Stoic Philosophy 

Most of what is known of Zeno's philosophy is through the writings of later Stoics, particularly Epictetus. Zeno, like all the Stoics, preached equality of the sexes and also claimed that men and women should dress alike. Observing how unisex fashion has gained ascendancy, Zeno and his stoics were in truth the early trendsetters. 

According to the stoics, philosophy is like an animal, Logic corresponds to the bones and sinews, Ethics to the fleshy parts, and Physics to the soul. Though stoic writings, especially of the early stoics, including Zeno, Cleanthes, and Chrysippus, covered all topics including Logic, Theory of Knowledge (Epistemology), Metaphysics, and Ethics, it is the latter that has had the biggest and most profound surviving influence, mainly through the works of the later Hellenic and Roman stoics, notably those of Epictetus and Seneca. Also given its contemporary importance and relevance, it is on Ethics that the following exposition of stoic philosophy will focus. 

The life of virtue and the life of wisdom

According to the stoics, a life of virtue is both necessary and sufficient for living a happy life. Essential to understanding this, is the distinction the stoics made between those things that are completely within our power and those things not completely within our power. 

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Our opinions are up to us, and our impulses, desires, aversions - in short, whatever is our doing. Our bodies are not up to us, nor our possessions, our reputations, or our public offices, or, that is, whatever in not our doing…So remember, if you think that things naturally enslaved are free or that things not your own are your own, you will be thwarted, miserable, and upset, and will blame both gods and men. Epictetus.

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The only thing over which we have control, according to the stoics, is our faculty of judgement. Since anything else, including all external affairs and circumstances are not within our power, we should adopt toward them an attitude of indifference. 

What upsets people is not things themselves but their judgments about things. For example, death is nothing dreadful (or else it would have appeared so to Socrates), but instead the judgement about death is that it is dreadful, that is what is dreadful. Epictetus.

To avoid unhappiness, frustration, and disappointment, we, therefore, need to do two things: control those things that are within our power (our beliefs, judgements, desires and attitudes) and be indifferent to those things which are not in our power (things external to us). As rational beings, we should therefore perfect our characters by living a virtuous life because it is the only thing that can bring us both ataraxia (tranquillity) and eudemonia (happiness); a happiness that is totally within our control just because it depends on our own judgement which is entirely within our control. 

Associated with the idea of a virtuous life is the idea of wisdom. The ultimate object of philosophy according to the Stoics is to teach us not knowledge, but wisdom, understood as a way of living a virtuous life. Wisdom, therefore, understood in the stoic sense was a way of life that brought peace of mind (ataraxia), inner freedom (autarkeia), happiness (eudemonia) and a cosmic consciousness. By "cosmic consciousness", the stoics understood that quality, universal reason, by virtue of which we all are, as human beings, integrated parts of the cosmos.

As the contemporary French philosopher Pierre Hadot puts it,

The exercise of wisdom entails a cosmic dimension. Whereas the average person has lost touch with the world, and does not see the world qua world, but rather treats the world as a means of satisfying his desires, the (stoic) sage never ceases to have the whole constantly present to mind. He thinks and acts within a cosmic perspective. He has a feeling of belonging to a whole, which goes beyond the limits of his individuality (Pierre Hadot Philosophy as a Way of Life, 1995: 273).

Most importantly, the stoics viewed philosophy as a therapeutic, intended to cure mankind's anguish. For according to an Epicurean saying, "vain is the word of the philosopher which does not heal any suffering of man" (Epictetus Discourses). 

Social and political engagement

Closely associated with the cosmic perspective in stoic philosophy, is the communal perspective. That is the concern for living in the service of the human community, and for acting in accordance with social justice. Thus, according to the stoics, philosophy entails community engagement. This is something that the stoics have in common with Aristotle who saw philosophy as essentially political. That is, concerned with the affairs of the polis. For the stoics, however, the polis was the cosmopolis, not the city-state but the whole world. 

Significantly, what is missing in most people’s lives according to the stoics is the practice of wisdom understood not as the acquisition of mere knowledge or information but as a way of being in the world that requires one to live a life in accordance with virtue. More than information, wisdom requires transformation. More than knowledge, wisdom requires practical ethics. Some knowledge about the world, even abstract and theoretical knowledge is perhaps necessary for wisdom, but it is not sufficient. To become wise, one requires not only to be informed but more importantly to become transformed through the practice of philosophy, specifically stoic philosophy, as a way of life. This is by no means an easy task and it may in fact prove very difficult for most people. However, the threat to the natural environment through continuous commercial exploitation to satisfy our insatiable desire for consumer goods as well as the constant outbreak of wars around the globe renders the ethical lifestyle recommended by the stoics, with its emphasis on a simple, peaceful, and frugal but happy way of living, that respects not only the ethical rights of all individuals as citizens of the world but also extends that respect to the whole of the natural environment, is ethically desirable.

Don’t Worry Be Happy

For those who like slogans the one above encapsulates the essence of Stoic philosophy. The stoics viewed philosophy not as an interesting intellectual pastime pursued by a handful of professional philosophers and amateur enthusiasts, but as a Way of Life open to everyone – the Art of Life as they referred to it. The following is an outline of the reasons why the stoics viewed philosophy in this way: 

Philosophy can, according to the Stoics, be conceived as the art of living in these two ways: As a process, an acquired and learned craft whose application can enable one to live happily regardless of the whims of fortune; and as a product or an end, namely, the perfection of one’s rational nature which we share with God. In this second idealistic and aspirational sense, one can become through the perfection of one’s rational character godlike.