Stoicism

Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early 3rd century BC. The Stoics taught that emotions resulted in errors of judgment which were destructive, due to the active relationship between cosmic determinism and human freedom, and the belief that it is virtuous to maintain a will (called prohairesis) that is in accord with nature. Because of this, the Stoics presented their philosophy as a way of life (lex devina), and they thought that the best indication of an individual's philosophy was not what a person said but how that person behaved. To live a good life, one had to understand the rules of the natural order since they taught that everything was rooted in nature.

Later Stoics—such as Seneca and Epictetus—emphasized that, because "virtue is sufficient for happiness", a sage was immune to misfortune. This belief is similar to the meaning of the phrase "stoic calm", though the phrase does not include the "radical ethical" Stoic views that only a sage can be considered truly free, and that all moral corruptions are equally vicious.

From its founding, Stoic doctrine was popular with a following in Roman Greece and throughout the Roman Empire—including the Emperor Marcus Aurelius—until the closing of all pagan philosophy schools in AD 529 by order of the Emperor Justinian I, who perceived them as being at odds with Christian faith.

In the Renaissance there was Neostoicism, that is a syncretic philosophical movement, joining Stoicism and Christianity, influenced by Justus Lipsius. The early 21st century witnesses another reincarnation of Stoicism, namely the modern Stoicism movement.

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