Stoicism
Stoicism,philosophical movement, founded by Zeno of Citium on Cyprus, who came to Athens in 313 BC, and, after studying with various philosophers, taught in his own right in the Stoa Poecile (Painted Porch; see painting, Greek). Zeno developed a distinctive philosophical position divided into three parts, logic, physics, and ethics. We know little of the institutional organization of the school, except that at Zeno's death one of his pupils, Cleanthes, took over the ‘headship’ of the school. He was not, however, the most famous of Zeno's pupils, and the original position got developed in different directions. Ariston of Chios stressed ethics to the exclusion of physics and logic; Herillus emphasized knowledge at the expense of moral action. Cleanthes stressed a religious view of the world, interpreting Stoic ideas in works like his Hymn to Zeus. Stoicism was in danger of dissolving into a number of...
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