Building upon many years of privately shared thoughts on the real benefits of Stoic Philosophy, Liam Milburn eventually published a selection of Stoic passages that had helped him to live well. They were accompanied by some of his own personal reflections. This blog hopes to continue his mission of encouraging the wisdom of Stoicism in the exercise of everyday life. All the reflections are taken from his notes, from late 1992 to early 2017.
Reflections
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Primary Sources
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Thursday, September 3, 2020
Wisdom from the Early Stoics, Zeno of Citium 20
Diogenes of Ptolemas, it is true, begins with Ethics; but
Apollodorus puts Ethics second, while Panaetius and Posidonius begin
with Physics, as stated by Phanias, the pupil of Posidonius, in the
first book of his Lectures of Posidonius.
Cleanthes makes not
three, but six parts, Dialectic, Rhetoric, Ethics, Politics, Physics,
Theology. But others say that these are divisions not of philosophic
exposition, but of philosophy itself: so, for instance, Zeno of Tarsus.
Some divide the logical part of the system into the two sciences of
rhetoric and dialectic; while some would add that which deals with
definitions and another part concerning canons or criteria: some,
however, dispense with the part about definitions.
Now the part which deals with canons or criteria they
admit as a means for the discovery of truth, since in the course of it
they explain the different kinds of perceptions that we have. And
similarly the part about definitions is accepted as a means of
recognizing truth, inasmuch as things are apprehended by means of
general notions.
Further, by rhetoric they understand the science of
speaking well on matters set forth by plain narrative, and by dialectic
that of correctly discussing subjects by question and answer; hence
their alternative definition of it as the science of statements true,
false, and neither true nor false.
Rhetoric itself, they say, has three divisions: deliberative, forensic, and panegyric.
Rhetoric according to them may be divided into
invention of arguments, their expression in words, their arrangement,
and delivery; and a rhetorical speech into introduction, narrative,
replies to opponents, and peroration.
Dialectic, they hold, falls under two heads: subjects of
discourse and language.
And the subjects fall under the following
headings: presentations
and the various products to which they give rise, propositions
enunciated and their constituent subjects and predicates, and similar
terms whether direct or reversed, genera and species, arguments too,
moods, syllogisms and fallacies whether due to the subject matter or to
the language; these including both false and true and
negative arguments, sorites and the like, whether defective, insoluble,
or conclusive, and the fallacies known as the Veiled, or Horned, No man,
and The Mowers.
The second main head mentioned above as belonging to Dialectic is
that of language, wherein are included written language and the parts
of speech, with a discussion of errors in syntax and in single words,
poetical diction, verbal ambiguities, euphony and music, and according
to some writers chapters on terms, divisions, and style.
—Diogenes Laërtius, 7.41-44
IMAGE: Antonio Zucchi, A Greek Philosopher and His Disciples (1767)
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