Zeno of Citium was a Greek philosopher and the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy. He was born in the city of Citium on the island of Cyprus in the early 4th century BCE, and was active in Athens, the center of Greek intellectual life at the time.
Zeno's philosophy was based on the idea that the key to living a good life was to live in accordance with reason and virtue. He believed that the only things that are truly good in life are virtue and wisdom, and that everything else, including pleasure, wealth, and fame, is ultimately fleeting and not worth pursuing.
One of the key ideas of Stoicism is the concept of the "wise man," or the person who has attained true wisdom and virtue. According to Zeno, the wise man is able to live a life of tranquility and freedom from suffering, because he is not swayed by external circumstances or the ups and downs of life. He is able to remain calm and rational in the face of adversity, and is able to live in accordance with his own values and principles.
Another important aspect of Zeno's philosophy was the idea of determinism, or the belief that all events in the world are predetermined by natural laws and that human beings have no control over them. This view was in contrast to the belief in free will, which was held by many other philosophers at the time. Zeno believed that accepting the idea of determinism would help individuals to live more calmly and rationally, since they would be able to see that there is no point in worrying about things that are beyond their control.
In addition to his philosophical teachings, Zeno also had a significant impact on the development of the Stoic school of philosophy. He taught a number of students, including the famous Roman philosopher Marcus Aurelius, and his ideas were passed down through the centuries, influencing many other philosophers and thinkers.
In conclusion, Zeno of Citium was a significant figure in the history of philosophy, and his teachings have had a lasting impact on the way we think about virtue, wisdom, and the nature of reality. His ideas about living in accordance with reason and virtue, and his belief in the idea of determinism, have had a profound influence on the development of Stoicism and have shaped the way we think about the world and our place in it.
Zeno of Citium (335 B.C. — 262 B.C.), Greek educator, philosopher
So the cosmos preserves what is good and dissolves what is bad, and always works things out in the long run. Stoic physics and logic followed Heraclitus, Aristotle, and the two Socratic thinkers Antisthenes and Diodorus. Stoicism today Daily Stoic, How to be a Stoic, The Modern Times Stoic, Modern Stoicism, Traditional Stoicism: these are only a handful of the websites that hail the importance of—even the need for—Stoicism in the 21st century. From these it is clear that the main structure of Stoic ethics was already articulated in Zeno's own pioneering work. The Stoics can make this claim because of their assertion that nature itself is divine.
Zeno of “Founder of Stocism” Citium
Nothing terrible has befallen you! The only thing we are capable of doing is controlling our own goals and our own thoughts. All that matters is that we accept this world as it is and change our own perception to find peace. For Stoics, emotions like fear, envy, passionate love were merely false judgements and the sage, a person who had attained moral and intellectual perfection, would not be touched by them. The Stoic Idea of the City. Stoic physics and logic followed Heraclitus, Aristotle, and the two Socratic thinkers Antisthenes and Diodorus.
Zeno of Citium
Since a Stoic was always to do what is in accordance with nature kathêkon , he strangulated himself to death. Single-minded Cynic rejection of every conventional value is the short way to acquire that, and thus to help build a community of the virtuous in the here and now. But for Zeno, these questions about how to live in accord with nature cannot be separated from questions about how to think and reason better about nature, and questions about the nature of the universe itself. Stoicism, therefore, is not fun food for thought. Donald Robertson, the author of …the Republic of Zeno was perhaps the most important early Stoic text and depicts a Utopian political state.
Zeno of Citium (334
They say that the first inclination which an animal has is to protect itself, as nature brings herself to take an interest in it from the beginning, as Chrysippus affirms in the first book of his treatise on Ends; where he says, that the first and dearest object to every animal is its own existence, and its consciousness of that existence. To the stars he found the path: that of temperance alone. Recent interpreters of Stoic physics J. We, as humans, can do nothing to change this fact. Where many people worry endlessly about things out of their control, the Stoics believe they should expend their energy in thinking of creative solutions to problems, rather than the issues themselves.
