Beyond Stoicism: Bringing Ancient Insights to Modern Life

Beyond Stoicism Chapter 13 Hypatia The Neoplatonist

In the following months Philadelphia Stoa will be reading “Beyond Stoicism A Guide to the Good Life with Stoics, Skeptics, Epicureans and Other Ancient Philosophers” written by Massimo Pigliucci, Gregory Lopez, and Meredith Alexander Kunz. Published January 7th 2025.

The purpose of this book is help create a meaningful life. Our authors attempt this by drawing inspiration from thirteen prominent philosophers of Ancient Greece and Roman. Each chapter combine glimpses into a philosopher’s life with an exploration of the thinker’s practical philosophy closing with exercises for putting his or her teachings to work for us.

Last month we studied Chapter 12, “Stilpo The Megarian”. He was known not only for his integrity and patience, but also for winning over philosophers due to his formidable debating skills. If fact he won over Zeno of Citium (patriarch of Stoicism) who studied under Stilpo for ten years. We examined the Megarian theories of knowledge that involve two types of perception sensual and rational, theories of metaphysics that involve accessing universal truths, and theory of logic that explores paradoxes like the famous paradox of the heap.

This month we will continue into the Lands of “Here Be Dragons”. Our authors warn us that although the following philosophers (Pythagoras, Stilpo and Hypatia) beliefs’ are not intrinsically dangerous, they are strange and may be difficult to practice in our modern life.

Chapter 13 is called, “Hypatia The Neoplatonist”. Hypatia was born in Alexandria 355 CE. She was known to be wise in speech and politically virtuous in her actions. When she was born, the city of Alexandria was heavily populated with pagans. Hypatia and her family worshipped a combination of Greek, Roman and Egyptian deities. In her sixties, all of her students were Christians—the dominant religious group in Alexandria. Although Hypatia was a Neoplatonist, her teachings did not explicitly go against Christian thinking of her day. We shall examine Neoplatonism contemplation of the ‘One’. Supposedly, the One has a strong mystical flavor. It is self-cause and is itself the cause of everything else in the cosmos.

In general our meetings will be divided into two parts. The first part I will briefly review their theoretical arguments of the thinkers… here I expect questions will be raised. The next part will involve group work. Our authors have provided various sets of exercises to practice.

One copy of the book will be provided to be purchased. You can also purchase the book via Amazon. Also Please see the video of our Authors discussing their new book with Professor Gregory Sadler.

Video Discussion with the Authors about "Beyond Stoicism".
https://thephilosophygarden.substack.com/p/video-beyond-stoicism?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email#media-4c0afcd9-cc7b-44db-80b0-3ecd7ad613f6

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Meeting: Philadelphia Ethical Society on March 15th Sunday 3:00 to 4:30 pm.

Part IV: The Port of “Here Be Dragons”
Chapter 13: Hypatia The Neoplatonist