About

Systoa: the project

The name ‘Systoa’ is a portmanteau comprising ‘system’ and ‘Stoa’. The goal of systoa.com is to elucidate the system underpinning ancient Stoic philosophy, also referred to as the “Stoa”, named after the Stoa Poikile, a colonnaded hall in Athens where early Stoics gathered.

To practice Stoicism effectively, one must understand basic Stoic concepts, their interrelations, and especially the reasons behind their development. We believe it is insufficient to merely know how to react to daily situations according to different thinkers. For self-determination, it isn’t enough to be advised on actions. Instead, a flourishing life requires an inner compass guiding a person to act appropriately across varied situations. Stoicism and related Hellenistic philosophies provide such tools. Our primary goal is to guide learners to find an inner compass with the help of these tools.

Most of the Stoic system originated in ancient Greece. The original works of Greek authors who established the system are either lost or survived in exceedingly fragmented forms. Understanding their underlying rationale can be challenging and is typically confined to academic researchers. However, we believe Stoicism is too significant to be confined to scholarly debates.

Studying the writings of later Roman Stoic practitioners, like the famous Emperor Marcus Aurelius, certainly is a fruitful undertaking. However, to truly grasp the system, reading later authors alone is often inadequate and leaves gaps in comprehension. In other words, Stoicism is too profound to be merely approached based on Stoic judgments, without grasping the underlying explanations. To comprehend the system, it’s crucial to recognize the core arguments.

This is where systoa.com steps in. We endeavor to articulate the core ideas of the Stoic ethical system in language and contexts that contemporary learners can comprehend and utilize. In navigating the complexities of Stoic philosophy, it can be tempting to streamline its depth and intricacy. However, at systoa.com, we are committed to preserving the profound richness of the philosophy as we believe it should not be subjected to oversimplification. It’s a challenging task, but we believe it’s worth the effort. Let’s get to work!

Inspiration

One of this project’s sources of inspiration is Hossenfelder’s book on Hellenistic philosophy (Malte Hossenfelder, Die Philosophie der Antike 3: Stoa, Epikureismus und Skepsis, 1995, in: W. Röd: Geschichte der Philosophie III). It offers one of the very few interpretations of Stoic ethics that is systematic and internally consistent at the same time. As it is only available in German, we see it as our challenge to share the knowledge found therein and also in other standard works of the scholarly literature that might not be accessible to many outside academia (the works of authors such as A.A.Long, P.Inwood, F.H.Sandbach, K.Algra, J.Barnes, J.Mansfeld, M.Schofield and others). We shall offer an interpretation of the Stoic system that is in broad strokes based on Hossenfelder’s, but slightly modified and digitally enhanced.