Stoicism What Are the Basic Tenets of Essay

Stoicism

What are the basic tenets of Stoicism and how might Stoicism be considered as a mid - point between Cynicism and Hedonism?

The basic tenets of Stoicism preached control over the passions: they thought that reason or rationality could be imposed over human emotion in order to achieve a sense of peace, and that cessation of desire was preferable to the fulfillment of desire. The modern debased meaning of "stoic" as "impervious to pain" actually derives from the Stoic tenet that (as expressed by Marcus Aurelius in his stoic Meditations) that if one removes the statement "I have been injured," then one effectively removes the injury. The Stoics believed that the correct mental response to pain, suffering, or misfortune would preclude an emotional response. Philosophy and wisdom thus become, for the Stoics, an active process of living: the exertion of mental control over the process of receiving and analyzing the data of daily existence was thus central to the Stoic definition of the practice of philosophy. The Stoics believed that living in accordance with reason would put one in harmony with all virtues, which are rationally derived from the overall pervading "logos" (something between "logic" and "conscious reasoning") of the universe itself. The Stoics believed in four virtues associated with the correct practice of life: wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance (or sophrosyne, identical with the Aristotelian conception of that virtue).

Cynicism is the earlier term for a much looser affiliation of thinkers, out of which Stoicism derived. Both Cynics and Stoics believed in philosophy as a guide to the active conduct of life, and believed that such conduct was the appropriate realm by which to judge a man's virtue: Cynicism was mainly a way of life and expression in which the philosopher subjected himself to constant public scrutiny in order to prove he had the right to his sharp criticisms of human vanity. The Cynics believed that the very essence of human society and nature was corrupt: they held up Socrates as a model of behavior, but their own name comes from the Greek word "kynos" meaning "dog." The idea was that a cynic like Diogenes essentially lived in the marketplace and barked at people much like a dog.

Hedonism is the philosophical stance occupied by the Epicureans, rejected by the Stoics. The hedonist position as outlined by Epicurus holds that, as a mode of living, pleasure should be pursued and pain should be avoided -- and Epicurus considered this to be self-evident, because newborn animals exhibit such behavior seemingly by instinct, so that there was…