St. George Stock (modern guide) · 1850–1922
A Guide to Stoicism 5 ¶13 — St. George Stock (modern guide)
From “Physic”
Original English text (1908)
St. George Stock (modern guide), A Guide to Stoicism 5 ¶13
When we say that the Stoics regarded the universe as a plenum, the reader must understand by 'the universe' the Cosmos or ordered whole. Within this there was no emptiness owing to the pressure of the celestial upon the terrestrial sphere. But outside of this lay the infinite void without beginning, middle, or end. This occupied a very ambiguous position In their scheme. It was not being, for being was confined to body and yet it was there. It was in fact nothing, and that was why it was infinite. For as nothing cannot be bound to any thing, so neither can there be any bound to nothing. But while bodiless itself, it had the capacity to contain body, a fact which enabled it, despite its non-entity, to serve, as we shall see, a useful purpose.
Cite this passage
St. George Stock (modern guide), A Guide to Stoicism 5 ¶13 (1908)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/a-guide-to-stoicism/5.13
St. George Stock, Stoicism (1908), text of the Haldeman-Julius reprint “A Guide to Stoicism”. Text: Project Gutenberg #7514. Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesThe ordered cosmos was thought to be completely full with no empty gaps inside, while an infinite emptiness surrounds it. The void was not a being at all but a kind of nothing, yet it could hold bodies, which gave it a use.
Older wording
- “plenum”
- — a space entirely filled with matter
- “non-entity”
- — something that does not exist
- “terrestrial”
- — of the earth
Themes and situations
- Nature and the cosmos
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