Zeno of Citium · Philosophy

Virtue Is the Only Good

Zeno made a claim so bold it scandalised the ancient world: <em>virtue is the only good</em>, and everything else - health, wealth, reputation, even life itself - is strictly indifferent. To see why this is not madness but the core of Stoic freedom is to understand the most demanding ethics of antiquity.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that Zeno held a radical thesis: only virtue is good, only vice is evil , and everything else - health, wealth, pleasure, reputation, life and death - is indifferent (neither good nor bad in itself). Yet not all indifferents are equal: some, like health and wealth, are &lsquo;preferred&rsquo; (naturally to…

Leads to Aristotle.

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