Chrysippe
Everything happens by fate, but our acts depend on us as a cylinder rolls according to its shape.
Life
Greek Stoic philosopher (c. 279-206 BC), born in Soli in Cilicia, third head of the Stoic school. He was said to have written over seven hundred works, almost all lost: he is known through fragments and later authors. He defends a universal fate while holding that our acts depend on us, through the image of the cylinder that rolls according to its shape.
In his own words
« If you throw a stone cylinder down a steep, sloping ground, you have given it the cause and beginning of its fall; yet it then rolls on, not because you still do it, but because such is its nature and the rollability of its shape. »
lapidem cylindrum si per spatia terrae prona atque derupta iacias, causam quidem ei et initium praecipitantiae feceris, mox tamen ille praeceps volvitur, non quia tu id iam facis, sed quoniam ita sese modus eius et formae volubilitas habet
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceGod is the rational fire or breath that pervades the world and orders it by providence: an impersonal, immanent God.
Diogenes Laertius, Lives, VII.134-139 (3rd c.)
Knowledge starts from sense impressions: the mind is a blank page that experience writes on.
Diogenes Laertius, Lives, VII.49-51 (3rd c.)
The 'cataleptic' (grasping) impression is so clear that it guarantees truth, so the wise can reach certain knowledge.
Cicero, Academica II (45 BC); Diogenes Laertius, Lives, VII.46 (3rd c.)
The soul is a material breath (pneuma): only bodies exist, and the soul can act on the body.
Diogenes Laertius, Lives, VII.156-157 (3rd c.)
Everything is fated, yet acts depend on us: like a cylinder pushed, we roll according to our own nature.
Cicero, De fato (44 BC); Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights VII.2 (c. 170)
Virtue alone is good and is enough for happiness; living according to nature means living virtuously.
Diogenes Laertius, Lives, VII.87-89 (3rd c.)