È il dio degli Stoici filantropo?

Abstract

Many passages of Plutarch’s De Stoicorum repugnantiis are devoted to the refutation of Stoic beliefs about gods. Chrysippus’ theological doctrine is qualified as ‘extravagant’, because of the ‘extravagant’ function the philosopher attributes to the gods: from them come only ‘indifferent’ things like health or wealth, but they do not provide men with the supreme virtue. What is more, they usually provide bad men with more things than good men, and rich men with more things than poor men. Zeus, the supreme god, the god of justice who has created the city of men and gods, is thus unfair, cruel and ruthless. He creates the world but he destroys it by war. He is by no means a philanthropist, and this conclusion, Plutarch asserts, is a contradictory topic of Stoic doctrine.