The Stoic Idea of the CityThe Stoic Idea of the City offers the first systematic analysis of the Stoic school, concentrating on Zeno's Republic. Renowned classical scholar Malcolm Schofield brings together scattered and underused textual evidence, examining the Stoic ideals that initiated the natural law tradition of Western political thought. A new foreword by Martha Nussbaum and a new epilogue written by the author further secure this text as the standard work on the Stoics. "The account emerges from a jigsaw-puzzle of items from a wide range of authorities, painstakingly pieced together and then annotated in a series of appendixes, the whole executed with fine scholarship, clarity, and good humor."—Times Literary Supplement |
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antinomian Antisthenes appears Appendix argued argument Aristotle Arius Didymus Athenaeus Athenodorus Athens Baldry beauty benefits Borystheneans Cassius Chrysippus Cicero citizens Cleanthes conceived conception concord constitution context cosmic city Cynic D.L. vii D.L. vn Dio Chrysostom Dio's Diogenes Laertius discussion doxographical early Stoic endowment for virtue Epicurus erotic ethical evidence follows freedom friends friendship further gods Goulet-Caze Greek Hellenistic Heraclitean Heraclitus homosexual ideal inference interpretation Isidorus kingship live logos Mansfeld marriage morally bad naturally endowed passage person Philo Philodemus philosophers Plato Plutarch political philosophy position premiss presumably probably question quotation reference refined right reason sage Schofield seems sense Sextus sexual society Socrates sort Spartan Stoa Stob Stobaeus Stoic Stoic definition Stoic doctrine Stoic idea Stoicism suggests syllogism theory thesis things thought tion topic universe wise women Zeno Zeno of Citium Zeno's Republic Zenonian Zeus
Popular passages
Page 100 - Yet, there is an important sense in which the Stoic's spouse, children, kin, friends, and indeed all her fellow human beings will always be with her, wherever she goes. Of the Stoic sages it is said: If a single sage anywhere at all extends his finger prudently, all the sages throughout the inhabited world are benefited.
Page 65 - For the universe is as it were the common home of gods and men, or a city that belongs to both. For they alone live according to justice and law by the use of reason. So just as it must be supposed that Athens and Sparta were founded for the sake of the Athenians and the Spartans, and all the things contained in those cities are rightly said to belong to those peoples, so whatever things are contained in the entire universe must be supposed to belong to gods and men.
Page 61 - Chrysippus' account — in comparison, for example, with the definition of 'city' given at Clem. Strom. 4.26 (SVF iii. 327): The Stoics say that the universe (ovpavoc) is in the proper sense a city, but that those here on earth are not — they are called cities, but are not really.
Page 75 - War is the father of all and king of all, and some he shows as gods, others as humans; some he makes slaves, others free.
Page 71 - Law is king of all things human and divine. Law must preside over what is honourable and base, as ruler and as guide, and thus be the standard of right and wrong, prescribing to animals whose nature is political what they should do, and prohibiting them from what they should not do...
Page 93 - Some yield service to both commonwealths at the same time — to the greater and to the lesser — some only to the lesser, some only to the greater. This greater commonwealth we are able to serve even in leisure — nay, I am inclined to think, even better in leisure — so that we may inquire what virtue is...
Page 93 - ... and to the lesser— some only to the lesser, some only to the greater. This greater commonwealth we are able to serve even in leisure— nay, I am inclined to think even better in leisure— so that we may inquire what virtue is, and whether it is one or many; whether it is nature or art that makes men good; whether this world, which embraces seas and lands and the things that are contained in the sea and land, is a solitary creation or whether God has strewn about many systems of the same sort;...
Page 65 - In the first place the universe itself was created for the sake of gods and men, and the things it contains were provided and contrived for the enjoyment of men. For the universe is as it were the common home of gods and men, or a city that belongs to both. For they alone live according to justice and law by the use of reason.
Page 77 - Therefore it is necessary to follow the common; but although the Logos is common the many live as though they had a private understanding.
Page 38 - ... conformed to general Greek practice and that Spartan erastai were normally unmarried young adults aged between about twenty and thirty.30 However, in a relatively unnoticed passage a little further on (Lyk. 25.1), where Plutarch is talking about the Spartans...
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Bibliographic information
| Title | The Stoic Idea of the City |
| Author | Malcolm Schofield |
| Edition | reprint, annotated |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press, 1999 |
| ISBN | 0226740064, 9780226740065 |
| Length | 176 pages |
| Subjects | › › Philosophy / History & Surveys / Ancient & Classical Political Science / General Political Science / History & Theory |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |