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- The Origins of Stoicism.
We talk about stoicism all the time, and many people cite Marcus Aurelius as the man who created stoicism. This is a misconception. It was actually Zeno who founded the critical beliefs around the philosophy.
Enjoy this guest entry from my good friend Karim, outlining the life and achievements of Zeno of Citium, and the origins of his philosophy.
Zeno of Citium… Where do we get started with this amazing mind? Zeno, was a philosopher who founded the great philosophy known as stoicism who was a biographer, and not by Zeno himself, as most of his works did not survive.
Early Life:
Zeno was born in the Phonecian and Greek city of Citium, (hence the name) in 336-334 BCE.
Scholars aren’t sure of his ethnic background, whether it’s greek, or phonecian although personally, I think he was greek, as Zeno is a greek name, which translates to “gift of zeus” plus, he had a Greek Education, and lastly, was known to only know the language of Greek. His father, “Mnaseas'’,and his name have a phoenician (meaning one causing to forget) AND greek (meaning mindful) background.
Mnaseas, as you know, is his father, was a merchant who frequently traveled to Athens, and Zeno naturally carried on the Merchant Profession, much like his father. Zeno was described as a “haggard, sunburned, dark skinned person”
Zeno’s start with Philosophy:
At the age of 22, on the voyage from Phoenicia to Peiraeus(a greek town/port),
Zeno got caught in a shipwreck. Thankfully, he survived, as if he didn’t we wouldn’t have the knowledge of his great mind today. After managing to get on land, Zeno went to visit a bookseller, while skimming through the books, he came across Memorabilia, by Xenophon. Zeno was astonished by the book’s amazing portrayal of Sorcrates, who was a philosopher much like Zeno. At the bookstore, Zeno stumbled across Crates of Thebes who somehow happened to be walking by, perhaps the most famous Cynic Philosopher at the time. After reading the book Memorabilia, Zeno abandoned his former life as a merchant and started to pursue Philosophy as his #1 Priority.
The rise of the great mind:
Zeno’s main enjoyment was to sit in the sun eating figs while drinking wine, maybe that's why he was sunburnt. However, naturally after encountering Crates of Thebes, Zeno became his apprentice, and following his pursuit, showed a strong love for philosophy, though Zeno had too much shamelessness. Crates had a strong desire to try to cure this defect in him. Therefore, Crates handed Zeno a potful of lentil soup to carry through Ceramicus (an area in Athens), and when Crates saw Zeno being ashamed and tired, allegedly “broke the pot with one blow from his staff.” Like any normal human being, Zeno was starting to run away from being embarrassed by the lentil soup flowing down his legs. Crates then said, “Why run away, my little Phoenician? Nothing terrible has befallen you.”
After Crates, Zeno then studied under Stilpo the Megarian, and then was said to have studied over Xenocrates and Polemo.
The mind we know today:
By then, Zeno was well knowledgeable in Philosophy, and began teaching at a colonnade of Agora of Athens known as a “Stoa Poikile” in 301 BCE.
Among the admirers of Zeno, one of them was Antigonus II of Gonatas of Macedonia, who when visiting Athens, always visited Zeno. Zeno was said to never visit Antigonus in Macedonia however.
Unfortunately, like all humans, he passed away at the age of 72 in 262 BCE.
All of the disciples among Zeno were known as “Zenonians” And what were they later named..?
Stoics.
P.S. Few of his disciples were Aristo of Chios, Sphaerus , and Cleanthes, who succeeded Zeno in the Stoic School of Athens, which you will learn about later.
Zeno’s Views, works, some stoicism, and how could you apply it:
As mentioned earlier, Zeno’s personal works never survived, and most of his life's information was originally recorded in the book “Lives of Eminent Philosophers” By Diogenes Laertius. Starting with his personal views, much like the Cynics, Zeno recognized a single, sole, and simple good. Zeno also believed that a life that focused on logic more than anything else is the best “life”, as for example, you go to a party, why?
“W-w-welllll, to hang out with friends of course!”
Why do you want to hang out with friends?
“Dumb question!, O-o-obviously to be social and make my happiness skyrocket!!”
As we know, parties affect you negatively in the long run, but if you dedicate your life to logic, this could be YOUR interview:
Why do you pursue philosophy?
“I pursue philosophy to help future generations have the knowledge that me and my people have discovered.”
Simple like that, that's a life with logic, which is exactly what Zeno viewed. But why did he take logic so seriously, well, Zeno had to lay down a basis of logic as a wise person with knowledge must know how to avoid deception, where logic comes in from the above example.
Speaking about knowledge, however, Zeno explained 4 stages if you want to achieve true knowledge. With this example he showed on his left hand, and I want you to follow along on this part. Zeno then proceeded to stretch out his fingers all the way and showed the palm of his hand. “This is perception.” - said Zeno. That was the first step. After that, he closed his fingers a little bit, “Assent is like this.” He proceeded to completely close his hand but not tightly, which then he said, “This is Comprehension” Lastly, Zeno then slowly brought his hand to the right hand, and took it with a tight firm fist, ending off with the right hand being a tight fist. “This is Knowledge” - Said Zeno
I would like to summarize this, so first you need to realize that you want to achieve more knowledge, after that perception is done, then moving toward that goal, which is assent. Then comes comprehension, where you understand that you are becoming knowledgeable. And then comes true knowledge. This is a great analogy as it helps realize how to achieve knowledge properly without any hardships.
Zeno also preached that if you want to conquer the world, you first must conquer yourself, by this, he means you must gain control of yourself, and this is a main pillar of Stoicism, to not let external forces influence your emotions, arguing that only by controlling one’s emotions and physical desires could develop wisdom and have the ability to apply it, and in our generation, this could be for you to get amazing mental health and achieve an 6 pack.
Zeno has also developed the concept of “kathekon” Kathekon is meaning that man should live in accordance to nature, for example in our times, that could be taking nature walks and not going on insta or snap unless you want to post something like your favorite leaf, and climbing trees and going on hikes with your bros.
Lastly, I would like to tell you his sort of religious-ish beliefs. Zeno believed in that the universe and god were the same thing. God was the universe, and the universe was God. To Zeno, there was “a divine artisan fire” that the universe contains, said fire forseas and produces everything and always extending with and just like the universe. He believed that humans have souls, and each soul was a great portion of the divine fire.
You might be wondering, how does this relate to stoicism if you didn’t mention it at all?
Well most of this section was stoicism.
Conclusion:
So you may have been wondering this whole article? “Well Karim, this stuff’s cool and all and I learnt some stuff, but whats the point?” There was no real “point”. This article was just to help you learn about Zeno of Citium, the creator of Stoicism, and make you consider Philosophy. I hope my point did go across and you consider Stoicism. I wish you a great day/night, and goodbye.
Fun Fact: Zeno declined Athenian Citzenship that was offered to him, as he was afraid it would make him appear has unfaithful to his home country, Cyprus.
~Karim
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