Abstract

The article focuses on the Stoic notion of “art of living”. First of all, I discuss the Socratic phrase “art that one used for taking pains over oneself”, which is a prototype of the studied concept. Then I show that Socratic normative requirement to take care of one’s own soul was taken up by the Stoics and equipped with a clear perception of the conditions of its practicability. These perceptions have appeared thanks to the Zeno’s definition of art as a ‘system of concepts’. However, the mechanism of its realization remained obscured due to the rigor of early Stoic doctrine. Only the Roman Stoicism, especially this of Seneca, was able to develop the “art of living” as a theoretical and practical concept.