Stoics: Topics

After Plato and Aristotle, the Stoics, from the third century BCE onwards, developed the third great classical conception of wisdom. This book offers a reconstruction of this pivotal notion in Stoicism, starting out from the two extant Stoic definitions, 'knowledge of human and divine matters' and 'fitting expertise'. It focuses not only on the question of what they understood by wisdom, but also on how wisdom can be achieved, how difficult it is to become a sage, and how this difficulty (...) can be explained. The answers to these questions are based on a fresh investigation of the evidence, with all central texts offered in the original Greek or Latin, as well as in translation. The Stoic Sage can thus also serve as a source book on Stoic wisdom, which should be invaluable to specialists and to anyone interested in one of the cornerstones of the Graeco-Roman classical tradition. (shrink)

A review of Lawrence Becker, A New Stoicism.

Peter Forrest claims that his “Personal Pantheist” conception of God is in agreement with the Stoic pantheism. The traditional interpretation, however, treats the Stoic God as the non-personal universal law. I demonstrate that arguments in favor of the personal interpretation typically imply either a personalist or an anthropocentric metaphysical foundation. I also argue that the Stoics were neither personalists nor anthropocentrists, therefore those arguments should be rejected.

The ancient Stoics repeatedly stressed the monolithic comprehensiveness of their philosophy, and this book is the only one to provide a holistic grasp of their attempt to synthesize the whole of the human condition into a unified view. Originally published in 1962, _An Essay on the Unity of Stoic Philosophy_ was far ahead of its time. Now a pivotal text, it lays out the core ideas of Stoicism and their interconnection against the backdrop of Aristotelian philosophy, providing a coherent understanding (...) of the many—and sometimes divergent—philosophies the Stoics formulated. At once penetrating and lucid, Johnny Christensen’s book is brought back into print in a second edition for a new audience. (shrink)

Lengthy review of Long & Sedley, The Hellenistic Philosophers 2 vols.