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Ideas of Chrysippus, by Text

[Greek, 280 - 207 BCE, Born at Soli in Cilicia. A pupil of Arcesilaus. Head of the Stoic school in Athens.]

240BCE fragments/reports
p.9 Three branches of philosophy: first logic, second ethics, third physics (which ends with theology)
p.9 The origin of justice can only be in Zeus, and in nature
p.10 Only nature is available to guide action and virtue
p.12 Graspable presentations are criteria of facts, and are molded according to their objects [Diog. Laertius]
p.17 A proposition is what can be asserted or denied on its own
p.22 Chrysippus has five obvious 'indemonstrables' of reasoning [Diog. Laertius]
p.26 How could you ever know that the presentation is similar to the object? [Sext.Empiricus]
p.30 Stoic propositional logic is like chemistry - how atoms make molecules, not the innards of atoms [Devlin]
p.36 Modus ponens is one of five inference rules identified by the Stoics [Devlin]
p.36 Dogs show reason in decisions made by elimination [Sext.Empiricus]
p.55 Everything is fated, either by continuous causes or by a supreme rational principle [Diog. Laertius]
p.66 Human purpose is to contemplate and imitate the cosmos
p.66 Covers are for shields, and sheaths for swords; likewise, all in the cosmos is for some other thing
p.87 The present does not exist, so our immediate experience is actually part past and part future [Plutarch]
p.88 Time is continous and infinitely divisible, so there cannot be a wholly present time [Stobaeus]
p.88 The past and the future subsist, but only the present exists [Plutarch]
p.97 Fire is a separate element, not formed with others (as was previously believed) [Stobaeus]
p.98 Death can't separate soul from body, because incorporeal soul can't unite with body
p.102 The causes of future true events must exist now, so they will happen because of destiny [Cicero]
p.103 A swerve in the atoms would be unnatural, like scales settling differently for no reason [Plutarch]
p.104 Chrysippus is wrong to believe in non-occurring future possibilities if he is a fatalist [Plutarch]
p.104 Chrysippus allows evil to say it is fated, or even that it is rational and natural [Plutarch]
p.106 The Lazy Argument responds to fate with 'why bother?', but the bothering is also fated [Cicero]
p.109 Fate is an eternal and fixed chain of causal events
p.110 Fate initiates general causes, but individual wills and characters dictate what we do
p.114 Rational animals begin uncorrupted, but externals and companions are bad influences [Diog. Laertius]
p.117 There are shameful pleasures, and nothing shameful is good, so pleasure is not a good [Diog. Laertius]
p.119 Passions are judgements; greed thinks money is honorable, and likewise drinking and lust [Diog. Laertius]
p.122 Wise men should try to participate in politics, since they are a good influence [Diog. Laertius]
p.123 Justice, the law, and right reason are natural and not conventional [Diog. Laertius]
p.123 Chrysippus says virtue can be lost (though Cleanthes says it is too secure for that) [Diog. Laertius]
p.124 Justice is irrelevant to animals, because they are too unlike us [Diog. Laertius]
p.132 Live in agreement, according to experience of natural events
p.138 Chrysippus says action is the criterion for existence, which must be physical [Tieleman]
p.155 The later Stoics identified the logos with an air-fire compound, called 'pneuma' [Long]
p.157 The highest degree of morality performs all that is appropriate, omitting nothing
p.169 There is a rationale in terrible disasters; they are useful to the whole, and make good possible
p.171 Dion and Theon coexist, but Theon lacks a foot. If Dion loses a foot, he ousts Theon? [Philo of Alexandria]
p.175 Change of matter doesn't destroy identity - in Dion and Theon change is a condition of identity [Long/Sedley]
p.203 Every proposition is either true or false [Cicero]
p.221 Stoics categories are Substrate, Quality, Disposition, and Relation [Pasnau]
p.227 There are simple and complex facts; the latter depend on further facts [Cicero]
p.228 Wisdom for one instant is as good as wisdom for eternity
p.237 When we say events are fated by antecedent causes, do we mean principal or auxiliary causes?
p.291 Stoics teach that law is identical with right reason, which is the will of Zeus [Diog. Laertius]
p.296 Stoics say that beauty and goodness are equivalent and linked [Diog. Laertius]
p.297 Pleasure is not the good, because there are disgraceful pleasures [Diog. Laertius]
p.306 Stoics say justice is a part of nature, not just an invented principle [Diog. Laertius]
p.306 We don't have obligations to animals as they aren't like us [Diog. Laertius]
p.308 Stoics teach that God is a unity, variously known as Mind, or Fate, or Jupiter [Diog. Laertius]
p.312 Stoics say that God the creator is the perfection of all animals [Diog. Laertius]
p.497 People need nothing except corn and water [Plutarch]
p.509 Chrysippus said the uncaused is non-existent [Plutarch]
p.557 Chrysippus says nothing is blameworthy, as everything conforms with the best nature [Plutarch]
fr 211 p.459 All virtue is good, but not always praised (as in not lusting after someone ugly)
fr 23 p.747 Justice can be preserved if pleasure is a good, but not if it is the goal [Plutarch]
fr 326 p.433 The source of all justice is Zeus and the universal nature
fr 444 p.867 Stoics say earth, air, fire and water are the primary elements [Plutarch]
fr 997 p.595 Destiny is only a predisposing cause, not a sufficient cause [Plutarch]
fr139 p.675 Living happily is nothing but living virtuously [Plutarch]