Single Idea 22743

[catalogued under 26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 5. Infinite in Nature]

Full Idea

The Stoic school say that the Whole is the Cosmos, whereas the All is the external void together with the Cosmos, so the Whole is limited but the All is unlimited. (Epicurus gives the two names indifferently to both).

Gist of Idea

Unlike Epicurus, Stoics distinguish the Whole from the All, with the latter including the void

Source

report of Stoic school (fragments/reports [c.200 BCE]) by Sextus Empiricus - Against the Physicists (two books) I.332

Book Reference

Sextus Empiricus: 'Against the Physicists/Against the Ethicists', ed/tr. Bury,R.G. [Harvard Loeb 1997], p.161


A Reaction

Epicurus needed the void as part of the Cosmos, into which the atoms can move. Presumably the Stoic void is infinite, but how far does the Stoic Cosmos extend?