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The
Stoics and Epicureans date from the
Hellenistic period (ca. 323 BC - 31 BC), and both schools were
heavily influenced by the philosophy of Socrates.
The
Epicurean mission was to live virtuously in a wicked
world. They advocated a simple, quiet, reclusive, sensible life
of moderation among friends, avoiding extravagant worldly attractions
and bringing no trouble on others. A wise person was one who
exhibits rational self-control, subordinating excessive
impulses and emotion-laden desires to the law of reason.
The
Epicureans were suspicious of overly artful or sophisticated
intellectual debates; they preferred ordinary language and relied
only on sense impressions to establish what we perceive
or know. The Epicureans sought a life of pleasure -- that is,
minimal pain and maximum peace of mind -- by rejecting external
goods and pursuing true and lasting internal qualities such
as justice, honor, and wisdom. Epicurus said there are four
basic truths: (1) there are no divine beings to threaten us;
(2) there is no next life; (3) the little we actually need is
easy to get; and (4) what makes us suffer is easy to put up
with.
For
the Stoics, logos was seen as the rational order
of all things, as reflected in the three areas of philosophy:
logic (knowledge, grammar, rhetoric, semantics), physics
(cosmology, biology, geography, causality, psychology, theology),
and ethics (the goals, proper functions, moral responsibility,
and virtue of human character). Human virtue was seen as the
highest pattern of a life that accords with universal nature.
The
early Stoics (Zeno, Cleanthes, Chrysippus)
were brilliant practitioners of paradox and dialectic (i.e.
debates involving fine logical distinctions); their ideal was
the sage, who could refute or trump all others. The later
Stoics (Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius)
emphasized the ideal of a model virtuous citizen, who
fulfills his or her highest nature (which for humans is reason).
We humans are, in turn, a part of universal reason --
the logos, the rational order of all things.
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