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Cambridge Companions to Religion
The Cambridge Companion to the Stoics
This volume offers an odyssey through the ideas of the Stoics in three ways: through the historical trajectory of the school itself and its influence; the recovery of the history of Stoic thought; and finally, the ongoing confrontation with Stoicism. The study demonstrates how Stoicism refines philosophical traditions, challenges the imagination, and ultimately defines the kind of life one chooses to lead. Advanced students and specialists will discover a conspectus of developments in this interpretation of the Stoics and new readers will be drawn to its accessibility.
450 pages, Paperback
First published May 5, 2003
About the author
Brad Inwood
52 books26 followersBrad Inwood is a specialist in ancient philosophy with particular emphasis on Stoicism and the Presocratics. He received his BA in Classics from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario. After an MA in Classics at the University of Toronto and a year of post-graduate research at Cambridge, he completed his doctorate in Classics at Toronto with a focus on ancient philosophy.
His career began with a Mellon postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford and he then took up a teaching post at the University of Toronto. While at Toronto he had two terms as DGS in Classics and served as chair of the Classics department and as acting chair of Philosophy, and founded Toronto’s Collaborative Program in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy (with two terms as director). He has enjoyed fellowships at the National Humanities Centre and the Centre for Advanced Study in the Behavioural Sciences and held the Canada Research Chair in Ancient Philosophy.
His research has always focused on ancient philosophy, especially in the Hellenistic and Presocratic periods. Major works include Ethics and Human Action in Early Stoicism, The Poem of Empedocles, Reading Seneca: Stoic Philosophy at Rome, Seneca: Selected Philosophical Letters, and Ethics After Aristotle. From 2007 to 2015 he was the editor of Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy and he is currently working on Later Stoicism 155 BC to AD 200: An Introduction and Collection of Sources in Translation for Cambridge University Press.
Primary appointments in both Philosophy and Classics. Ancient philosophy special interests include the Presocratics, Stoicism, moral psychology and ethics.
His career began with a Mellon postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford and he then took up a teaching post at the University of Toronto. While at Toronto he had two terms as DGS in Classics and served as chair of the Classics department and as acting chair of Philosophy, and founded Toronto’s Collaborative Program in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy (with two terms as director). He has enjoyed fellowships at the National Humanities Centre and the Centre for Advanced Study in the Behavioural Sciences and held the Canada Research Chair in Ancient Philosophy.
His research has always focused on ancient philosophy, especially in the Hellenistic and Presocratic periods. Major works include Ethics and Human Action in Early Stoicism, The Poem of Empedocles, Reading Seneca: Stoic Philosophy at Rome, Seneca: Selected Philosophical Letters, and Ethics After Aristotle. From 2007 to 2015 he was the editor of Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy and he is currently working on Later Stoicism 155 BC to AD 200: An Introduction and Collection of Sources in Translation for Cambridge University Press.
Primary appointments in both Philosophy and Classics. Ancient philosophy special interests include the Presocratics, Stoicism, moral psychology and ethics.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
March 25, 2020
A good read. This provides an in-depth, scholarly look at Stoic philosophy. I found this accessible, and I have no previous background in Stoic philosophy. Most interesting in my opinion were the sections on Stoic natural philosophy, physics and cosmology. The authors do well to defend the Stoic doctrine from many classic misconceptions from both ancient and modern writers.
Having read the other reviews for this book, I must say I am amused that so many appear to have thought this was going to be the mass market self help version of Stoic philosophy that has became so popular in recent years. It's really a shame that the snake oil salesmen have latched onto Stoic philosophy, because its too systematic, valuable and serious to deserve such treatment.
Having read the other reviews for this book, I must say I am amused that so many appear to have thought this was going to be the mass market self help version of Stoic philosophy that has became so popular in recent years. It's really a shame that the snake oil salesmen have latched onto Stoic philosophy, because its too systematic, valuable and serious to deserve such treatment.
September 14, 2019
An obligatory read if you are, at least, interested in the concept of Stoicism.
It goes further and more detailed into the philosophy itself, with various scholars around the worl touching the subjects of epistemology, medicine, metaphysics and even giving a thorough history background of how this unique and revolutionary philosophy came to light, through the ancient greeks, to the pax romana, to our own modern age.
It is complex and scholarly, but it is, hands down, one of my best reads of 2019.
It goes further and more detailed into the philosophy itself, with various scholars around the worl touching the subjects of epistemology, medicine, metaphysics and even giving a thorough history background of how this unique and revolutionary philosophy came to light, through the ancient greeks, to the pax romana, to our own modern age.
It is complex and scholarly, but it is, hands down, one of my best reads of 2019.
September 28, 2025
I started reading more about classical Stoic philosophy recently, after hearing a talk at Cornell and reading his book on “The Stoic Life”. It is interesting on its own terms but also a a way of comparing it with other classical philosophers, especially Socrates and Plato - since much of the Stoic body of work has not survived, except through commentaries and accounts of disputes by others (Cicero).
This volume is a collection of essays on a fairly comprehensive range of topics related to Stoicism by different scholars. The essays are well written - although fairly dense - and flesh out the details of Stoicism that I saw in other works. As scholarly collections, this is superb and I recommend it.
This volume is a collection of essays on a fairly comprehensive range of topics related to Stoicism by different scholars. The essays are well written - although fairly dense - and flesh out the details of Stoicism that I saw in other works. As scholarly collections, this is superb and I recommend it.
June 1, 2022
En bred och djuplodande genomgång av specialfrågor inom stoicismen. Sådant som "vad är en reaktion på något, och hur relaterar den till fri vilja?". Jag ser nyttan med att ha läst den, framförallt det sista kapitlet som behandlar hur stoicismen och senare traditioner, framförallt den skolastiska och spanskthomiska hänger samman. Detta var rena nyheter. I andra delar var den mer bekräftande av sådant jag redan kände till.
July 13, 2021
A serious, systematic and in-depth analysis of stoicism. Even though it's not a mass-market book, it can be read easily from non-experts. It's definitely one of the very few serious books about stoicism that are out there. It's a book that I will be going back to again and again.
March 13, 2022
I skimmed the chapters about astrology and grammar and one other about linguistics because they weren't really interesting to me -- I wanted to know more about general philosophy, not these details of how a sentence is structured in Greek or the spheres in the sky, but overall, this is a great overview of stoicism in the context of the Hellenistic period (as opposed to the simplistic stoic movements today on Instagram or Youtube etc., etc.)
August 3, 2017
Clearly Sages only talk to each other.
November 10, 2017
A difficult read, but worth the effort. This book isn't going to be for everyone. For those that want to deepen their understanding of Stoicism, it's recommend.
April 27, 2019
Enjoyable, but not for everybody.
May 21, 2020
It is really difficult to understand. Only for those who are really into it.
November 5, 2023
Thank you.
January 22, 2025
A great and unbiased view of the philosophy from many prominent scholars.
May 16, 2025
Way tooo much academical.
A pitty to read it. So I've not finished it and I will not
A pitty to read it. So I've not finished it and I will not
December 29, 2025
Like many edited collections, the individual chapters can be hit or miss. I believe the topics and the ordering of the topics are logical, and that this is a valuable collection.
My main disappointment is that almost half of them are almost completely inaccessible to the non-professional philosopher, so filled with jargon and references in every sentence that they cease to be readable to a lay audience. If all the chapters were as such, I think I would have concluded that I simply bought a book for which I was not the audience by mistake. But there is a lot here for everyone, and simply an inconsistency that keeps these from being a 4 or 5 star book for me (though some chapters certainly are 5 stars).
That said, it is a useful anthology to keep on the bookshelf, and there are chapters I may come back to. And one of the things this book shows nicely is where the experts differ, and in the reverse what is really the consensus view of the ancient stoics. That alone helps as I read more and more about stoicism in my personal studies.
My main disappointment is that almost half of them are almost completely inaccessible to the non-professional philosopher, so filled with jargon and references in every sentence that they cease to be readable to a lay audience. If all the chapters were as such, I think I would have concluded that I simply bought a book for which I was not the audience by mistake. But there is a lot here for everyone, and simply an inconsistency that keeps these from being a 4 or 5 star book for me (though some chapters certainly are 5 stars).
That said, it is a useful anthology to keep on the bookshelf, and there are chapters I may come back to. And one of the things this book shows nicely is where the experts differ, and in the reverse what is really the consensus view of the ancient stoics. That alone helps as I read more and more about stoicism in my personal studies.
September 6, 2021
It sees to me that people often forget that the stoic school did not just teach Ethics , it had its own Epistemology , Physics , Natural Philosophy ,Theology, Determinism, Metaphysics . They had the whole world view worked out , but to us in the 21st century much of their brain work in those fields seem outdated and irrelevant to our modern enlightened view.
What I was most interested in was the stoic view on gods or you can say theology . Just mentioning the word god brings up an entirely different picture in someone from the 21st century compared to people 2000 years ago . And the most acclaimed stoic writers mention gods very often.
I would say the book is a good read for someone who holds the philosophy in great esteem . But I must say that the book is so exceedingly difficult and tedious . It is entirely academic in its nature and is not for the fainthearted . I did enjoy it but I did found it very burdensome .
What I was most interested in was the stoic view on gods or you can say theology . Just mentioning the word god brings up an entirely different picture in someone from the 21st century compared to people 2000 years ago . And the most acclaimed stoic writers mention gods very often.
I would say the book is a good read for someone who holds the philosophy in great esteem . But I must say that the book is so exceedingly difficult and tedious . It is entirely academic in its nature and is not for the fainthearted . I did enjoy it but I did found it very burdensome .
August 31, 2012
Except for the introductory parts, chapters are more like scholarly articles. The clarity is uneven among the chapters, as they were written by different experts. Not for the laymen, but if you have already some familiarity with the subject you will be able to extract useful information, as the book is very detailed.
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September 23, 2010The Cambridge Companion to the Stoics (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy) by Brad Inwood (2003)
January 3, 2011
Very detailed history of the Greek Stoics. Hard to read.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews