ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 looks into Cleanthes’ doctrine of providence. Like Zeno, Cleanthes put forward the view of a divine mind governing the world. Alongside it, he appears to have attacked the mechanistic, chanced-based account of the world defended by Democritus. His account of the world shows how vital for the preservation of the cosmos the sun and the earth are. But it also raises the question of the compatibility of the eventual cosmic conflagration with divine providence. Cleanthes disagreed with Zeno on the question of theodicy, arguing that providence does not account for everything that happens according to fate, since that would make god responsible for the existence of evils. The chapter ends with an examination of Cleanthes’ doctrine of human nature and the ‘starting-points towards virtue’ it has been granted by god.
