Stoicism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

proposed instead that a kind of life-giving breath (pneuma, later translated into Latin as spiritus) was the animating force in the world.

Not only, then, are the Stoics determinists (perhaps the earliest determinists of the western tradition) but they are also providential determinists.

Not being philosophers, we too might turn to philosophy as a source of perspective, reflection, and guidance; his book is a kind of philosophical diary, intensely personal and idiosyncratic. For Marcus, Stoic philosophy is often held at arm’s length, as it is by many of us.

If there is any value in the arcane reconstructions of the ancient school for the modern thinker intrigued by Stoicism, it lies in this grand, integrative vision of a good human life, guided by the relentless and unsentimental use of reason in a quest for the best available understanding of the orderly world around us.

As Socrates said, no one does wrong willingly, and presumably the thing to do is to teach such people rather than to get angry or vengeful.

In his version of this Stoic doctrine, the wise person will never strive for or aim unconditionally to retain anything that could not be reliably secured by his or her own efforts—and that is the improvement of his or her own character and intellectual condition.

even though my actions are causally determined, they are very much my own; personal agency is preserved.

If life hands out lemons, the Stoic will certainly try making lemonade, but if that doesn’t work she’ll at least know why and be able to manage nicely.

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