The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

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THE STOIC CREED
Moral Progress
The Stoics took over from Socrates the doctrine that
virtue may be taught. The proof they gave of this
position was the fact that "bad men may become
good
(SrJAov CK rov yiVecr$ai dya$ous IK <f>av\u>v) ;
and the
great proof of the reality of virtue adduced by Posidonius
was the fact that "Socrates and Diogenes and Antisthenes
made progress in it"
(Diog. Laert. vii. 54).
This conception of progress (TTPOKOTO)) in the moral
life toned down the original sternness of the Stoic
teaching of the absolute nature of virtue, and became
the great source of moral impulse to the unsophisticated
to struggling and imperfect humanity. Many of the
most telling
very subject.
passages in Seneca have reference to this
But though the Stoics thus acknowledged the
possibility of teaching virtue and upheld
the fact of
progress, and, therefore, the potency of habit, in the
upbuilding of character, they were divided in opinion
as to whether virtue could be lost ; Chrysippus holding
Posidonius of Apamea in Syria. There was another Athenodorus,
from Cana in Cilicia ;
and the early Stoic Archedemus is mentioned
by Cicero as belonging to Tarsus. The names of Nestor, Atheno
dorus, Cordylion, and Heraclides may be added to the list of
Stoical teachers furnished by Tarsus. Seleucia sent forth
Diogenes ; Epiphania, Euphrates ; Scythopolis, Basilides ; Ascalon,
Antibius ; Tyre, Antipater Sidon, Boethus ; ; Ptolemais, Diogenes.
We see then what an Oriental aspect this catalogue presents.
Not a single Stoic of note was a native of Greece proper" (Sir A.
Grant, The Ethics of Aristotle, vol. i. p. 307). The genuine Greek
despised the Barbarian (even Plato and Aristotle did), and made
a very marked distinction between the freeborn citizen and the
slave.