An Education in Stoicism:
Considerations of the Child, Rationality, and Assent as Educational Philosophy Among the Hellenistic Stoics

 

The fragmentary remains of the works of the Hellenistic Stoics have been culled for information sufficient to attempt to reconstruct various aspects of their reputedly systematic philosophy. Though such attempts are many and varied in their foci, few have addressed the philosophy of education of these philosophers at a substantive level. Of particular interest are the accounts of the attributes of the newborn, the homogenous rationality of the soul, and the capacity for appropriate assent as indicative of wisdom. This paper will examine these aspects as presented in the main sources on Stoicism and attempt to sketch the connections which might be taken to constitute an integrated philosophy of education.

The writings of Diogenes Laertius, Cicero, Arius Didymus (Joannes Stobaeus), and others provide the primary material for consideration in this effort. The method that will be followed is to consider the secondary scholarship and then the primary source material on each aspect of Stoic philosophy in turn and then to attempt to draw out the points of connection and ascertain some idea of the overarching philosophy.