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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 20772 Three branches of philosophy: first logic, second ethics, third physics (which ends with theology)
p.9 20773 The origin of justice can only be in Zeus, and in nature
p.10 20774 Only nature is available to guide action and virtue
p.12 20780 Graspable presentations are criteria of facts, and are molded according to their objects [Diog. Laertius]
p.17 20787 A proposition is what can be asserted or denied on its own
p.22 20791 Chrysippus has five obvious 'indemonstrables' of reasoning [Diog. Laertius]
p.26 20793 How could you ever know that the presentation is similar to the object? [Sext.Empiricus]
p.30 8077 Stoic propositional logic is like chemistry - how atoms make molecules, not the innards of atoms [Devlin]
p.36 1875 Dogs show reason in decisions made by elimination [Sext.Empiricus]
p.36 8078 Modus ponens is one of five inference rules identified by the Stoics [Devlin]
p.55 20808 Everything is fated, either by continuous causes or by a supreme rational principle [Diog. Laertius]
p.66 20813 Human purpose is to contemplate and imitate the cosmos
p.66 20812 Covers are for shields, and sheaths for swords; likewise, all in the cosmos is for some other thing
p.87 20818 The present does not exist, so our immediate experience is actually part past and part future [Plutarch]
p.88 20821 Time is continous and infinitely divisible, so there cannot be a wholly present time [Stobaeus]
p.88 20819 The past and the future subsist, but only the present exists [Plutarch]
p.97 20828 Fire is a separate element, not formed with others (as was previously believed) [Stobaeus]
p.98 20830 Death can't separate soul from body, because incorporeal soul can't unite with body
p.102 21388 The causes of future true events must exist now, so they will happen because of destiny [Cicero]
p.103 20833 A swerve in the atoms would be unnatural, like scales settling differently for no reason [Plutarch]
p.104 20834 Chrysippus allows evil to say it is fated, or even that it is rational and natural [Plutarch]
p.104 20835 Chrysippus is wrong to believe in non-occurring future possibilities if he is a fatalist [Plutarch]
p.106 20836 The Lazy Argument responds to fate with 'why bother?', but the bothering is also fated [Cicero]
p.109 20837 Fate is an eternal and fixed chain of causal events
p.110 20838 Fate initiates general causes, but individual wills and characters dictate what we do
p.114 20842 Rational animals begin uncorrupted, but externals and companions are bad influences [Diog. Laertius]
p.117 20845 There are shameful pleasures, and nothing shameful is good, so pleasure is not a good [Diog. Laertius]
p.119 20850 Passions are judgements; greed thinks money is honorable, and likewise drinking and lust [Diog. Laertius]
p.122 20853 Wise men should try to participate in politics, since they are a good influence [Diog. Laertius]
p.123 20856 Justice, the law, and right reason are natural and not conventional [Diog. Laertius]
p.123 20855 Chrysippus says virtue can be lost (though Cleanthes says it is too secure for that) [Diog. Laertius]
p.124 20857 Justice is irrelevant to animals, because they are too unlike us [Diog. Laertius]
p.132 20864 Live in agreement, according to experience of natural events
p.138 5992 Chrysippus says action is the criterion for existence, which must be physical [Tieleman]
p.155 21403 The later Stoics identified the logos with an air-fire compound, called 'pneuma' [Long]
p.157 20869 The highest degree of morality performs all that is appropriate, omitting nothing
p.169 21404 There is a rationale in terrible disasters; they are useful to the whole, and make good possible
p.171 16058 Dion and Theon coexist, but Theon lacks a foot. If Dion loses a foot, he ousts Theon? [Philo of Alexandria]
p.175 16059 Change of matter doesn't destroy identity - in Dion and Theon change is a condition of identity [Long/Sedley]
p.203 6023 Every proposition is either true or false [Cicero]
p.221 16652 Stoics categories are Substrate, Quality, Disposition, and Relation [Pasnau]
p.227 21673 There are simple and complex facts; the latter depend on further facts [Cicero]
p.228 9199 Wisdom for one instant is as good as wisdom for eternity
p.237 21679 When we say events are fated by antecedent causes, do we mean principal or auxiliary causes?
p.291 3042 Stoics teach that law is identical with right reason, which is the will of Zeus [Diog. Laertius]
p.296 3044 Stoics say that beauty and goodness are equivalent and linked [Diog. Laertius]
p.297 1777 Pleasure is not the good, because there are disgraceful pleasures [Diog. Laertius]
p.306 1779 We don't have obligations to animals as they aren't like us [Diog. Laertius]
p.306 3045 Stoics say justice is a part of nature, not just an invented principle [Diog. Laertius]
p.308 1782 Stoics teach that God is a unity, variously known as Mind, or Fate, or Jupiter [Diog. Laertius]
p.312 3048 Stoics say that God the creator is the perfection of all animals [Diog. Laertius]
p.497 5967 People need nothing except corn and water [Plutarch]
p.509 5969 Chrysippus said the uncaused is non-existent [Plutarch]
p.557 5970 Chrysippus says nothing is blameworthy, as everything conforms with the best nature [Plutarch]
fr 211 p.459 5966 All virtue is good, but not always praised (as in not lusting after someone ugly)
fr 23 p.747 5973 Justice can be preserved if pleasure is a good, but not if it is the goal [Plutarch]
fr 326 p.433 5965 The source of all justice is Zeus and the universal nature
fr 444 p.867 5975 Stoics say earth, air, fire and water are the primary elements [Plutarch]
fr 997 p.595 5971 Destiny is only a predisposing cause, not a sufficient cause [Plutarch]
fr139 p.675 5972 Living happily is nothing but living virtuously [Plutarch]