Zeno from Citium: the life and teachings of the founder of the Stoic school

Abstract

Zeno from Citium in Cyprus (ca 333/4–262/1 BC), of Phoenician origin, founder of the Stoic school. Ca 300 BC he started teaching at Athens at s.c. Painted Stoa (a gallery on the Athenian Agora); after it was named the Stoic school. Zeno experienced the influence of academicians (division of philosophy in three parts), megarians (logic), Aristoteles and possibly Heraclites (physics), cynics and Socrates (ethics). Having this as a basis he developed his special doctrine. Three parts of philosophy are inseparably connected. Logic investigates the principles and the limits of knowledge. Physics located at the middle place formulates the laws of the universe and thereby installs the basis of ethics. Ethics as the crown of the teaching proves the final end of the rational being: life in accordance with nature, that is with the prescriptions of the cosmic logos, corresponds to happiness.