Philosopher (281 BC – 204 BC)
Chrysippus was a post-Socratic Stoic philosopher of the Hellenistic period. He was also an athlete, orator and physicist. He was student of Cleanthes and Zeno of Citium, the founder of the Stoic School of philosophy, whom he succeeded as chairman of the Stoic School. His contribution in Stoic philosophy was so great that he surpassed his teacher and founder of the school and earned the title of “second founder” of the Stoic School. It was said that “Without Chrysippus there would have been no Stoa” while Carnedaes, the fourth chairman of the School said “If Chrysippus had not existed, neither would I”. In general, the philosopher was involved with 4 branches of philosophy: epistemology, metaphysics, logic and ethics.
Chrysippus defined “presentation” as a heteriosis (ἑτερείωσις), meaning the change caused to the soul by the assimilation of information and knowledge from the beings. He believed that the soul was a tabula rasa whose content was enriched by this assimilation. Chrysippus argued that perception shows a person’s inner state and energies. Perception gives birth to memories and memories create experience. By means of syllogism conceptions are created. Conceptions which are naturally created, without deliberation, are termed prolepsis (προλήψεις) by Chrysippus. Conceptions which are created as a result of our own instruction are called simply conceptions.
Metaphysics were of particular interest to him. He was a monist. He believed that the primary substance of beings is one. The world and all the beings are created by God. God is the most perfect, good and philanthropic being because he is created of the most perfect material and is the soul of the world that rules over it. Chrysippus accepted that God is omnipotent and the universes are to the world that which the soul is to the body of man. Because God is the soul, the nous (intellect), the logos, the nature, the destiny, the providence, the common Law that that gives spirit and life to every being. The philosopher said that while man’s soul is found everywhere in his body, its dominating part called the hegemonic (ἡγεμονικόν) resides on the same place where the soul of the universe is so that when God creates life he uses a part of himself. Everything according to Chrysippus is defined by a purpose.
Chrysippus expanded the science of Logic most than any other philosopher of the Stoic School. He examined several elements in Logic such as hypothetical and disjunctional syllogisms, complex judgments, proofs, arguments, propositions, modality and sophisms. Moreover, Chrysippus advanced propositional logic by introducing basic inference schemata, the basis of the inference rules.
Concerning Chrysippus’ teachings on ethics, he proclaimed “unquestionably living according to Nature” (Ὁμολογουμένως τῆ φύσει ζῆν). He considered wisdom as the common root of all four virtues: justice, common sense, phronesis and bravery as well as the science of all human and divine things. For him, the quintessence of a perfect man is the sage, who is the only one with true eudaimonism (happiness). His virtues are irremovable and can only be taken away by phrenopathy. The sage’s eudaimonism is equal to the eudaimonism of the divine, Zeus, because the sage is rid of sadness and passions, always acting right. Hence the philosopher rejected the equality of man and consequently democracy and accepted the supremacy of the philosophers over the rest of the people who were totally ignorant of their ignorance. He considered the mass foolish and insane. He did not care about what they said or did nor was it of any worth to him as he characteristically said “If I paid any attention to them, I would not become a philosopher”.
With his excellent dialectic arguments, his oratory skills, his vast bibliography – he wrote 705 books – and wisdom, Chrysippus defended the School’s name from its rivals and disseminated the Stoic philosophy throughout the ages. He was bestowed political privileges by the Athenians and a statue of him was built in Ceramicus. It is said that it was, however, so short that it was overshadowed by the rest of them and was called Cryptippus (Κρύψιππος). He allegedly died of excessive laughter and was succeeded by Poseidonius.
Bibliography
- “Chrysippus”. Helios New Encyclopaedic Dictionary. Passas, I. Athens: 1946. Print.
- “Chrysippus”. Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. Web. August 29, 2016.
- Pleures, Konstantinos. Greek Philosophers. Athens: Hilektron Publications, 2014. Print.
