Ancient wisdom

Making sense of the Hellenistic philosophies

A brief conceptual guide to what differentiated the Greco-Roman schools of philosophy as a way of life

a simple diagram to help us separate the telos, or goal, and the conceptions of the chief good across nine Hellenistic schools of philosophy

The Hellenistic period span from the death of Alexander the Great and the consequent collapse of the Macedonian Empire in 323 BCE to the battle of Actium in 31 BCE, where the future first Roman emperor, Octavian, beat the crap out of the joint forces of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra. It was an incredible period in human history, which saw the flourishing of a number of philosophical schools that went on to impact the development of western civilization, and that are still very much relevant today.

There are eight such schools that are often written about (together with a number of minor ones): Academic Skepticism, Aristotelianism, Cynicism, Cyrenaicism, Epicureanism, Platonism, Pyrrhonism, and Stoicism. It is rather daunting and confusing to take them all in at once and to try to understand the conceptual and practical differences among them, so here is the ultimate guide to making sense of philosophical Hellenism. Keep it handy!

First off, let us summarize the basic tenets of each philosophy when it comes to its ethics, that is, the study of how to live one’s life. I will not comment (with few and…