Chrysippus
c. 279 – 206 BCE · Athens
Third head of the Stoa and the system's great architect. Ancient critics quipped: 'Without Chrysippus, there would be no Stoa.' He reputedly wrote more than 700 books on logic, physics, and ethics, working out the technical machinery — propositional logic, the theory of fate, the doctrine of mixture — that the later Romans inherited as common sense. Only fragments survive.
Key works
- On Fate — Defended a Stoic compatibilism: events are determined, yet assent remains 'up to us.'
- Logical Investigations — Founded the propositional logic that later medieval and modern logicians would rediscover.
- On Passions — Analyzed the emotions as mistaken judgements that can be corrected.
Selected passages
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Living virtuously is equivalent to living in accordance with one's experience of what happens by nature.
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If I had followed the multitude, I should not have studied philosophy.
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When a man fixes his hope upon what is to come, considering that what is present is sufficient and welcome, he gains the most.
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The universe is a coherent whole, and the events in it are linked together by unbreakable chains of cause and effect. This is the foundation of fate.
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The end is to live according to nature, that is, according to the nature of man and the nature of the universe, doing nothing which is forbidden by the common law.
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The wise man is not free from the first movements of the soul, such as sudden fear or sudden desire, but he does not consent to them. For consent is in our power.
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Virtue is sufficient for happiness. The wise man needs nothing else for a good life, though he may prefer health, wealth, and friends.
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The wise man will marry and have children, for the state of the wise man is not that of a solitary hermit. But he will do so with the thought that some things are not in his power.
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The good is not increased by duration. A short life of virtue is as good as a long life of virtue, for the value of virtue lies in its quality, not in its length.
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The soul is the ruling part of man, and its virtue is wisdom. The wise man uses all things well because he has a right understanding of them.
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A man is not to be called unhappy before his death. For the judgment of his life depends on its end, and a wise man is happy even in adversity.
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The passions are diseases of the soul. As the body is cured by medicine, so the soul is cured by philosophy and the practice of virtue.
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The heart is the seat of the ruling part of the soul. The passions arise from the judgments of the mind, not from the body alone.
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The virtues are inseparable from each other; whoever has one has all.
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Nothing happens without a cause; whatever happens follows upon something preceding.