Ebook Stoics and Sceptics

The following four lectures make no pretence of being an exhaustive account of ancient Stoicism and Scepticism. If they attain any measure of success, it is rather as an impressionist sketch than as a photograph. How far the picture is a true one can be judged only by the impression which other people get, looking at the documents as a whole. One hopes, of course, that to some people who come to the fragmentary records of these two schools for the first time, such a sketch may be useful, as giving them a point of view and some general notion of what to look for. Would it be too ambitious to hope that some people familiar already with the ancient philosophies might go back to the documents and find some things stand out in a fresh light?

For those unfamiliar with the field, who may wish to pursue the subject further than four brief lectures can take them, some indication of the books I have found useful may be welcome. The fundamental Zeller goes without saying. The best books - or what appear such to me - upon Stoicism are German: A. Bonhoffer's Epictet und die Stoa and Die Ethik des Stoikers Epictet. These two are practically two volumes of one work, with an index in common.