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How did the Stoics conceive philosophy?
In the final section of Chapter 1 we touched upon Epictetus' conception of philosophy and how it may have unwittingly contributed to the subsequent loss of early Stoic texts. As we have seen, for Epictetus philosophy is not merely about being able to understand and interpret philosophical texts; it is also something more practical and existential. As such, philosophy for him is an activity quite different from the modern academic discipline.
Before turning to Stoic philosophy directly it is important to consider precisely how the Stoics conceived philosophy and how their conception of philosophy differs from our own. If we assume that the Stoics were philosophers simply in the same sense in which a modern academic is a philosopher then we run the risk of countless misunderstandings and distortions. In particular, we may well end up simply abstracting those parts of Stoic philosophy that fit neatly into modern categories of philosophy and ignoring everything else that does not. While such an approach may be intellectually fruitful, it will not enable us to understand Stoic philosophy on its own terms. So let us begin by considering some Stoic thoughts about the nature and function of philosophy. The following passage comes from Epictetus:
Philosophy does not promise to secure anything external for humans, otherwise it would be admitting something that lies beyond its proper subject matter. For just as wood is the material of the carpenter, bronze that of the statuary, so each individual's own life is the material of the art of living.
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