stoic

¹sto·ic

noun \ˈstō-ik\

Definition of STOIC

1

capitalized : a member of a school of philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium about 300 b.c. holding that the wise man should be free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief, and submissive to natural law

2

: one apparently or professedly indifferent to pleasure or pain

Examples of STOIC

1. “That would have been to dishonor him,” said Carr, a notorious stoic who was nearly overcome by emotion in his postgame press conference. Instead, he told the Wolverines that the best way to honor Schembechler was “to play in a way that would have made him proud.” —Austin Murphy, Sports Illustrated, 27 Nov. 2006
2. The philosophical implications of this claim are as volcanic as the emotions it depicts, for Nussbaum here counters an age-old view espoused by Stoics, Christians and Kantians, alike: emotions are disruptive and subversive to reason, they arise from parochial needs and interests and therefore the life well lived is the life in which the things of this world are left behind for a higher sphere beyond accident, pain and desire. —Wendy Steiner, New York Times Book Review, 18 Nov. 2001
3. Whereas Ludwig Wittgenstein once compared philosophers to garbage men sweeping the mind clean of wrongheaded concepts, Nussbaum believes they should be “lawyers for humanity”—a phrase she borrows from Seneca, her favorite Stoic thinker. —Robert S. Boynton, New York Times Magazine, 21 Nov. 1999

Origin of STOIC

Middle English, from Latin stoicus, from Greek stōïkos, literally, of the portico, from Stoa (Poikilē) the Painted Portico, portico at Athens where Zeno taught

First Known Use: 14th century

Other Philosophy Terms

dialectic, dualism, epistemology, existentialism, metaphysics, ontology, sequitur, solipsism, transcendentalism