27.04.2023 | Philosophische Fakultät, Philosophisches Seminar

The Divinity of Nature in Ancient Stoicism

The Stoic philosophers of Hellenistic Greece divided the field of their inquiries into three parts that they called logic, physics and ethics. Modern scholars acclaim their achievements in logic and ethics, but Stoic physics has lagged far behind this esteem. However, contemporary interests in panpsychism and non-human agency encourage a fresh look at the Stoics’ notions of the co-substantiality of nature and divinity, and of the biosphere. They viewed the identity of god and nature from a range of inter-entailing aspects. These include creative fire, generative formula (logos), self-moving spirit (pneuma), soul, fate, cause, and reason. In this paper I will explore these cosmological models. I will also, time permitting, consider them macroscopically (the god’s eye perspective) and microscopically (the individual nature’s self-perception).