta

The possible is what is capable of being true and is not prevented from being true by external factors.

the repetition of the world cycles is an issue of only theoretical interest to humans, since our lives are confined to one of the cycles. It is clear that the Stoics believed that the recurring cycles are essentially the same, but there seems to have been some disagreement about whether their eternal recurrence involves exactly identical objects an

Chrysippus they developed a version of a position now labelled ‘compatibilism’, which maintains that full causal determination is compatible with meaningful choices made by human beings. Our actions, the Stoics proposed, are the product of two factors, stimuli from our environmental circumstances (usually referred to as ‘impressions’) and reactions

It was, then, in ethics and to some extent in social and political theory that Stoicism came to play an important role as an influence on the development of modern thought.

The intellectual attraction of ancient Stoicism as we’ve come to understand it in modern academic study lies above all in its integration, in its vision of a way of life rooted in the use of reason to navigate life and fulfil our nature as human beings, in the context of the best available understanding of our place in the world.

To the extent that Stoic logic played a supporting role in the ancient school we should be able to replace it with modern theories and practices of reasoning—as indeed many modern Stoics in practice do.

remember how the Stoics explain human action. Our decisions are all caused, but each is caused by two factors: external considerations and one’s own character.