From ancient to new Stoicism: VI — Steven Gambardella’s new modern Stoicism
A conceptual map of where Stoicism came from and where it may be going
Stoicism famously got started around 301 BCE, when Zeno of Citium, a former Phoenician merchant, began to teach at the Stoa Poikile, or Painted Porch, in Athens. We have examined the basics of ancient Stoicism in three essays in this series, dedicated respectively to Stoic physics (i.e., science and metaphysics), logic, and ethics.
A good amount of time has passed since Zeno, and both science and philosophy have made progress. What would Stoicism look like today, if its organic development had not been interrupted by the rise of Christianity? That question has been posed by a number of modern authors, and so far we’ve seen the responses given by Larry Becker and Piotr Stankiewicz.
In this essay we are going to look at a third attempt at a new, more modern Stoicism, the one currently being developed by Steven Gambardella by way of a series of essays published in his Substack newsletter, curiously entitled The Sophist.
Gambardella has a PhD in history and writes as an independent scholar and essayist. His stuff (not only about Stoicism) is well worth reading. Concerning how to update Stoicism he has written a number of essays…
