Classics 196: Stoicism

Midterm Study Ideas: the midterm will be built up out of the material listed below.

The kinds of questions on the midterm will be 1. factual (names, dates, etc.) 2. short ID's, and 3. Explanation of quotations (a sort of short essay question).

For short ID's, the best answers will clearly show that you have understood the matter and can explain it specifically, fully, and well. Full credit should be obtainable within the space provided: a few bullet points or sentences should suffice.

The quotations will involve applying the same material as the short ID's to quotations about Stoic matters. The best answer will basically explain specifically, fully, and well the Stoic material presented in the quotation.

So here is what you need to do:

• Know the following facts:
• Dates of birth and death for Socrates, Plato, Zeno, Chrysippus, Epictetus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Diogenes Laertius and Cicero.
• How to spell all of those names.
• Where they lived their lives, what language they wrote, and what their "job" was: a thumbnail sketch of who they are.
• Who founded Stoicism and who were his two immediate successors?
• What were the other two "Hellenistic" schools of philosophy? (Scepticism and Epicureanism)
  
• Have short ID answers for the following (answers to all of these can be found in the lecture notes, at much greater length than a short ID).
  
• How is the ancient philosophy of Stoicism different from the dictionary definition of 'stoic' and 'stoicism'?
• What is Stoic virtue?
  
• What is a Stoic "sage" and what role do they play in stoicism?
  
• What is 'nature' according to Stoics? What is human nature, cosmic nature, etc. according to stoics?
  
• What is "selection" and "disselection" according to Stoicism?
• How do the goal of life, virtue, and happiness interrelate according to Stoicism?
• What is vice according to Stoicism? what makes it vicious?
• Explain the following in Stoic terms: Impression, kataleptic impression, impulse, assent, knowledge.
• How can an impulse to do something be false according to Stoicism?
• What are the steps that lead to action by an agent according to Stoics?
  
• Why do Stoics think that the Sage and the person 'making progress' could both do the exact same actions for the same reasons with the same motivations and yet the Sage would be virtuous while the vicious person would still be vicious?
• Explain why Stoics think we should extirpate the emotions.
  
• Explain the Stoic theory of Indifferents. Why are they indifferent? What is included in indifferents? What is not included? What kinds of indifferents are there? DO we ever make decisions that do not involve indifferents?
  
• What will the Sage feel when faced with the loss of a loved one?
• What are the four most basic emotions and what are their most basic traits according to Stoics?
• Once the Stoic has eradicated the four basic emotions, what emotion-like phenomena does the Sage still retain?
• Why is it doubly determined that the Sage will do the right thing?
• Explain Oikeiosis, what it is, what we know about it, how we know about it.
  
• Explain what the "befitting" is according to Stoics?
• Explain the "Salva Virtute" and the "Indifferents-Only" theories.
• Explain the "No Shoving" model of how we should decide what to do.
  
• What is the Lazy Argument?
• What is Stoic "compatibilism"?
• If you think that determinism and moral responsibility are incompatible, what are the two standard options you have?
• Give an example of a sound and valid conditional, conjunction, and disjunction.
  
• Why did Stoics try to "regiment" language, and give an example of an "ordinary language" version of an assertible versus a "regimented" version.
• What are assertibles/lekta/sayables?
• Explain/describe the Stoic God.
• Physics:
• What does it mean to be "monistic" and how are the Stoics monists?
• What is pneuma
• Describe Stoic ontology: what basic categories of beings are there?
  
• Quotations: there will be a few on the exam. Your task is to explain all the important stoic terms/concepts in it, and to explain how they all fit together: in other words, rewrite it in your own words in a way that someone who had not studied Stoicism could understand:
• For example, in the following quotation, you would need to explain in your own words what impulse, assent, motive power, propositions, and predicate are, and also explain how it all fits together and into the stoic system overall. To give you an idea of length and level of detail, this quotation is short (50 words or so), but I imagine it would take at least 3 times as long to explain it well, fully, and specifically.
  
• Stobaeus 2.88, 2-6
• They [the Stoics] say that all impulses are acts of assent, and the practical impulses also contain motive power. But acts of assent and impulses actually differ in their objects: proposition are the objects of acts of assent, but impulses are directed towards predicates, which are contained in a sense in the propositions.
  
• Note well: I will use quotations that are either in your readings or in my lecture notes.
  
• As for what readings you might want to review if you are short on time, I would say that Epictetus' Handbook (aka Enchiridion) and Diogenes Laertius Book 7 are the most important ones, since they are compendious (short and full of good stuff).