Zeno of Citium
c.334–262 BC · Hellenistic Philosophy · Prominent
Zeno of Citium was a Phoenician from Cyprus who founded Stoicism and taught from a painted colonnade in Athens that gave the school its name. Virtue is the only real good, he held, and health, money and reputation are indifferent, leaving the wise man untouched whichever way they fall, gains and losses alike. One divine reason runs through the cosmos, and wisdom means falling into step with it.
Signature
The position Zeno of Citium is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Nature
- leans Harmony
- Ethics Basis
- Virtue / Natural Law
Positions on the 7 axes the sources answer
- The Divine
- leans Describable (25 on a 0–100 scale from Describable to Indescribable)
- Universals
- leans Nominalism (75 on a 0–100 scale from Realism to Nominalism)
- Identity
- leans Unchanging (25 on a 0–100 scale from Unchanging to Changing)
- Nature
- leans Harmony (75 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
- Ignorance
- strongly leans Bondage (10 on a 0–100 scale from Bondage to Bliss)
- Conviction
- leans Certain (75 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
- Allegiance
- leans Global (75 on a 0–100 scale from Local to Global)
13 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Zeno of Citium refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Pantheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Government
- One World Order
What is your ideal form of government? - Highest Good
- Virtue
What is the highest good? - Good and Evil
- Moral Realism
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - End of Things
- Eternal Return
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Perception
- Direct Realism
What do we directly perceive? - Knowledge
- Sense Experience
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Virtue / Natural Law
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Compatibilism
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Beginning of Things
- Eternal Cosmos
What is the origin of reality? - Time
- Cyclical Return
What is the fundamental shape of time? - Authority
- Natural Law
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Paradox
- Paradox as Error
What is the status of paradox? - Death
- Annihilation
What happens at death? - Role of Emotion
- Obstacle to Reason
What is the proper role of emotion? - Human Nature
- Innate Good
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- Humanity
What is your primary bond and loyalty?