Stoicism: Managing Adversity

Abstract

Stoic philosophy owes much to Socrates, but even more to the Cynics. The founder of the Stoics, Zeno, was a disciple of Crates and the school took its name from the painted colonnade, or stoa from which he lectured. Zeno greatly admired Socrates for his strength of character and believed that Crates the Cynic (rather than Plato) was the thinker who most resembled him. The Athenians held Zeno in high esteem and flocked to hear him lecture at the site where, during the time of the Thirty Tyrants, 1,400 citizens had been sentenced to death. However, he disliked people getting too close to him and would always sit at the end of a couch thus saving himself from one half of personal inconvenience.