Stoicism believes that the universe is a beautiful, orderly and perfect whole, which evolved from the original flame and tends to a goal. Man is a part of the cosmic system, a small spark. Therefore, people should coordinate themselves with the general direction of the universe and finally achieve this great goal.
Zhi Nuo said: "A life in line with nature is a moral life, and nature guides us to aim at morality."
Seneca said: "slaves are human beings, and their nature is the same as others." The soul of slaves is also endowed with the pride, honor, courage and noble qualities that others have, regardless of their social status. "
Cynicism promoted the development of Stoicism. The latter rose in Athens around 300 BC. Its founder is Zhi Nuo. This man originally lived in Cyprus, but came to Athens after a shipwreck and joined the cynics. He often gathers people on the porch. The word Stoicism comes from the Greek stoa. This school later had a great influence on Roman culture.
Like Heraclitus, Stoicism believes that everyone is a small part of the common sense of the universe, and everyone is like a "micro-world" and a microcosm of the "macro-world".
Therefore, they believe that there is an axiom in the universe, which is the so-called "law of the gods." Because this divine law is based on eternal human reason and universal reason, it will not change at any time. In this respect, Stoicism holds the same view as Socrates, but it is different from Sophism.
Stoicism holds that all people (including slaves) are subject to God's law. In their eyes, the legal provisions of various countries at that time were only some imperfect laws that imitated the laws of nature.
The Stoics do not think that there is any conflict between "spirit" and "matter" except denying the difference between individual and universe. They think there is only one nature in the universe. This kind of thought is called "monism", which is just the opposite of Plato's obvious "double realism" or "double realism"
Stoic people are full of the spirit of the times and very open-minded. They are more receptive to contemporary culture than those bucket philosophers (cynics). They call on people to carry forward the spirit of "harmony between people and things" and are also very concerned about politics. Many of them later became active politicians, the most famous of which was the Roman emperor Kyle Aurerous (A.D. 12 1 ~ 180). They advocated Greek culture and Greek philosophy in Rome, the most outstanding of which was Cicero (65438 BC+006 BC ~ 43 BC) founded by him. A few years later, Seneca (4 BC-65 AD), also a Stoic, said: "For human beings, man is sacred." This sentence has since become the slogan of humanism.
In addition, the Stoics emphasized that all natural phenomena, such as illness and death, only obey the unchangeable laws of nature, so people must learn to accept their own destiny.
Nothing happens by accident, everything happens for a reason, so it's no use complaining when fate knocks on your door. They think that we can't be moved by some happy things in life. In this respect, their views are similar to those of cynics, because the latter also advocates that all external things are unimportant. Today, we still use "stoic calmness" to describe those who are not emotional.
Representative opinion: 1. "logos" is the immortal reason that runs through everything; 2. All developments and changes in nature are regular and rational; 3. Human society is also rational; 4. People, like nature, are born from the highest rationality-logos, thus reaching the conclusion that everyone is equal.