The Stoic concept of impressions (phantasma) indicates, to me at least, that meaning as far as we can grasp is internal. pain can be made worse, by adding more of the same. Like the Epicureans they saw the study of philosophy as essential to alleviating suffering and living the … The ‘pre-Socratics’ (the Sophists: Protagoras, Prodicus, Gorgias, Hippias, etc. Epictetus again: “Man is disturbed not by things, but by the views he takes of them.” The Stoics teach that one can be happy no matter what obstacles or tragedies they might face. The Stoic concept of impressions (phantasma) indicates, to me at least, that meaning as far as we can grasp is internal.
Some try to overcome it by desperate and/or agressive claims about human nature - such as the Greek sophists.
If you’re able to study Stoicism and apply its precepts, there’s little that will shake you off the core of whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish in this short time we have to live. To do so would be unvirtuous for a Stoic, partly because one can claim very reasonably that nature intended for men to be civilized (because we usually already are). Massimo Pigliucci's stoic versus sophist dinner conversation reminded me of my previous comments on imperviousness to reason.
This is a very important point.
. Protagoras of Abdera in Thrace (circa 490-415 B.C.) Stoicism first appeared in Athens in the period around 300 B.C.
good.
They saw the study of logic/mathematics as essential, as it revealed the deep underlying structure of the universe as it was developing.
Pigliucci discusses his "invitation to the sophist -- we shall call him Hippias -- to come over and discuss a documentary on the 2008 financial collapse. Sophist, any of certain Greek lecturers, writers, and teachers in the 5th and 4th centuries bce, most of whom traveled about the Greek-speaking world giving instruction in a wide range of subjects in return for fees.. History of the name. If the Epicureans were chemists and biologists, the Stoics were theoretical physicists. The Stoics believe humans are meant to live in societies and meant to treat each other with respect.
Panaetius) were embarrassed by this connection and denied it. The Stoics did, in fact, hold that emotions like fear or envy (or impassioned sexual attachments, or passionate love of anything whatsoe… It was based on the moral ideas of Cynicism (Zeno of Citium was a student of the important Cynic Crates of Thebes), and toned down some of the harsher principles of Cynicism with some moderation and real-world practicality. It was one of the loftiest and most sublime philosophies in the record of Western civilization.
2.1B .
Stoicism offers the obvious proofs for this—consider only the lawfulness of the cosmos itself. Protagoras, however, as it would appear, charged only a moderate fee and deserved not the contempt with which the money-getting Sophists after him were richly rewarded.