Imagine going back to the Hellenistic Era, where people followed either Stoicism or Epicureanism. Which philosophy would you follow? A philosophy where you learn how to take control of your emotions, bear whatever life offers you, manage your anger, have wisdom as one of your life goals, and have a religion? Or have everything about pleasure to get happiness, and not really caring about other things in your life? Whatever your choice is, the real question is “To be or not to be”. To begin with, I believe that Stoicism is better than Epicureanism. And before I start saying why here is a little background about both philosophies. According to the textbook, Stoicism was a school of thought developed by the teacher Zeno. Stoicism states that …show more content…
The Stoics god was fire and logos (reason). In stoicism, they taught materialism, in which everything is material, including a god, words, and even emotions because they have physical expressions like smiling and blushing etc… In addition, they believed that god was fate. They believed that it gave humanity in which it allowed them to be free, but with boundaries that were limited by the faith you had with god. They also believed that god was the one that led your way to success. Even though the Stoics did not believe in the afterlife, they did believe that the world would eventually end, and repeat itself. And because they believed in that, they believed in the human soul as well. And they thought that nature was God, and God was the universe. And here is what supports that idea: a Stoic philosopher named Chrysippus once said, “The universe itself is god and the universal outpouring of its soul; it is this same world’s guiding principle, operating in mind and reason, together with the common nature of things and the totality that embraces all existence” So not only does this show that they believed in a god and souls and the existence of the world, but it also shows that one of their goals was to live in accordance with