A second ethical response to speculative philosophy was the movement known as Stoicism. Founded by Zeno, this is first and foremost a rule of life. Stoicism is named for the columns ("stoa") where its followers met, but it has given its name to an attitude of resignation to the fates. And appropriately so.

The Stoics believed that Divine Reason or Fate rules the universe, and that we are all forced to obey its dictates. You can choose to go along, like a dog running beside the cart to which he is tied; or you can be dragged along by the cart; but you're going with the cart.

Our duty consists in joyful assent to the decrees of Fate. And so apathy--freedom from all passion and emotion--is the highest emotional goal. Utter indifference to external things is the key to a life lived well, if you're a Stoic. Epictetus (A.D. 50) had it down: "If you caress your wife or child, say to yourself that it is not different than if you were caressing any person. Then, if he dies, you will be unaffected." A lovely way of life, isn't it?

The Stoics believed that the universe is perfectly rational. The active principle is fire. God, or Divine Providence, is a universal, cosmic principle who forms, orders, and rules the universe. His highest manifestation is Reason, the ruling principle in mankind. The Stoics saw the universe as eternally cycling from destruction to rebirth (cf. 2 Peter 3:7, a passage often cited erroneously as having Stoic influence). All is ordered in the Stoic world.

And so logic becomes especially important for the Stoics. It is not just a tool, as with Aristotle, but a significant part of philosophy itself. Grammar and learning occur only through the bodily senses; they are tested by reason, and if stable and ordered, they are valuable.

The Stoics strongly influenced later politics and thought, especially the doctrine of natural law as expressing the universal decrees of Divine Reason. Universal and classical Roman Law was based more on Stoicism than any other single source.