ZENO & STOICISM

Zeno’s 3-part Philosophy of Logic, Physics and Ethics

Zeno of Citium (334–262 BCE), a Phoenician (although some say he was Greek because of his name and education) was the man credited for creating Stoicism.

Statue bust of Zeno. Cast in Pushkin museum from original in Naples.

This is the philosophy that followers find liberating and joyful, while detractors deemed harsh and pitiless. Influenced by Socrates’ moral philosophy (“Anytus and Meletus can kill me but not harm me”) and Heraclitus’ natural philosophy (“everything is and is not at the same time”), Stoicism can be summarised by three essential beliefs:

1. that virtue is sufficient for happiness;
2. (2) that other goods should be regarded with indifference;
3. and (3) that the world is providentially ordered by God (ie. pantheism).

The aim of Stoicism is to attain eudoimonia, which roughly translates to happiness or “human flourishing” (since there’s no direct translation from Greek).

This is pretty similar to Aristotle’s moral philosophy, which advocates that both eudaemonia and virtue are linked. A point to note is that virtue in Greek is “arete” and isn’t strictly moral. It means more like kind of excellence. For example, a good knife is a sharp knife, therefore the knife’s virtue is its sharpness.

Greek bronze bust of Aristotle by Lysippos (c. 330 BCE)

The Death of Socrates by Jacques Louis David (Oil on canvas, 1787)

To this end, the Stoics differ from Aristotelians as the former believes that virtue is sufficient for eudaimonia. Meaning, that if a virtuous person (ie. Stoic) lives a poor life without shelter or sufficient food, he still has a chance at eudaemonia because these “other goods” have nothing to do with his virtuous character. For the Stoics, virtue is the limit of happiness.

Fun fact: Apparently, Zeno was a haggard, dark-skinned person who lived an ascetic life despite his wealth. More on this later.