Stoic Sympathy

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterAcademicpeer-review

    Abstract

    In this chapter the naturalist origins of sympathy are discussed, with sympathy first used to connote the relation between the human body and soul. The Stoics appear to have expanded this body-and-soul relationship, giving sympathy its broadest possible scope, making it into a feature of the natural world. According to the Stoics, it is because of the world soul that pervades all matter that the world itself and everything in it are in a state of interconnectedness. Although the modern sense of sympathy as common feeling is not explicitly made in this context, even here the Stoics can be said to have prefigured the modern sense: their view that human beings familiarise themselves with the world through circles of ‘sympathy’ would prove to be a source of inspiration for later thinkers.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationSympathy
    Subtitle of host publicationA History
    EditorsEric Schliesser
    Place of PublicationNew York
    PublisherOxford University Press
    Pages15-35
    Number of pages21
    ISBN (Print)978-019-992889-7, 978-019-992889-3
    Publication statusPublished - 2015

    Publication series

    NameOxford Philosophical Concepts

    Keywords

    • Sympathy, Stoicism, naturalism, materialism, breath, divination, cosmopolitanism

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Stoic Sympathy'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this