Core+Philosophies

Stoicism's Core Philosophies With the roots of Stoicism beliefs coming from the Cynics, Stoicism generally was based on goodness and peace of mind, achieved by living a life of virtue, and in accord with Nature.

1. The goal of life is happiness: to live in agreement with nature. 2. Happiness depends on being self-sufficient and self-dependant on the optimism of mental attitude. 3. A life of virtue leads to self-sufficiency. 4. The road to virtue is to free oneself from wealth, fame, and power, which contain no virtue in any part. 5. Suffering is caused by false judgements of value, which then cause negative emotions and a mean personality. "**Stoicism beliefs:** 1. One to live in accord with Nature; worldly Nature and human nature. 2. The Unity of All; all gods; all substance; all virtue; all mankind into a Cosmopolis (Universal City). 3. That the external world is maintained by the natural interchange of opposites (poioun / yin, paskhon / yang) 4. That everyone has a personal, individual connection to the All; a god within. 5. That every soul has Free Will to act and that the action of the soul is opinion. 6. Simple Living through moderation and frugality. 7. That spiritual growth comes from seeking the good. 8. That Virtue is the sole good, Vice the sole evil, and everything else indifferent. 9. That the Cardinal Virtues are Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance. 10. That the path to personal happiness and inner peace is through the extinguishing of all desire to have or to affect things beyond ones control and through living for the present without hope for or fear of the future; beyond the power of opinion. 11. The sequential reabsorption and recreation of the Universe by the Central Fire; the Conflagration."
 * Cynicism beliefs:**

Zeno's Core Philosophies Zeno divided his personal philosophies into three parts: logic, physics, and ethics.

Zeno believed that the process of knowledge had four parts: perception, assent, comprehension, and knowledge. To fix an error, one has to trace themselves back and make things right by replacing with right Reason, or an error will never be fixed. //"Happiness is a good flow of life which always exists together with right Reason... [whereas a bad feeling is] a disturbance of the mind, against Reason and against Nature."// Zeno believed in physics only as far as how they contributed to virtues, which was most important. In the quote below, Zeno summarizes his Stoicist beliefs of Virtue and Nature, the contradictions of one's ways to live peacefully, and the balance of free will and the abilities/inabilities to control one's desires. //"God is not separate from the world; He is the soul of the world, and each of us contains a part of the Divine Fire. All things are parts of one single system, which is called Nature; the individual life is good when it is in harmony with Nature. In one sense, every life is in harmony with Nature, since it is such as Nature's laws have caused it to be; in another sense a human life is only in harmony with Nature when the individual will is directed to ends with are among those of Nature. Virtue consists in a will which is in agreement with Nature. The wicked, though perforce they obey God's law, do so involuntarily; in the similie of Cleanthes, they are like a dog tied to a cart, and compelled to go wherever it goes. In the life of an individual man, virtue is the sole good; such things as health, happiness, posessions, are of no accound. Since virtue resides in the will, everything really good or bad in a man's life depends only upon himself. He may be poor, but what of it? He can still be virtuous. He may be sentenced to death, but he can die nobly, like Socrates. Other men have power only over externals; virtue, which alone is truly good, rests entirely with the individual. Therefore every man has perfect freedom, provided he emancipates himself from mundate desires."// Virtue, Vice, Negative, Positive, Reason, and Action: Zeno believed that one should strive for a single, simple good, which can only exist in Virtue. Virtue (good) can only exist with a dominion of Reason, while Vice (bad) can only exist with the rejection of Reason; Virtue and Vice will never coexist. No moral action has more virtue than another - an action is either good or bad. Even passive emontions/states of the mind are uncontrolled by Reason/states of morality. Zeno's four negative emotions are fear, desire, pleasure and pain, while Zeno's three positive emotions are will, caution, and joy (with no opponent for pain). //"Which are morally indifferenct could nevertheless have value to us."//
 * Logic:** based on grammar and theories on perception of thought
 * Physics:** Nature of the universe
 * Ethics:** achieving happiness through living in accordance with Nature

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