Stoics Against Stoics in Cudworth's A Treatise of Freewill

British Journal for the History of Philosophy (in press)

In his A Treatise of Freewill, Ralph Cudworth argues against Stoic determinism by drawing on what he takes to be other concepts found in Stoicism, notably the claim that some things are ‘up to us’ (ἐφ᾽ ἡμῖν) and that these things are the product of our choice (προαίρεσις). These concepts are central to the late Stoic Epictetus and it appears at first glance as if Cudworth is opposing late Stoic voluntarism against early Stoic determinism. This paper argues that in fact, despite his claim to be drawing on Stoic doctrine, Cudworth uses these terms with a meaning first articulated only later, by the Peripatetic commentator Alexander of Aphrodisias.

Is God a Mindless Vegetable? Cudworth on Stoic Theology

Intellectual History Review 21/2 (2011), 121-33

In the late sixteenth century a number of influential writers claimed Stoicism to be compatible with Christianity but by the mid eighteenth century, Stoicism had come to be associated with atheism. What happened during the course of the reception of Stoicism in the intervening period? While it remains unclear who was the first person to call the Stoics atheists, there is no doubt that the most philosophically sustained analysis of Stoic theology during this period is to be found in Ralph Cudworth's True Intellectual System of the Universe, published in 1678. Cudworth's aim in this work is to catalogue and then attack all existing forms of atheism and one of the four principal forms of atheism he identifies he calls ‘Stoical’. However, in Cudworth's complex taxonomy of different forms of theism and atheism, Stoicism appears twice, first as a form of atheism but also as a form of imperfect theism. The aim of this study is to examine Cudworth's claims about Stoic theology, assessing their fairness, but also placing them within the wider context of the early modern reception of Stoicism.

Stoic Ontology and Plato's Sophist

in V. Harte, M.M. McCabe, R.W. Sharples, A. Sheppard, eds, Aristotle and the Stoics Reading Plato, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Suppl. 107 (2010), 185-203

Techne peri ton bion. Zur stoischen Konzeption von Kunst und Leben

in W. Kersting, C. Langbehn, eds, Kritik der Lebenskunst (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2007), 91-117

Stoic Cosmopolitanism and Zeno's Republic

History of Political Thought 28/1 (2007), 1-29

Modern accounts of Stoic politics have attributed to Zeno the ideal of an isolated community of sages and to later Stoics such as Seneca a cosmopolitan utopia transcending all traditional States. By returning to the Cynic background to both Zeno's Republic and the Cosmopolitan tradition, this paper argues that the distance between the two is not as great as is often supposed. This account, it is argued, is more plausible than trying to offer a developmental explanation of the supposed transformation in Stoic political thought from isolated community to cosmopolitan utopia.

Stoic Practical Philosophy in the Imperial Period

in R. Sorabji, R.W. Sharples, eds, Greek and Roman Philosophy, 100 BC-200 AD, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Suppl. 94/1 (2007), 115-40

The Meditations and the Ancient Art of Living

in M. van Ackeren, ed., A Companion to Marcus Aurelius (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), in press

Marcus Aurelius in Contemporary Philosophy

in M. van Ackeren, ed., A Companion to Marcus Aurelius (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), in press

Justus Lipsius's De Constantia: A Stoic Spiritual Exercise

This essay offers an introduction to Justus Lipsius's dialogue De Constantia, first published in 1584. Although the dialogue bears a superficial similarity to philosophical works of consolation, I suggest that it should be approached as a spiritual exercise written by Lipsius primarily for his own benefit.

Marcus Aurelius: The Philosopher

in M. Gagarin, ed., The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, 7 vols (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), vol. 4, 345-6

Epictetus

in A. Grafton, G. Most, S. Settis, eds, The Classical Tradition (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2010), 319-20

Seneca's philosophical predecessors and contemporaries

in G. Damschen, A. Heil, eds, Brill’s Companion to Seneca (Leiden: Brill, 2012), in press

The Aristotelian Commentators: A Bibliographical Guide

in P. Adamson, H. Baltussen, M. Stone, eds, Philosophy, Science, and Exegesis in Greek, Arabic, and Latin Commentaries, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Suppl. 83/1 (2004), 239-68

Simon the Shoemaker and the Problem of Socrates

Classical Philology 98/3 (2003), 207-16