page_title: Stoic physics
section_title: Universe
hierarchical_section_title: Stoic physics / Universe
caption_attribution_description: Feuer
context_page_description: Stoic physics is the natural philosophy adopted by the Stoic philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome used to explain the natural processes at work in the universe. To the Stoics, the universe is a single pantheistic god, but one which is also a material substance. The primitive substance of the universe is a divine essence which is the basis of everything which exists. This pneuma, which is the active part or reason of God, provides form and motion to matter, and is the origin of the elements, life, and human rationality. From their physics, the Stoics explained the development, and ultimately, the destruction of the universe in a never-ending cycle. The human soul is an emanation from the divine reason which permeates the universe, and knowledge is gained by the mind from sense impressions and subjecting them to reason.
context_section_description: Like Aristotle, the Stoics conceived of the universe as being finite with the Earth at the centre and the moon, sun, planets, and fixed stars surrounding it. Similarly, they rejected the possibility of any void (i.e. vacuum) within the cosmos since that would destroy the coherence of the universe and the sympathy of its parts. However, unlike Aristotle, the Stoics saw the universe as an island embedded in an infinite void. The universe has its own hexis which holds it together and protects it and the surrounding void cannot affect it. The universe can, however, vary in volume, allowing it to expand and contract in volume through its cycles.
caption: In Stoic physics, the universe begins and ends in a divine artisan-fire.
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