Humans devote much of their time and energy to finding and maintaining happiness.
Just as many people today reach for self-help books or go to therapy to feel better, the Stoics of ancient Greece used philosophy as a means of “healing the soul” and achieving eudaimonia – the principle of living according to one’s true nature.
But Stoicism did not simply appear one day as a static set of beliefs and guidelines. Its history encompasses several centuries of great thinkers who all brought a few of their unique perspectives to the philosophical practice.
Let’s take a look at what Stoicism is, what the Stoics believed, and how this ancient philosophy still manages to remain relevant today.
What is Stoicism?
Stoicism originated in Athens during the 3rd century BC.
A group of thinkers started meeting by the painted porch (or Stoa) of the Athenian open market. This was during the Hellenistic Period, a time when philosophers used their intellect to tackle what they viewed as the most important issues faced by humans.
To the Stoics, philosophy was far from an esoteric discipline. It was a way to confront political, social, and personal issues that affected the lives of every individual.
Fate was one crucial part of the Stoic beliefs. The Stoics saw the universe as being imbued with what they called “divine logos.” This was the divine will of God, which dictated the fate of everything in the universe.
To them, God and the universe were inseparable because God inhabited every living and non-living thing. This gave them their particular destiny or divine fate.
But even though they believed in fate, the Stoics did not deny the existence of free will. Instead, they believed that free will and fate interacted in such a way that a person could still influence the events in their lives.
Principle of Divine Logos
Divine logos remained a pervasive force that shaped the lives of every individual. This meant that the best thing a person could do was to embrace their true nature as rational animals and learn to temper their emotions.
This exercise of control over one’s emotions was typical of Stoic philosophy because above all, Stoicism was about using philosophical principles to improve one’s life. The Stoics saw their philosophy as a tool for achieving individual well-being.
They believed that if a person could adhere to all of the tenets of Stoicism, they could achieve the status of a sage. In other words, a state of ethical perfection.
To help reach that level of Stoic perfection, the Stoic philosophers developed four interrelated cardinal virtues: courage, justice, temperance, and wisdom. By cultivating these virtues, a person could approach sage-like perfection and become an example to others.
These are the basic ideas that all Stoic philosophers adhered to. But to get a better understanding of what Stoicism was in practice, let’s take a look at some of the greatest Stoic philosophers and how they applied Stoicism to their own lives.
