Quotation
Last reviewed:
“The end is to live in agreement with nature.”
Zeno of Citium · Stoicism · Ancient · 3rd century BCE, reported later
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that the end of life is agreement with nature, where nature is the rational order of the cosmos and virtue is that agreement. A competing reading hears 'nature' as impulse or as the countryside, which is the muddle the English word invites and which Zeno's lost books cannot correct in his own voice. The formula is doxography, Diogenes Laertius reporting the early Stoa. Later Stoics repeat it and argue over the wording.
Did Zeno of Citium really say this?
The library’s label is Questionable. Zeno's books are lost. This is the standard doxographical formula for his ethics. Later Stoics repeat and refine it. The exact words are not from an extant work of his.
Where it comes from
Diogenes Laertius 7.87, reporting Zeno
Approximate date: 3rd century BCE, reported later.
How to use it
When someone on a walk says they want to live more naturally, ask which nature they mean: the impulse of the moment, a biological fact, or a rational order they think they ought to fit. A weekend in the Peaks does not decide it. The slogan is doing no work until that word is fixed.
A mindset reading
A school slogan is a handle on a system, not yet an argument. The habit is to ask what the technical word contrasts with. Here 'nature' contrasts with opinion, convention, and passions that fight reason, not with cities.
Understand the philosophy
The report answers what Stoicism says life is for. 'The end', telos, means the goal for the sake of which other things are chosen, and agreement with nature, later glossed as living according to reason, is that goal. Virtue is the only true good inside it. Zeno founded the school, while Chrysippus and the Roman Stoics filled in a system we mostly meet through them.
- virtue
- ethics
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that the end of life is agreement with nature, where nature is the rational order of the cosmos and virtue is that agreement. A competing reading hears 'nature' as impulse or as the countryside, which is the muddle the English word invites and which Zeno's lost books cannot correct in his own voice. The formula is doxography, Diogenes Laertius reporting the early Stoa. Later Stoics repeat it and argue over the wording.
Did Zeno of Citium really say this?
Questionable. Zeno's books are lost. This is the standard doxographical formula for his ethics. Later Stoics repeat and refine it. The exact words are not from an extant work of his.
Which work is it in?
Diogenes Laertius 7.87, reporting Zeno Approximate date: 3rd century BCE, reported later.