Hellenistic schools
The schools
Hellenism, meaning roughly the time period after Alexander’s death (323 BC), comprises three novel philosophical schools:
- Epicureanism,
- Pyrrhonian Scepticism, or Pyrrhonism, and
- Stoicism.
(These schools existed alongside other established schools, such as those following Aristotle or Plato, which will not be our topic.)
The uniting goal
What all three schools have in common is the overarching aim of the individual person to be happy. And this cannot be stressed out enough: Hellenistic philosophy (and Stoicism is part of it) deals first and foremost with happiness. This goal (technical term: telos) of happiness is also known as Eudaimonia. Eudaimonia is sometimes also described as a flourishing life. The goal itself is no different throughout the ancient era, but in the Hellenistic era, it gets a new individualistic, psychologizing flavour.
How can a person be happy?