A Comparison between the Concept of Human Freedom in Stoicism and in Christian Philosophy  Cover Image
  • Price 4.50 €

Сравнение между концепцията за свободата на човека в стоицизма и в християнската философия
A Comparison between the Concept of Human Freedom in Stoicism and in Christian Philosophy

Author(s): Hristo Ivanov Valchev
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Институт по философия и социология при БАН
Keywords: freedom; Stoicism; Christian philosophy; autonomy; free will; fate; moral responsibility;

Summary/Abstract: The present article is a comparison between the conception of freedom in Stoicism and the one in Christian philosophy. For this purpose I use the remaining fragments of Epictetus, a fragment of Gellius in which an argument of Chrysippus’ is presented, and Augustine’s „On Grace and Free Will“. The two conceptions of freedom happen to be very different. In Christian philosophy someone is free in the sense that every time she did something, she could have done otherwise. Hence her actions are not predetermined. In Stoicism, on the contrary, everything, including our actions, is fated. Stoicism understands freedom in another sense – as autonomy. From this basic difference originate several others – in the understanding of moral responsibility, in the relation between freedom and good and evil, in the relation between freedom and happiness.

  • Issue Year: XXII/2013
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 129-135
  • Page Count: 7
  • Language: Bulgarian