Abstract

This book explores both the historical and philosophical contexts of the Stoics’ aesthetic terms focusing on the concept of beauty in metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical arguments attributed to Chrysippus. The author shows that the Stoic theory of value and Stoic aesthetics were not mutually exclusive areas of study, analyzes the Stoic paradox that only the sage is beautiful, and explains the Stoic view that rationality manifests as order, which manifests as proportion, which produces the formal property of beauty, which results from the skillful design of a providential god. The Stoic definition of beauty as summetria (being well proportioned) is thoroughly analyzed. Despite several rough patches of exposition, this book succeeds in reconstructing from Stoic sources a coherent and tenable theory of beauty. The author can be commended for showing that aesthetics has a place within Stoicism just as Stoic ideas have an extensive legacy in aesthetics.