Chrysippus - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Chrysippus of Soli was a Greek

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...

Stoic

Stoicism

Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early . The Stoics taught that destructive emotions resulted from errors in judgment, and that a sage, or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not suffer such emotions.Stoics were concerned...

philosopher

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

. He was a native of Soli, Cilicia

Soli, Cilicia

Soli was an ancient city and port in Cilicia, in present day Turkey, a part of Mezitli municipality which in turn is a part of Greater Mersin. It was a colony of Rhodes, founded c. 700 BC. Soli was destroyed in the 1st century BC, and rebuilt by Pompey the Great. Thereafter, it was called...

, but moved to Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

as a young man, where he became a pupil of Cleanthes

Cleanthes

Cleanthes , of Assos, was a Greek Stoic philosopher and the successor to Zeno as the second head of the Stoic school in Athens. Originally a boxer, he came to Athens where he took up philosophy, listening to Zeno's lectures. He supported himself by working as water-carrier at night. After the...

in the Stoic school. When Cleanthes died, around 230 BC, Chrysippus became the third head of the school. A prolific writer, Chrysippus expanded the fundamental doctrines of Zeno of Citium

Zeno of Citium

Zeno of Citium was a Greek philosopher from Citium . Zeno was the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy, which he taught in Athens from about 300 BC. Based on the moral ideas of the Cynics, Stoicism laid great emphasis on goodness and peace of mind gained from living a life of virtue in...

, the founder of the school, which earned him the title of Second Founder of Stoicism.

Chrysippus excelled in logic

Logic

In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...

, the theory of knowledge, ethics

Ethics

Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...

and physics

Stoic physics

Stoic physics refers to the natural philosophy adopted by the Stoic philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome used to explain the natural processes at work in the universe. To the Stoics the universe is a single pantheistic God, but one which is also a material substance. The primitive substance of...

. He created an original system of propositional logic in order to better understand the workings of the universe and role of humanity within it. He adhered to a deterministic view of fate

Destiny

Destiny or fate refers to a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual...

, but nevertheless sought a role for personal freedom in thought and action. Ethics, he taught, depended on understanding the nature of the universe, and he taught a therapy of extirpating the unruly passions

Stoic Passions

Stoic Passions refers to various forms of emotional suffering in Stoicism, a school of Hellenistic philosophy.-Primary Passions:The Stoics named four primary passions. In On Passions, Andronicus reported the Stoic definitions of these passions Stoic Passions refers to various forms of emotional...

which depress and crush the soul. He initiated the success of Stoicism as one of the most influential philosophical movements for centuries in the Greek

Ancient Greece

and Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

world.

Life

Chrysippus was the son of Apollonius of Tarsus

Tarsus, Mersin

Tarsus is a historic city in south-central Turkey, 20 km inland from the Mediterranean Sea. It is part of the Adana-Mersin Metropolitan Area, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Turkey with a population of 2.75 million...

but was himself born at Soli, Cilicia

Soli, Cilicia

. He was slight in stature and is reputed to have trained as a long-distance runner. While still young, he lost his substantial inherited property when it was confiscated to the king's treasury. Chrysippus moved to Athens

Athens

, where he became the disciple of Cleanthes

Cleanthes

, who was then the head (scholarch
Scholarch
A scholarch is the head of a school. The term was especially used for the heads of schools of philosophy in ancient Athens, such as the Platonic Academy, whose first scholarch was Plato himself...

) of the Stoic school. It is said too that he attended the courses of Arcesilaus

Arcesilaus

Arcesilaus was a Greek philosopher and founder of the Second or Middle Academy—the phase of Academic skepticism. Arcesilaus succeeded Crates as the sixth head of the Academy c. 264 BC. He did not preserve his thoughts in writing, so his opinions can only be gleaned second-hand from what is...

and his successor Lacydes

Lacydes of Cyrene

Lacydes of Cyrene, Greek philosopher, was head of the Academy at Athens in succession to Arcesilaus from 241 BC. He was forced to resign c. 215 BC due to ill-health, and he died c. 205 BC. Nothing survives of his works.-Life:...

, in the Platonic Academy

Platonic Academy

The Academy was founded by Plato in ca. 387 BC in Athens. Aristotle studied there for twenty years before founding his own school, the Lyceum. The Academy persisted throughout the Hellenistic period as a skeptical school, until coming to an end after the death of Philo of Larissa in 83 BC...

.

Chrysippus threw himself eagerly into the study of the Stoic system. His reputation for learning among his contemporaries was considerable. He was noted for intellectual audacity and self-confidence and his reliance on his own ability was shown, among other things, in the request he is supposed to have made to Cleanthes: "Give me the principles, and I will find the proofs myself." He succeeded Cleanthes as head of the Stoic school when Cleanthes died, in around 230 BC.

Chrysippus was a prolific writer. He is said to rarely have gone without writing 500 lines a day and he composed more than 705 works. His desire to be comprehensive meant that he would take both sides of an argument and his opponents accused him of filling his books with the quotations of others. He was considered diffuse and obscure in his utterances and careless in his style, but his abilities were highly regarded, and he came to be seen as a preeminent authority for the school.

He died during the 143rd Olympiad

Olympiad

An Olympiad is a period of four years, associated with the Olympic Games of Classical Greece. In the Hellenistic period, beginning with Ephorus, Olympiads were used as calendar epoch....

(208–204 BC) at the age of 73. Diogenes Laërtius

Diogenes Laertius

Diogenes Laertius was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is known about his life, but his surviving Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is one of the principal surviving sources for the history of Greek philosophy.-Life:Nothing is definitively known about his life...

gives two different accounts of his death. In the first account, Chrysippus was seized with dizziness having drunk undiluted wine

Ancient Greece and wine

The influence of ancient Greece on wine is significant not only to the Greek wine industry but to the development of almost all European wine regions and to the history of wine itself...

at a feast, and died soon after. In the second account, he was watching a donkey eat some figs

Common fig

The Common fig is a deciduous tree growing to heights of up to 6 m in the genus Ficus from the family Moraceae known as Common fig tree. It is a temperate species native to the Middle East.-Description:...

and cried out: "Now give the donkey a drink of pure wine to wash down the figs", whereupon he died in a fit of laughter. His nephew Aristocreon

Aristocreon

Aristocreon was a Stoic philosopher and the nephew of Chrysippus.He was a son of the sister of Chrysippus, and became his pupil. Chrysippus dedicated several of his works to him. Of the few facts known about Aristocreon's life, it is known that between 229 and 190 BC, he was in Athens, where he...

erected a statue in his honour in the Kerameikos. Chrysippus was succeeded as head of the Stoic school by his pupil Zeno of Tarsus

Zeno of Tarsus

Zeno of Tarsus was a Stoic philosopher.He was a pupil of Chrysippus, and when Chrysippus died c. 206 BC, he succeeded him to become the fourth head of the Stoic school in Athens....

.

Of his written works, none have survived except as fragments embedded in the works of later authors like Cicero

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...

, Seneca

Seneca the Younger

Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...

, Galen

Galen

Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamon , was a prominent Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher...

, Plutarch

Plutarch

Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...

, and others. Further fragments of two works by Chrysippus are preserved among the charred papyrus remains discovered at the Villa of the Papyri

Villa of the Papyri

The Villa of the Papyri is a private house in the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum . Situated north-west of the township, the residence sits halfway up the slope of the volcano Vesuvius without other buildings to obstruct the view. The villa suburbana was owned by Julius Caesar's father-in-law,...

at Herculaneum

Herculaneum

Herculaneum was an ancient Roman town destroyed by volcanic pyroclastic flows in AD 79, located in the territory of the current commune of Ercolano, in the Italian region of Campania in the shadow of Mt...

. These are Logical Questions and On Providence. A third work discovered there may also be by him.

Philosophy

Chrysippus had a long and successful career of resisting the attacks of the Academy

Platonic Academy

and hoped not simply to defend Stoicism against the assaults of the past, but also against all possible attack in the future. He took the doctrines of Zeno and Cleanthes and crystallized them into what became the definitive system of Stoicism

Stoicism

. He elaborated the physical doctrines

Stoic physics

of the Stoics and their theory of knowledge and he created much of their formal logic. In short, Chrysippus made the Stoic system what it was. It was said that "without Chrysippus, there would have been no Stoa".

Logic

Chrysippus wrote much on the subject of logic and created a system of propositional logic. Aristotle

Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...

's term logic

Term logic

In philosophy, term logic, also known as traditional logic or aristotelian logic, is a loose name for the way of doing logic that began with Aristotle and that was dominant until the advent of modern predicate logic in the late nineteenth century...

had been concerned with the interrelations of terms such as "Socrates" or "man" ("all men are mortal, Socrates is a man, so Socrates is mortal"). Stoic logic, on the other hand, was concerned with the interrelations of proposition

Proposition

In logic and philosophy, the term proposition refers to either the "content" or "meaning" of a meaningful declarative sentence or the pattern of symbols, marks, or sounds that make up a meaningful declarative sentence...

s such as "it is day" ("if it is day, it is light: but it is day: so it is light"). The earlier Megarian dialecticians – Diodorus Cronus

Diodorus Cronus

Diodorus Cronus was a Greek philosopher and dialectician connected to the Megarian school. He was most notable for logic innovations, including his master argument fomulated in response to Aristotle's discussion of future contingents.-Life:...

and Philo

Philo the Dialectician

Philo the Dialectician was a dialectic philosopher of the Megarian school. He is often called Philo of Megara although the city of his birth is unknown...

– had done work in this field, and the pupils of Aristotle

Aristotle

– Theophrastus

Theophrastus

Theophrastus , a Greek native of Eresos in Lesbos, was the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He came to Athens at a young age, and initially studied in Plato's school. After Plato's death he attached himself to Aristotle. Aristotle bequeathed to Theophrastus his writings, and...

and Eudemus

Eudemus of Rhodes

Eudemus of Rhodes was an ancient Greek philosopher, and first historian of science who lived from ca. 370 BC until ca. 300 BC. He was one of Aristotle's most important pupils, editing his teacher's work and making it more easily accessible...

– had investigated hypothetical syllogism

Hypothetical syllogism

In logic, a hypothetical syllogism has two uses. In propositional logic it expresses one of the rules of inference, while in the history of logic, it is a short-hand for the theory of consequence.-Propositional logic:...

s, but it was Chrysippus who developed these principles into a coherent system of propositional logic.

Propositions

Chrysippus defined a proposition as "that which is capable of being denied or affirmed as it is in itself" and gave examples of propositions such as "it is day" and "Dion is walking." He distinguished between simple and non-simple propositions, which in modern terminology are known as atomic

Atomic sentence

In logic, an atomic sentence is a type of declarative sentence which is either true or false and which cannot be broken down into other simpler sentences...

and molecular propositions. A simple proposition is an elementary statement such as "it is day." Simple propositions are linked together to form non-simple propositions by the use of logical connective

Logical connective

In logic, a logical connective is a symbol or word used to connect two or more sentences in a grammatically valid way, such that the compound sentence produced has a truth value dependent on the respective truth values of the original sentences.Each logical connective can be expressed as a...

s. Chrysippus enumerated five kinds of molecular propositions according to the connective used:

Logical connectives
Type	Example
if	if it is day, it is light
and	it is day and light
either . . . or	either it is day or night
because	because it is day, it is light
more/less likely . . . than	more likely it is day than night

Thus several types of molecular propositions, familiar to modern logic, were listed by Chrysippus, including the conjunction

Logical conjunction

In logic and mathematics, a two-place logical operator and, also known as logical conjunction, results in true if both of its operands are true, otherwise the value of false....

, the disjunction

Logical disjunction

In logic and mathematics, a two-place logical connective or, is a logical disjunction, also known as inclusive disjunction or alternation, that results in true whenever one or more of its operands are true. E.g. in this context, "A or B" is true if A is true, or if B is true, or if both A and B are...

, and the conditional

Material conditional

The material conditional, also known as material implication, is a binary truth function, such that the compound sentence p→q is logically equivalent to the negative compound: not . A material conditional compound itself is often simply called a conditional...

, and Chrysippus studied their criteria of truth

Logical truth

Logical truth is one of the most fundamental concepts in logic, and there are different theories on its nature. A logical truth is a statement which is true and remains true under all reinterpretations of its components other than its logical constants. It is a type of analytic statement.Logical...

closely.

Conditional propositions

The first logicians to debate conditional statements were Diodorus Cronus

Diodorus Cronus

and his pupil Philo

Philo the Dialectician

Philo the Dialectician was a dialectic philosopher of the Megarian school. He is often called Philo of Megara although the city of his birth is unknown...

. Writing five-hundred years later, Sextus Empiricus

Sextus Empiricus

Sextus Empiricus , was a physician and philosopher, and has been variously reported to have lived in Alexandria, Rome, or Athens. His philosophical work is the most complete surviving account of ancient Greek and Roman skepticism....

refers to a debate between Diodorus and Philo. Philo regarded all conditionals as true except those which with a correct antecedent

Antecedent (logic)

An antecedent is the first half of a hypothetical proposition.Examples:* If P, then Q.This is a nonlogical formulation of a hypothetical proposition...

had an incorrect consequent

Consequent

A consequent is the second half of a hypothetical proposition. In the standard form of such a proposition, it is the part that follows "then".Examples:* If P, then Q.Q is the consequent of this hypothetical proposition....

, and this meant a proposition such as "if it is day, then I am talking," is true unless it is day and I fall silent. But Diodorus argued that a true conditional is one in which the antecedent clause could never lead to an untrue conclusion – thus, because the proposition "if it is day, then I am talking" can be false, it is invalid. However, paradoxical propositions

Paradoxes of material implication

The paradoxes of material implication are a group of formulas which are truths of classical logic, but which are intuitively problematic. One of these paradoxes is the paradox of entailment....

were still possible such as "if atomic elements of things do not exist, atomic elements exists." Chrysippus adopted a much stricter view regarding conditional propositions, which made such paradoxes impossible: to him, a conditional is true if denial of the consequent is logically incompatible with the antecedent. This corresponds to the modern-day strict conditional

Strict conditional

In logic, a strict conditional is a material conditional that is acted upon by the necessity operator from modal logic. For any two propositions p and q, the formula p \rightarrow q says that p materially implies q while \Box says that p strictly implies q...

Argument forms

Chrysippus then made use of five different argument forms, which he considered to be the most basic:

Name	Description	Example
Modus ponens Modus ponens In classical logic, modus ponendo ponens or implication elimination is a valid, simple argument form. It is related to another valid form of argument, modus tollens. Both Modus Ponens and Modus Tollens can be mistakenly used when proving arguments...	If A, then B. A. Therefore, B.	If it is day, it is light; it is day; therefore it is light
Modus tollens Modus tollens In classical logic, modus tollens has the following argument form:- Formal notation :...	If A, then B. Not B. Therefore, not A.	If it is day, it is light; it is not light, therefore it is not day
Modus ponendo tollens Modus ponendo tollens Modus ponendo tollens is a valid rule of inference, sometimes abbreviated MPT. It is closely related to Modus ponens and modus tollens... (1)	Not both A and B. A. Therefore, not B	It is not both day and night; it is day, therefore it is not night
Modus ponendo tollens Modus ponendo tollens Modus ponendo tollens is a valid rule of inference, sometimes abbreviated MPT. It is closely related to Modus ponens and modus tollens... (2)	Either A or B. A. Therefore, not B	It is either day or night; it is day, therefore it is not night
Modus tollendo ponens	Either A or B. Not A. Therefore, B	It is either day or night; it is not day, therefore it is night

From these five simple argument forms, non-simple forms can be constructed. The purpose of this logic was not merely to create a formal system; it was the study of the operations of reason, the divine reason (logos
Logos
' is an important term in philosophy, psychology, rhetoric and religion. Originally a word meaning "a ground", "a plea", "an opinion", "an expectation", "word," "speech," "account," "reason," it became a technical term in philosophy, beginning with Heraclitus ' is an important term in...

) which governs the universe

Universe

The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...

, of which human beings are a part. The goal was to find valid rules of inference and forms of proof to help people find their way in life.

Other logical work

Chrysippus analyzed speech and the handling of names and terms. He also devoted much effort in refuting fallacies and paradoxes. According to Diogenes Laërtius, Chrysippus wrote twelve works in 23 books on the Liar paradox

Liar paradox

In philosophy and logic, the liar paradox or liar's paradox , is the statement "this sentence is false"...

; seven works in 17 books on amphiboly; and another nine works in 26 books on other conundrums. In all, 28 works or 66 books were given over to puzzles. His name has also been associated with the philosophical categories of being

Category of being

In metaphysics , the different kinds or ways of being are called categories of being or simply categories. To investigate the categories of being is to determine the most fundamental and the broadest classes of entities...

, which attempt to enumerate the divisions of reality

Ontology

Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality as such, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations...

. The four Stoic Categories were of great significance for the later Stoics. However, although he frequently makes use of the categories of substance and quality, he makes little use of the other two Stoic categories (disposition and relative disposition). It is not clear therefore that the categories had any special significance for him, and a clear doctrine of categories may be the work of later Stoics.

Later reception

Chrysippus came to be renowned as one of the foremost logicians of ancient Greece. When Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria

Titus Flavius Clemens , known as Clement of Alexandria , was a Christian theologian and the head of the noted Catechetical School of Alexandria. Clement is best remembered as the teacher of Origen...

wanted to mention one who was master among logicians, as Homer

Homer

In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...

was master among poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

s, it was Chrysippus, not Aristotle, he chose. Diogenes Laërtius

Diogenes Laertius

wrote: "If the gods use dialectic

Dialectic

Dialectic is a method of argument for resolving disagreement that has been central to Indic and European philosophy since antiquity. The word dialectic originated in Ancient Greece, and was made popular by Plato in the Socratic dialogues...

, they would use none other than that of Chrysippus." The logical work by Chrysippus came to be neglected and forgotten. Aristotle's logic prevailed, partly because it was seen as more practical, and partly because it was taken up by the Neoplatonists. As recently as the 19th century, Stoic logic was treated with contempt, a barren formulaic system, which was merely clothing the logic of Aristotle with new terminology. It was not until the 20th century, with the advances in logic, and the modern propositional calculus

Propositional calculus

In mathematical logic, a propositional calculus or logic is a formal system in which formulas of a formal language may be interpreted as representing propositions. A system of inference rules and axioms allows certain formulas to be derived, called theorems; which may be interpreted as true...

, that it became clear that Stoic logic constituted a significant achievement.

Epistemology

For the Stoics, truth is distinguished from error by the sage who possesses right reason. Chrysippus' theory of knowledge was empirical

Empiricism

Empiricism is a theory of knowledge that asserts that knowledge comes only or primarily via sensory experience. One of several views of epistemology, the study of human knowledge, along with rationalism, idealism and historicism, empiricism emphasizes the role of experience and evidence,...

. The sense

Sense

Senses are physiological capacities of organisms that provide inputs for perception. The senses and their operation, classification, and theory are overlapping topics studied by a variety of fields, most notably neuroscience, cognitive psychology , and philosophy of perception...

s transmit messages from the external world, and their reports are controlled not by referring them to innate ideas, but by comparing them to previous reports stored in the mind. Zeno had defined impressions of sense as "an impression in the soul", and this was interpreted literally by Cleanthes, who compared the impression on the soul to the impression made by a seal on wax. Chrysippus preferred to regard it as an alteration or change in the soul. The soul receives a modification from every external object which acts upon it, just as the air receives countless strokes when many people are speaking at once. In receiving an impression the soul is purely passive and the impression reveals, not only its own existence, but that also of its cause, just as light displays itself and the things that are in it. The power to name the object resides in the understanding. First must come the impression, and the understanding, having the power of utterance, expresses in speech the affection it receives from the object. True presentations are distinguished from false by the use of memory, classification and comparison. Provided the sense organ and the mind be healthy, provided an external object be really seen or heard, the presentation, in virtue of its clearness and distinctness, has the power to extort the assent which it always lies in our power to give or to withhold. Reason, in virtue of which people are called rational beings, is developed out of these notions.

Physics

Chrysippus insisted on the organic unity of the universe

Universe

and the correlation and mutual interdependence of all its parts. He said, "the universe is its own soul and its own controlling mind." Following Zeno, Chrysippus determined fiery breath or aether

Aether (classical element)

According to ancient and medieval science aether , also spelled æther or ether, is the material that fills the region of the universe above the terrestrial sphere.-Mythological origins:...

to be the primitive substance of the universe. Objects are made up of inert formless matter and an informing soul, pneuma

Pneuma (Stoic)

In Stoic philosophy, pneuma is the concept of the "breath of life," a mixture of the elements air and fire . Originating among Greek medical writers who locate human vitality in the breath, pneuma for the Stoics is the active, generative principle that organizes both the individual and the cosmos...

, which provides form to the undifferentiated matter. The pneuma pervades all of substance and maintains the universe as a unity and it constitutes the souls of human beings. The elements change into one another by a process of condensation and rarefaction. Fire

Fire (classical element)

Fire has been an important part of all cultures and religions from pre-history to modern day and was vital to the development of civilization. It has been regarded in many different contexts throughout history, but especially as a metaphysical constant of the world.-Greek and Roman tradition:Fire...

first becomes solidified into air

Air (classical element)

Air is often seen as a universal power or pure substance. Its supposed fundamental importance to life can be seen in words such as aspire, inspire, perspire and spirit, all derived from the Latin spirare.-Greek and Roman tradition:...

, then air into water

Water (classical element)

Water is one of the elements in ancient Greek philosophy, in the Asian Indian system Panchamahabhuta, and in the Chinese cosmological and physiological system Wu Xing...

and lastly water into earth

Earth (classical element)

Earth, home and origin of humanity, has often been worshipped in its own right with its own unique spiritual tradition.-European tradition:Earth is one of the four classical elements in ancient Greek philosophy and science. It was commonly associated with qualities of heaviness, matter and the...

. The process of dissolution takes place in the reverse order, earth being rarefied into water, water into air and air into fire. Each human soul is part of the universal soul. The human soul was divided by Chrysippus into eight faculties: the five senses, the power of reproduction, the power of speech

Speech

Speech is the human faculty of speaking.It may also refer to:* Public speaking, the process of speaking to a group of people* Manner of articulation, how the body parts involved in making speech are manipulated...

and the "ruling part" which is located in the chest rather than the head. Individual souls are perishable, but, according to the view originated by Chrysippus, the souls of wise people survive longer after their death. No individual soul can, however, survive beyond the periodic conflagration

Ekpyrôsis

Ekpyrosis is a Stoic belief in the periodic destruction of the cosmos by a great conflagration every Great Year. The cosmos is then recreated only to be destroyed again at the end of the new cycle....

when the universe is renewed

Palingenesis

Palingenesis is a concept of rebirth or re-creation, used in various contexts in philosophy, theology, politics, and biology. Its meaning stems from Greek palin, meaning again, and genesis, meaning birth....

Fate

For Chrysippus, all things happen according to fate

Destiny

Destiny or fate refers to a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual...

: what seems to be accidental has always some hidden cause. The unity of the world consists in the chain-like dependence of cause upon cause. Nothing can take place without a sufficient cause. According to Chrysippus, every proposition is either true or false, and this must apply to future events as well:

If any motion exists without a cause, then not every proposition will be either true or false. For that which has not efficient causes is neither true nor false. But every proposition is either true or false. Therefore, there is no motion without a cause. And if this is so, then all effects owe their existence to prior causes. And if this is so, all things happen by fate. It follows therefore that whatever happens, happens by fate.

The Stoic view of fate is entirely based on a view of the universe as a whole. Individual things and persons only come into consideration as dependent parts of this whole. Everything is, in every respect, determined by this relation, and is consequently subject to the general order of the world.

If his opponents objected that, if everything is determined by destiny, there is no individual responsibility, since what has been once foreordained must happen, come what may, Chrysippus replied that there is a distinction to be made between simple and complex predestination. Becoming ill may be fated whatever happens but, if a person's recovery is linked to consulting a doctor, then consulting the doctor is fated to occur together with that person's recovery, and this becomes a complex fact. All human actions – in fact, our destiny – are decided by our relation to things, or as Chrysippus put it, events are "co-fated" to occur:

The non-destruction of one's coat, he says, is not fated simply, but co-fated with its being taken care of, and someone's being saved from his enemies is co-fated with his fleeing those enemies; and having children is co-fated with being willing to lie with a woman. ... For many things cannot occur without our being willing and indeed contributing a most strenuous eagerness and zeal for these things, since, he says, it was fated for these things to occur in conjunction with this personal effort. ... But it will be in our power, he says, with what is in our power being included in fate.

Thus our actions are predetermined, and are causally related to the overarching network of fate, but nevertheless the moral responsibility of how we respond to impressions remains our own. The one all-determining power is active everywhere, working in each particular being according to its nature, whether in rational or irrational creatures or in inorganic objects. Every action is brought about by the co-operation of causes depending on the nature of things and the character of the agent. Our actions would only be involuntary if they were produced by external causes alone, without any co-operation, on the part of our wills, with external causes. Virtue and vice are set down as things in our power, for which, consequently, we are responsible. Moral responsibility depends only on freedom of the will, and what emanates from our will is our own, no matter whether it is possible for us to act differently or not. This rather subtle position which attempts to reconcile determinism with human responsibility is known as soft-determinism, or compatibilism

Compatibilism

Compatibilism is the belief that free will and determinism are compatible ideas, and that it is possible to believe both without being logically inconsistent. It may, however, be more accurate to say that compatibilists define 'free will' in a way that allows it to co-exist with determinism...

Divination

Chrysippus also argued for the existence of fate based on divination

Divination

Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic standardized process or ritual...

, which he strongly believed in. It would not be possible for diviners to predict the future if the future itself was accidental. Omens and portents, he believed, are the natural symptoms of certain occurrences. There must be countless indications of the course of providence, for the most part unobserved, the meaning of only a few having become known to humanity. To those who argued that divination was superfluous as all events are foreordained, he replied that both divination and our behaviour under the warnings which it affords are included in the chain of causation.

God

The Stoics believed that the universe is God

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

, and Chrysippus affirmed that "the universe itself is God and the universal outpouring of its soul." It is the guiding principle of the universe, "operating in mind and reason, together with the common nature of things and the totality which embraces all existence."
He sought to prove the existence of God

Existence of God

Arguments for and against the existence of God have been proposed by philosophers, theologians, scientists, and others. In philosophical terms, arguments for and against the existence of God involve primarily the sub-disciplines of epistemology and ontology , but also of the theory of value, since...

, and made use of a teleological argument

Teleological argument

A teleological or design argument is an a posteriori argument for the existence of God based on apparent design and purpose in the universe. The argument is based on an interpretation of teleology wherein purpose and intelligent design appear to exist in nature beyond the scope of any such human...

If there is anything that humanity cannot produce, the being who produces it is better than humanity. But humanity cannot produce the things that are in the universe – the heavenly bodies, etc. The being, therefore, who produces them is superior to humanity. But who is there that is superior to humanity, except God? Therefore, God exists.

Chrysippus spoke of God and gods interchangeably. He interpreted the gods of traditional Greek religion by viewing them as different aspects of the one reality. Cicero

Cicero

tells us that "he further maintained that aether is that which people call Zeus

Zeus

In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...

, and that the air which permeates the seas is Poseidon

Poseidon

Poseidon was the god of the sea, and, as "Earth-Shaker," of the earthquakes in Greek mythology. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon...

, and that the earth is what is known by the name of Demeter

Demeter

In Greek mythology, Demeter is the goddess of the harvest, who presided over grains, the fertility of the earth, and the seasons . Her common surnames are Sito as the giver of food or corn/grain and Thesmophoros as a mark of the civilized existence of agricultural society...

, and he treated in similar style the names of the other gods." In addition, the universe exists for the benefit of the universal god:

We should infer in the case of a beautiful dwelling-place that it was built for its owners and not for mice
MICE
-Fiction:*Mice , alien species in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*The Mice -Acronyms:* "Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, Exhibitions", facilities terminology for events...

; we ought, therefore, in the same way to regard the universe as the dwelling-place of the gods.

Theodicy

In response to the question of how evil

Evil

Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...

could exist in a good universe, Chrysippus replied "evil cannot be removed, nor is it well that it should be removed." Firstly, he argued, following Plato

Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...

, that it was impossible for good to exist without evil, for justice could not be known without injustice, courage without cowardice, temperance without intemperance or wisdom without foolishness. Secondly, apparent evils exist as a consequent of nature's goodness, thus it was necessary for the human skull to be made from small and thin bones for reasons of utility, but this superior utility meant that the skull is vulnerable to blows. Thirdly, evils are distributed according to the rational will of Zeus, either to punish the wicked or because they are important to the world-order as a whole. Thus evil is good under disguise, and is ultimately conducive to the best. Chrysippus compared evil to the coarse jest in the comedy

Ancient Greek comedy

Ancient Greek comedy was one of the final three principal dramatic forms in the theatre of classical Greece . Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods, Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, and New Comedy...

; for, just as the jest, though offensive in itself, improves the piece as a whole, "so too you may criticize evil regarded by itself, yet allow that, taken with all else, it has its use."

Mathematics

Chrysippus regarded bodies

Physical body

In physics, a physical body or physical object is a collection of masses, taken to be one...

, surface

Surface

In mathematics, specifically in topology, a surface is a two-dimensional topological manifold. The most familiar examples are those that arise as the boundaries of solid objects in ordinary three-dimensional Euclidean space R3 — for example, the surface of a ball...

s, lines

Line (geometry)

The notion of line or straight line was introduced by the ancient mathematicians to represent straight objects with negligible width and depth. Lines are an idealization of such objects...

, places

Location (geography)

The terms location and place in geography are used to identify a point or an area on the Earth's surface or elsewhere. The term 'location' generally implies a higher degree of can certainty than "place" which often has an ambiguous boundary relying more on human/social attributes of place identity...

, the void

Vacuum

In everyday usage, vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty". A perfect vacuum would be one with no particles in it at all, which is impossible to achieve in...

and time

Time

Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....

as all being infinitely divisible

Infinite divisibility

The concept of infinite divisibility arises in different ways in philosophy, physics, economics, order theory , and probability theory...

. He determined one of the principal features of the infinite set: since a man and a finger have an infinite

Infinity

Infinity is a concept in many fields, most predominantly mathematics and physics, that refers to a quantity without bound or end. People have developed various ideas throughout history about the nature of infinity...

number of parts as do the universe and a man, it cannot be said that a man has more parts than his finger, nor that the universe has more parts than a man.

Chrysippus also responded to a problem first posed by Democritus

Democritus

Democritus was an Ancient Greek philosopher born in Abdera, Thrace, Greece. He was an influential pre-Socratic philosopher and pupil of Leucippus, who formulated an atomic theory for the cosmos....

. If a cone

Cone (geometry)

A cone is an n-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a base to a point called the apex or vertex. Formally, it is the solid figure formed by the locus of all straight line segments that join the apex to the base...

is divided by a plane parallel to its base, are the surfaces of the segments equal or unequal? If they are equal, then the cone becomes a cylinder

Cylinder (geometry)

A cylinder is one of the most basic curvilinear geometric shapes, the surface formed by the points at a fixed distance from a given line segment, the axis of the cylinder. The solid enclosed by this surface and by two planes perpendicular to the axis is also called a cylinder...

; if they are unequal, then the surface of the cone must be stepped

Step function

In mathematics, a function on the real numbers is called a step function if it can be written as a finite linear combination of indicator functions of intervals...

. The reply of Chrysippus was that the surfaces are both equal and unequal. In this, he may have anticipated an important principle of modern infinitesimal calculus

Infinitesimal calculus

Infinitesimal calculus is the part of mathematics concerned with finding slope of curves, areas under curves, minima and maxima, and other geometric and analytic problems. It was independently developed by Gottfried Leibniz and Isaac Newton starting in the 1660s...

, namely, the limit

Limit (mathematics)

In mathematics, the concept of a "limit" is used to describe the value that a function or sequence "approaches" as the input or index approaches some value. The concept of limit allows mathematicians to define a new point from a Cauchy sequence of previously defined points within a complete metric...

and the process of convergence towards a limit.

Chrysippus was notable for claiming that "one" is a number

Number

A number is a mathematical object used to count and measure. In mathematics, the definition of number has been extended over the years to include such numbers as zero, negative numbers, rational numbers, irrational numbers, and complex numbers....

. One was not always considered a number by the ancient Greeks since they viewed one as that by which things are measured. Aristotle

Aristotle

in his Metaphysics
Metaphysics (Aristotle)
Metaphysics is one of the principal works of Aristotle and the first major work of the branch of philosophy with the same name. The principal subject is "being qua being", or being understood as being. It examines what can be asserted about anything that exists just because of its existence and...

wrote, "... a measure is not the things measured, but the measure or the One is the beginning of number." Chrysippus asserted that one had "magnitude one" , although this was not generally accepted by the Greeks, and Iamblichus wrote that "magnitude one" was a contradiction in terms.

Ethics

Chrysippus taught that ethics

Ethics

depended on physics. In his Physical Theses, he stated: "for there is no other or more appropriate way of approaching the subject of good and evil on the virtues or happiness than from the nature of all things and the administration of the universe." The goal of life, said Chrysippus, is to live in accordance with one's experience of the actual course of nature. A person's individual nature is part of the nature of the whole universe, and thus life should be lived in accordance with one's own human nature as well as that of the universe. Human nature is ethical, and humanity is akin to the Divine, emanating from the primal fire or aether, which, though material, is the embodiment of reason; and people should conduct themselves accordingly. People have freedom, and this freedom consists in emancipation from irrational desires (lust, riches, position in life, domination, etc.) and in subjecting the will to reason. Chrysippus laid the greatest stress on the worth and dignity of the individual, and on the power of will.

The Stoics admitted between the good and the bad a third class of things – the indifferent (adiaphora
Adiaphora
Adiaphoron is a concept of Stoic philosophy that indicates things outside of moral law—that is, actions that morality neither mandates nor forbids....

). Of things morally indifferent, the best includes health, and riches, and honour, and the worst includes sickness and poverty. Chrysippus accepted that it was normal in ordinary usage to refer to the preferred indifferent things as "good", but the wise person, said Chrysippus, uses such things without requiring them. Practice and habit are necessary to render virtue perfect in the individual – in other words, there is such a thing as moral progress, and character has to be built up.

The Stoics sought to be free of the unruly emotions

Stoic Passions

, which they regarded as being contrary to nature. The passions or emotions (pathe) are the disturbing element in right judgment. Chrysippus wrote a whole book concerning the therapy of the emotions. The passions are like diseases which depress and crush the soul, thus he sought to eradicate them (apatheia
Apatheia
Apatheia in Stoic philosophy refers to a state of mind where one is free from emotional disturbance. This might be translated as equanimity or indifference...

). Wrong judgements turn into passions when they gather an impetus of their own, just as, when one has started running, it is difficult to stop. One cannot hope to eradicate the emotions when one is in the heat of love or anger: this can only be done when one is calm. Therefore one should prepare in advance, and deal with the emotions in the mind as if they were present. By applying reason to emotions such as greed, pride, or lust, one can understand the harm which they cause.

External links

Early Stoic Logic: Zeno of Citium, Cleanthes of Assos, Chrysippus of Soli an annotated bibliography on the logic of Chrysippus

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