Nietzsche and the Stoic Concept of Recentes Opinions (original) (raw)
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A persistent attack on the Stoics has been the claim that really existing Stoics did not live up to their stringent theoretical demands. Schopenhauer inherits this criticism when he charges the Stoics with hypocrisy over their willingness to indulgence in so-called ‘preferred indifferents’ such as the food and wine of a Roman banquet, all the while denying their value. Nietzsche also criticises the Stoics for conduct incompatible with the theory of indifference but strikingly, claims that the Stoic life is more bitter, harsh, and hurtful than the theory of indifference suggests. Thus Nietzsche attacks not only the Stoic’s intellectual conscience, for living a life incompatible with Stoic theoretical commitments, but also the quality of such a life. Schopenhauer and Nietzsche’s differing criticisms of the Stoics are explained by an analysis of Stoicism as an art of living. I argue, following Sellars, that the Stoic conception of philosophy as an art of living allows a tripartite division between (i) a philosophical way of life (bíos), underpinned by (ii) theoretical discourse (logos), achieved through the use of (iii) philosophical exercises and training (áskēsis). Schopenhauer points to a supposed incompatibility between the Stoic life and Stoic theory, that the Stoic’s life betrays the positive regard in which they hold external goods. Nietzsche attacks the Stoic’s exercises as betraying an equally inappropriate negative regard for external goods. I argue that Nietzsche presents a more compelling case against Stoicism, since it is free of Schopenhauer’s expansive metaphysical commitments, and that his break with the Stoics motivates his development of an alternative philosophical way of life.
International Journal of the Classical Tradition, 2000
Few things can be more important to understanding Nietzsche than understanding his views of classical antiquity. To do this, sooner or later one must come to grips with his early formation as a classicist. And there can be no better way to learn about this subject than to read what he wrote at the time. Fortunately for us, Nietzsche was a compulsive note-taker during his student years at Bonn and Leipzig and then later while he was a professor at Basel, in addition to producing several volumes of correspondence and a few autobiographical sketches. There is more than enough material for a first-hand assessment. Ironically, his publications in philology seem like opera minora in comparison. And yet what stands out about these latter is how remarkably * Many thanks to Wolfgang Haase and Glenn Most for comments on an earlier draft, and to archivist Wolfgang Ritschel in Weimar for helpful clarifications.
History of Philosophy Quarterly, 2022
Several scholars align Nietzsche's philosophy with Stoicism because of their naturalist approaches to ethics and doctrines of eternal recurrence. Yet this alignment is difficult to reconcile with Nietzsche's criticisms of Stoicism's ethical ideal of living according to nature by dispassionately accepting fate-so much so that some conclude that Nietzsche's rebuke of Stoicism undermines his own philosophical project. I argue that affinities between Nietzsche and Stoicism belie deeper disagreement about teleology, which, in turn, yields different understandings of nature and human flourishing, so that Nietzsche's objections to Stoicism support his commitments to ethical naturalism and to affirming life's eternal recurrence.
The Early Modern Legacy of the Stoics
Forthcoming in N. Powers and J. Klein, eds, The Oxford Handbook of Hellenistic Philosophy (New York: Oxford University Press).
This article examines the reception of Stoicism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, from Justus Lipsius to Immanuel Kant. It considers topics often associated with Stoicism during the period, notably the interconnected concepts of fate, necessity, and providence, as well as the rise and development of scholarship on Stoicism during the period. While this was an especially rich period for the reception of Stoicism, more often than not the Stoics found themselves drawn into contemporary disputes, such as the potentially atheistic conclusions of Spinoza's philosophy. At the same time, it saw a shift away from seeing Seneca as the pre-eminent Stoic and towards the systematic philosophy of Zeno and Chrysippus.
Continental Philosophy Review, 2011
This essay focuses on and attempts to uncover the truly radical character of Nietzsche's early "philological" work, specifically asking after the benefit he claims the study of classical culture should have for our present, late-modern historical moment. Taking up his study of the Pre-Platonic thinkers in 1873's Philosophie im tragischen Zeitalter der Griechen, the first section analyzes Nietzsche's statement that history's principle task is the uncovering of Persönlichkeiten. I argue that it is not at all the subjective character of a psychologized individual that Nietzsche has in mind, but rather the moment of persönliche Stimmung or 'being attuned' to the world, which grounds and gives rise to thinking. In the second section, I show that the phusis or 'nature' to which the thinker is exposed in this attunement is comparable to the tension between the Dionysian and Apollonian natural forces in tragic poetry, as Nietzsche understands it. This dynamic conception of phusis does not provide a metaphysical substrate or an objectively real ground to which we might return via that Greeks, but is rather essentially phenomenal, i.e. it is nothing other than the movement into and out of appearance, which always entails and requires its reception by the human being to whom it appears. In the final section of the essay, this origin proves for Nietzsche not to be located in a distant past moment. Rather, it is the abyssal origin of the tradition that is always already effective in our present moment, informing our contemporary conceptions of our world and ourselves.
Untimely Reflections on Nietzsche's Notions of Nature, Society, and the Self
2020
While Nietzsche is known as a virulent opponent of conventional morality, the critical dimension of his philosophy cannot be divorced from his novel understandings of nature, society, and the self. This dissertation clarifies Nietzsche’s treatments of these notions by comparing his views to those of other figures in the western philosophical tradition. I defend a comparative approach to Nietzsche’s philosophy and provide an overview of my project in chapter one. In chapter two, I argue that although Nietzsche shares Stoicism’s emphasis on self-discipline and on the affirmation of fate, he rejects the Stoics’ teleological understanding of nature and their view of moral values as descriptively objective. This leads Nietzsche to value passion and suffering for helping us realize the world’s indifference to our all-too human concerns and for prompting value creation. In chapter three, I argue that Nietzsche agrees with Leibniz about the existence and character of unconscious perceptions...
CICERO'S CRITICISM OF STOIC RHETORIC
Prometheus, 2020
My goal with this article is to present the elements involved in Cicero's criticism of Stoic rhetoric. First, I will present the rhetoric of the Stoics based on the testimonies we have left on these philosophers. Soon after, I will expose Cicero's criticisms of the Stoics. Next, I will argue that Cicero's criticisms arise because his proposal with rhetoric is different from the Stoics' proposal. Due to this difference, it is necessary to understand that the Stoics, on the other hand, also had motives to defend their vision of rhetoric in face of Ciceronian criticism. RESUMO: Meu objetivo neste artigo é apresentar os elementos envolvidos na crítica de Cícero à retórica estoica. Inicialmente apresentarei a retórica dos estoicos baseado nos testemunhos que nos restaram sobre esses filósofos. Logo depois, exporei as críticas assinaladas por Cícero aos estoicos. Em seguida, argumentarei que as críticas de Cícero surgem em consequência de que sua proposta com a retórica é diferente da proposta estoica. Em função dessa diferença, é preciso compreender que os estoicos, em contrapartida, também tinham motivos para defender sua visão de retórica perante as críticas ciceronianas. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Cícero. Retórica. Estoicos.
The Stoics and their Philosophical System
The Routledge Handbook of Hellenistic Philosophy, 2020
An overview of the Stoic philosophers and the main elements of their system. A chronological presentation of brief biographies of the Stoics with the most notable contributions of each individual is followed by a sketch of their philosophical system divided into the branches of logic, physics, and ethics. Logic includes topics in rhetoric, dialectic, and epistemology. Physics is the account of physical reality, including ontology, cosmology, and theology. The synopsis of ethics includes the Stoics’ version of naturalism, the doctrine of oikeiōsis, the virtues, emotions, the sage, moral progress, and cosmopolitanism.
Nietzsche as a Scholar of Antiquity
Chapters on Nietzsche's Philological Beginnings (J. Latacz); Nietzsche's Radical Philology (J. Porter); The Sources of Nietzsche's Rhetoric (G. Most and Th. Fries); Apollo and the Problem of Unity in Nietzsche (D. Burnham); N's Valediction and First Article (A. Jensen); N and Diogenes Laertius (J. Barnes); N's Influence on Homeric Scholarship (A. Zhavoronkov); N's Lectures on Ancient Literature (C. Santini); Greek Audiences (V. Vivarelli); The Ancient Quarrel between Philosophy and Poetry (M. Meyer); N's Genealogy of Early Greek Philosophy (H. Heit); N's Philology and the Science of Antiquity (B. Babich); Religion of the 'Older Greeks' (H. Cancik and H. Cancik-Lindemaier)
Stoic Philosophy: Its Origins and Influence
Much has been written as of late on the characteristic and influential philosophical school of thought called Stoicism which was originally founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the second century BCE and further fleshed out and promulgated by Cleanthes and then subsequently by his student Chrysippus, collectively referred to in modern classical studies as the Old Stoa. This work intends to try and provide a succinct overview of the philosophical tenets which were characteristic of the school in the early period as well as identify some unique contributions of the later Stoa which are represented by the Roman/Latin intellectual and politically elite such as Seneca, Cicero and the emperor Marcus Aurelius. The paper also reviews some of the earlier Hellenic philosophical traditions from which it Stoicism drew some of its primary tenets and evolved in conjunction with, as well as in the Summary provide an overview of some of the lasting contributions Stoicism has made to the development of the philosophical and theological tradition in the West. Although none of the complete writings and treatises written by the Old Stoa are extant, much of their philosophical tenets are covered by later authors and philosophers whose work is and this article draws on some of these what you might call pseudo-primary sources (in particular Plutarch and Diogenes Laertius) as well as various secondary, more contemporary sources who draw not only on these sources but also extensively from Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta which is an invaluable collection of fragments and quotations of the early Stoa composed in the early part of the 20 th century and from which much of what we know about specific tenets of at least early Stoic philosophy come from.