Papers by William O Stephens
The Routledge Handbook of Hellenistic Philosophy, 2020
An overview of the Stoic philosophers and the main elements of their system. A chronological pres... more An overview of the Stoic philosophers and the main elements of their system. A chronological presentation of brief biographies of the Stoics with the most notable contributions of each individual is followed by a sketch of their philosophical system divided into the branches of logic, physics, and ethics. Logic includes topics in rhetoric, dialectic, and epistemology. Physics is the account of physical reality, including ontology, cosmology, and theology. The synopsis of ethics includes the Stoics’ version of naturalism, the doctrine of oikeiōsis, the virtues, emotions, the sage, moral progress, and cosmopolitanism.
Environmental Ethics in the Midwest: Interdisciplinary Approaches, 2022
Agrarianism views rural society as superior to urban society and the independent farmer as superi... more Agrarianism views rural society as superior to urban society and the independent farmer as superior to the paid worker. Agrarians believe farming is a way of life that can shape the ideal social values. The legend of Cincinnatus helped inspire ancient Roman agrarianism. The Roman statesman and farmer Cato the Elder was praised by later authors for being a stoic (small ‘s’). Cicero declared that no profession is better, more pleasing, more delightful, or more becoming to a free man than agriculture. He praises agrarian life as ‘the teacher of parsimony, industry, and justice.’ The Roman Stoic (capital ‘S’) Musonius Rufus judged farming to be an especially admirable profession. The Stoics held that the goal of life is living in agreement with nature. They were naturalists who idealized the virtues of self-sufficiency, perseverance, equanimity, modesty, and civic responsibility. Respect for limits, Wendell Berry notes, is a virtue essential to agrarianism. I argue that ancient Stoic agrarianism offers promising ideas for developing Midwest Stoic agrarianism (MSA) – a practical environmental virtue ethics to tackle the ecological and sociopolitical pressures confronting Midwest farmers in the Anthropocene. MSA dictates producing locally sourced, sustainably grown crops instead of livestock in CAFOs.
Brill's Companion to Musonius Rufus, J. Sellars and L. Gloyn eds., 2025
Rufus contends that meticulous grooming and styling of hair is unmanly because it is contrary to ... more Rufus contends that meticulous grooming and styling of hair is unmanly because it is contrary to a man’s nature. A man who lives agreeably with nature, he believes, improves himself by gaining virtue, not by altering his appearance to boost his sex appeal, enhance his popularity, or display his social class or wealth. Fastidious hairdressing and shaving to please others cannot win self-respect; only gaining virtue does. Hair protects the skin, and so it is no burden, as some wrongly believe.
Brill's Companion to Musonius Rufus, J. Sellars and L. Gloyn eds., 2025
In this essay on Musonius Rufus's Discourse 18 "On Food" I discuss the typical foods of first-cen... more In this essay on Musonius Rufus's Discourse 18 "On Food" I discuss the typical foods of first-century Romans and characterize their dietary choices as rooted in opposed pairs of concepts: raw/cooked, pure/impure, civilized/barbarian, austere/luxurious, and strong/soft. Within this scheme I situate meat as a locus of moral debate. I contextualize Rufus's arguments in ancient philosophical vegetarianism. I reconstruct and analyze his arguments. Finally, two sorts of eaters portrayed in Περὶ τροφῆς are contrasted.
Practical Stoicism, 2023
An informal essay tackling the question of whether Santa Claus is a Stoic.
Practical Stoicism, 2023
An informal essay on cognitive biases from a Stoic perspective.
Practical Stoicism, 2023
An informal essay on Dungeons & Dragons and collaborative story-telling from a Stoic perspective.
Practical Stoicism, 2023
An informal essay on two popular lawn care practices that are contrary to nature from a Stoic per... more An informal essay on two popular lawn care practices that are contrary to nature from a Stoic perspective.
Practical Stoicism, 2023
An informal essay presenting a Stoic perspective on Daylight Saving Time.
Ancient Philosophy, 2014
Aristotle claims that the most fearsome thing is death (Nicomachean Ethics iii 6.1115a26). In con... more Aristotle claims that the most fearsome thing is death (Nicomachean Ethics iii 6.1115a26). In contrast, Epicurus famously argued that death is nothing to us, and so nothing to fear (Letter to Menoeceus 124). The Stoics agreed with their Epicurean rivals that death is not to be feared, but they presented different reasons to support this judgment. 1 Epicurus identified the goal of living with pleasure, especially freedom from pain and distress, and evil with pain and distress. Since no sensation at all, neither pleasant nor painful, is possible for the dead, he inferred that death is nothing. It is nothing for the dead, who no longer exist, and nothing for the living, who do not experience their own deaths as long as they live (Letter to Menoeceus 125). The Stoics rejected the Epicurean identification of good with pleasure and evil with pain. The Stoics maintained that life, death, strength, weakness, health, illness, wealth, poverty, beauty, ugliness, good reputation, infamy, pleasure, pain, and other such things are neither goods nor evils but rather indifferents (adiaphora, see Long and Sedley (LS) 1987, i 354-355 [58A-C]). Within this class of indifferents the Stoics grouped death with weakness, illness, poverty, ugliness, infamy, and pain, calling such things 'dispreferred' (apoproēgmena) indifferents. This means that although the threat of death in no way diminishes the happiness of the Stoic, it is natural and reasonable for him to choose to continue to live unless and until doing so conflicts with virtue, which is the only good. 2 The Epicurean view of death as nothing to a person and the Stoic view of death as indifferent to one's happiness therefore offer distinct rationales for not fearing death. 3 I present the Stoic Epictetus' arguments that no fears about death are warranted. If Epictetus can persuade his students to dispel all their fears of death, he will thereby have gone a long way toward liberating them from a host of other unreasonable worries that the uneducated typically regard as less scary than death. Consequently, debunking the fear of death is a vital pedagogical goal for Ancient Philosophy 34 (2014) ©Mathesis Publications 365 1 Diogenes Laertius x 6 reports that Epictetus called Epicurus a κιναιδολόγον, a 'preacher of effeminacy' (Hicks) or more precisely a man who advocates assuming the female's position in sex.
Archives in Biomedical Engineering & Biotechnology
Food is and always has been a serious issue for public health, agriculture, the environment, and ... more Food is and always has been a serious issue for public health, agriculture, the environment, and ethics. First, a brief sketch of the history of the philosophical vegetarianism is offered. This overview will allow several contemporary concerns about agricultural systems, resultant environmental harms, threats to public health, food insecurity, and dietary choices to be historically contextualized and interrelated. The conceptual map presented more or less chronologically here does not pretend to be comprehensive. But despite its necessary incompleteness and unavoidable selectivity the hope is that it may prove of modest use to inform food-secure consumers who enjoy a range of healthy food options, desire to safeguard public health, support sustainable agriculture, maintain ecological integrity, and work for climate stability. In the Western hemisphere, the idea of philosophical vegetarianism has a history of nearly 1,000 years in ancient Greece. The belief that it is wrong to eat animals was propounded by many of the most eminent ancient philosophers: Pythagoras, Empedocles, Theophrastus, who succeeded Aristotle as head of the Lyceum, Plutarch, Plotinus, and Porphyry. Porphyry, a prolific polymath, compiled a wide range of arguments against vegetarianism, critiqued them in detail, and defended at length his own Plotinian arguments for vegetarianism, in his work De Abstinentia ab Esu Animalium [1]. In ancient Rome, Pythagoras' arguments for philosophical vegetarianism won over the Stoic philosopher, statesman, orator, and dramatist Seneca, who reported improved health and vigor as benefits of abstaining from meat. Seneca believed that Stoic philosophy, which grounds the virtues of wisdom, justice, and temperance in pursuit of living in agreement with nature, dictates simple, simply prepared, frugal meals of foods that are close at hand. Thus, Seneca advocated moderate, unfussy eating and condemned foods requiring great labor, expense, or trouble. Seafood, imported foods, meat from hunted animals, and exotic mushrooms he criticized as decadent luxuries. The respected Roman Stoic teacher Musonius Rufus also emphasized the virtues of simplicity and frugality in eating. He argued that the proper diet consists of the least expensive and most readily available foods: raw fruits in season, raw and cooked vegetables, milk, cheese, honeycombs, and cooked grains. Like Seneca, Musonius rejected meat as too crude for human beings and more suitable for wild animals. Musonius concluded that responsible people favor what is easy to obtain over what is difficult, what involves no trouble over what does, and what is available over what isn't, because doing so promotes self-control and virtue of character. For him, these values called for a lacto-vegetarian diet
The Ideal of the Stoic Sportsman
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 00948705 2004 9714660, Jan 19, 2012
The Ethics of the Stoic Epictetus
The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 2000
Environmental Ethics, 1994
68178. Stephens' interests include Classical Greek and Hellenistic philosophy, applied ethics, an... more 68178. Stephens' interests include Classical Greek and Hellenistic philosophy, applied ethics, and Nietzsche. He has presented papers on the concept of fate, Socrates' moral philosophy, and Stoic love. He thanks Creighton University for release time in spring 1992, which allowed him to work on this paper. 1 Jim Cheney, "The Neo-Stoicism of Radical Environmentalism," Environmental Ethics 11 (1989): 293-325. Cheney writes: ".. . there is a certain sensibility present in Stoicism, a theme which can be read there as a subtext when Stoicism is considered in the social and political context of its rise to prominence in the ancient world, and. .. this same sensibility can be read as a subtext in the deep ecological literature [of Warwick Fox, Bill Devall, George Sessions, and Arne Naess]" (p. 294). 2 Cheney's use of Hans Jonas, The Gnostic Religion: The Message of the Alien God and the Beginnings of Christianity (Boston: Beacon Press, 1963) as his sole source of what Stoicism is Cheney's claim that there is a subtextual affinity between ancient Stoicism and deep ecology is historically unfounded, conceptually unsupported, and misguided from a scholarly viewpoint. His criticisms of Stoic thought are thus merely ad hominem diatribe. A proper examination of the central ideas of Stoic ethics reveals the coherence and insightfulness of Stoic naturalism and rationalism. While not providing the basis for a contemporary environmental ethic, Stoicism, nonetheless, contains some very fruitful ethical concepts.
Shakespearean Tragedy and Gender
10 WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? Reading the Liberal Humanist Romance in Antony and Cleopat... more 10 WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? Reading the Liberal Humanist Romance in Antony and Cleopatra LINDA CHARNES There's beggary in the love that can be reckoned. -ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA* What's love got to do, got to do with it? —TINA ...
The Simile of the Talus in Cicero, De Finibus 3.54
Classical Philology, 1996
Pallas: Revue d’études antiques , 2020
The Roman imperial Stoics were familiar with exile. I argue that the Stoics’ view of being a refu... more The Roman imperial Stoics were familiar with exile. I argue that the Stoics’ view of being a refugee differed sharply from their view of what is owed to refugees. A Stoic adopts the perspective of a cosmopolitēs, a ‘citizen of the world’, a rational being everywhere at home in the universe. Virtue can be cultivated and practiced in any locale, so being a refugee is an ‘indifferent’ that poses no obstacle to happiness. But other people are our fellow cosmic citizens regardless of their language, race, ethnicity, customs, or country of origin. Our natural affinity and shared sociability with all people require us to help refugees and embrace them as welcome neighbors. Failure to do so violates our common reason, justice, and the gods’ cosmic law.
Study of the philosophy of food of the ancient (predominantly Roman) Stoics.
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Papers by William O Stephens