Understanding the Stoic Philosophy of Chrysippus of Soli | Stoicism | Greek Philosophy

In this article, we know about the philosophy and other contributions of the third Stoic Scholarch, Chrysippus of Soli. Chrysippus took the doctrine of Zeno and Cleanthes and solidified it into the definitive system of Stoicism. It is said that “Without Chrysippus, there would be no Stoa.”

Introduction to Chrysippus

Chrysippus was a Greek stoic philosopher. He was a native of Soli, Cilicia but moved to Athena as a young man where he becomes a pupil of Cleanthes. He was of Phoenician descent and born to Apollonius of Tarsus in C 279 BCE. He became the third stoic scholarch after the death of his mentor Cleanthes in C 230 BCE. Chrysippus was a prolific writer and he expanded the fundamental doctrines of Zeno, the founder of Stoicism. This earned him the title of “Second Founder of Stoicism”. He excelled in logic, the theory of knowledge, ethic and physics. He created an original system of propositional logic and a deterministic view of fate. Diogenes accounts for a fit of laughter in a drunk state as the cause of his death in C 206 BCE….

Chrysippus on Logic and Physics

Propositional Logic

Chrysippus invented the concept of propositional logic. He defined a proposition as “that which is capable of being denied or affirmed as it is in itself….”

For example:

“If it is day, it is light”

He even distinguished between simple and non-simple propositions known as atomic and molecular propositions today….

Conditional Propostion

Chrysippus solved the problem of propositional paradoxes by adopting a stricter view of a conditional proposition. According to him, a conditional is true if the denial of the consequent is logically incompatible with the antecedent….

Syllogistic

Chrysippus developed a syllogistic or system of deduction using five types of argument forms. He developed four inference rules called themata. Two of them have survived the test of time….

Mathematics

Chrysippus regarded all bodies, surfaces, lines, places and even the void to be infinitely divisible. According to him, a man, his finger and the universe all have infinite parts. Hence, it cannot be said that a man has more parts than a finger or the universe has more parts than a man. He was also one of the first Greek philosophers to consider ‘one’ as a number….

Physics

Following Zeno, Chrysippus considered the fiery breath or aether to be the primitive substance of the universe….

According to him, the classical elements change into one another by a process of condensation and refraction. Fire gets condensed into air, air into water and water into earth while the process of refraction happens in the opposite order….

Soul

Chrysippus divided the human soul into 8 faculties: the five senses, the power of reproduction, the power of speech, and the ruling part which he believed to be located in the heart….

The philosophy of Chrysippus

Chrysippus took the doctrine of Zeno and Cleanthes and solidified it into the definitive system of Stoicism. It is said that “Without Chrysippus, there would be no Stoa.”

Theory of Knowledge

For stoics, the truth can be distinguished from false by a safe with the right reason. According to Chrysippus empirical theory of knowledge, external messages are transmitted by senses and truth is inferred by comparing them to previous reports stored in the mind….

Fate

Chrysippus believed in the concept of co-fated complex predestination or soft determination. The stoic view of fate is that of the universe as a whole. According to him, while something is pre-determined to happen, our response to it determines the final outcome of the complex predestination….

For example:

A coat is predestined to self destruct but how that happens and how long that takes to happen is co-fated to how it is being taken care of….

God

Chrysippus was a pandeist who considered “the universe itself is god and the universal outpouring of its soul.” He also believed that the universe exists for the purpose of itself and we are just a part of it….

Theodicy

Chrysippus considered both good and evil are part of the world and one cannot exist without the other. Just like Plato, he too believed that it wouldn’t be possible to recognize good without the presence of evil and vice versa….

Ethics

Following the philosophy of the Stoics before him, Chrysippus too believed that “to live ethically is to live in accordance with nature.”

Chrysippus believed that all soul is perishable but souls of the wise survive longer after death. However, no soul can survive beyond the periodic conflagration, when the universe is renewed….

“For there is no other or more appropriate way of approaching the subject of good and evil on the virtue or happiness than from the nature of all things and the administration of the universe.”

-Chrysippus in ‘Physical Theses”

Watch the video essay for more: https://youtu.be/O7K3KjnaAQA