Philosophy & Meaning

Stoicism

alternative Classical c. 300 BCE

Ancient Greco-Roman philosophy holding that meaning and a good life come from living in accordance with reason and virtue, and accepting what lies outside one’s control with equanimity.

Proponents

Zeno of Citium, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca

Evidence For

A practical, internally coherent ethical system that has demonstrably helped practitioners cope with adversity across two millennia, and underlies much of modern cognitive behavioral therapy.

Evidence Against

Critics argue its emphasis on acceptance can shade into passivity toward genuinely changeable injustice; its metaphysics of a rational, providential cosmos (Logos) is not shared by modern naturalism.

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