Scholar

The Stoics

c.300 BCE onwards · Ancient school teaching that we should live 'according to nature' and reason.

Biography

The Stoics held that humans share in a divine reason (logos) and should live according to nature within an ordered cosmos — an idea Aquinas Christianised in Natural Law.

Key Ideas

  • A 'divine spark' of reason in humans.
  • Living 'according to nature'.
  • An ordered, rational cosmos.

Topics Appearing In

Exam Importance

Use as background to Natural Law's claim that reason reveals a moral order in nature.

Works to explore

Use these titles to locate the scholar's argument in context. Edition-specific commercial recommendations are kept on the component reading lists.

  • Introductions to Stoicism