How Nothing Can Be Something: The Stoic Theory of Void

Ancient Philosophy 35 (2):405-429 (2015)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Void is at the heart of Stoic metaphysics. As the incorporeal par excellence, being defined purely in terms of lacking body, it brings into sharp focus the Stoic commitment to non-existent Somethings. This article argues that Stoic void, far from rendering the Stoic system incoherent or merely ad hoc, in fact reflects a principled and coherent physicalism that sets the Stoics apart from their materialist predecessors and atomist neighbors.

Links

PhilArchive

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

The Stoics on Bodies and Incorporeals.Marcelo D. Boeri - 2001 - Review of Metaphysics 54 (4):723 - 752.
Logic: The Stoics (Part Two).Susanne Bobzien - 1999 - In Keimpe Algra, Jonathan Barnes & et al (eds.), The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy. Cambridge University Press.
Void and Space in Stoic Ontology.Nathan M. Powers - 2014 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 52 (3):411-432.
Necessity, Possibility and Determinism in Stoic Thought.Vanessa de Harven - 2016 - In Max Cresswel, Edwin Mares & Adriane Rini (eds.), Logical Modalities from Aristotle to Carnap: The Story of Necessity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 70-90.
Stoic Gunk.Daniel P. Nolan - 2006 - Phronesis 51 (2):162-183.
Stoics Against Stoics In Cudworth's A Treatise of Freewill.John Sellars - 2012 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 20 (5):935-952.
Early Stoic Determinism.Susanne Bobzien - 2005 - Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale 4 (4):489-516.
Stoic Logic.Susanne Bobzien - 2003 - In Brad Inwood (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Stoic Philosophy. Cambridge University Press.
A Puzzle in Stoic Ethics.Rachel Barney - 2003 - Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 24:303-40.
The origin of the Stoic theory of signs in Sextus Empiricus.Theodor Ebert - 1987 - Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 5:83-126.

Analytics

Added to PP
2015-01-09

Downloads
2,635 (#2,846)

6 months
477 (#3,126)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Vanessa de Harven
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Citations of this work

Stoicism.Dirk Baltzly - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Something Stoic in the Sophist.Vanessa de Harven - forthcoming - Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, 63.

View all 6 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

Individuals: An Essay in Descriptive Metaphysics.Peter Frederick Strawson - 1959 - London, England: Routledge. Edited by Wenfang Wang.
Individuals.P. F. Strawson - 1959 - Les Etudes Philosophiques 14 (2):246-246.
Stoic logic.Benson Mates - 1953 - Berkeley,: University of California Press.

View all 33 references / Add more references