Zeno of Cilium was a philosopher in the early 3rd century BC. He founded a school of Hellenistic Philosophy called Stoicism. It is a philosophy teaching of personal ethics based on system of logic and its view of the world. Think of it as a lifestyle.
To be stoic, is to accept that eudaimonia (happiness or blessedness) comes from the moment as it presents itself, to no be controlled by personal desire for pleasure or the fear of pain. One need to understand that it is all part of nature´s plan and one must work together and treat others fairly and just.
In Stoicism, it is known in teaching that “virtue is the only good”, and the external things such as health, wealth, and pleasure are inherently neither good nor bad by themselves, but only as a mean to an end, material for virtue to act upon.
Similar to Aristotelian ethics, Stoicism shaped one of the major founding approaches to virtue ethics. The Stoics (those who practiced Stoicism) believe that certain destructive emotions are results form lack of judgement, and they are taught to maintain a will (called prohairesis) that everything is in accordance with nature.
Due to this, they believe that the best representatives of one´s individual is not what one said but how one behaved. To have a prosperous life, one must understand that there are rules of nature and everything was rooted from there.
It is often misunderstood from the ancient stoics, that they believe one has to erase emotions from one´s self. However, this stemmed from the modern understanding of the word “stoic”. The modern definition of this word has come to mean to be “unemotional” or “indifferent to pain”. The Stoic ethics did not believe that however, they are taught that freedom will come from “passion” by following “reason”.
The Stoics believe that logic, reflection, and focus were methods to reach self-discipline, and temper is divided into self-control, discipline, and modesty. All these are to shape themselves to have a clear resolution to abstinence from sensual pleasure, so it will enable them to have a clear judgement and inner calm
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