A sage ( grc, σοφός, ''sophos''), in classical philosophy, is someone who has attained wisdom. The term has also been used interchangeably with a 'good person' ( grc, ἀγαθός, ''agathos''), and a 'virtuous person' ( grc, σπουδαῖος, ''spoudaios''). Among the earliest accounts of the sage begin with

Empedocles Empedocles (; grc-gre, Ἐμπεδοκλῆς; , 444–443 BC) was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a native citizen of Akragas, a Greek city in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is best known for originating the cosmogonic theory of the ...

' ''Sphairos''. Horace describes the ''Sphairos'' as "Completely within itself, well-rounded and spherical, so that nothing extraneous can adhere to it, because of its smooth and polished surface."

Pierre Hadot Pierre Hadot (; ; 21 February 1922 – 24 April 2010) was a French philosopher and historian of philosophy specializing in ancient philosophy, particularly Neoplatonism. Life In 1944, Hadot was ordained, but following Pope Pius XII’s enc ...

(1998).''The Inner Citadel'', trans. Michael Chase. Harvard University Press, p. 119 Alternatively, the sage is one who lives "according to an ideal which transcends the everyday."Annas, Julia. ''The Sage in Ancient Philosophy
/ref> Several of the schools of

Hellenistic philosophy Hellenistic philosophy is a time-frame for Western philosophy and Ancient Greek philosophy corresponding to the Hellenistic period. It is purely external and encompasses disparate intellectual content. There is no single philosophical school or c ...

have the sage as a featured figure.

Karl Ludwig Michelet Karl Ludwig Michelet (4 December 1801 – 15 December 1893)
was a German

develops this idea, stating that "the moment philosophers achieve a rational conception of God based on the model of the sage, Greece surpasses its mythical representation of its gods."

(1995). ''Philosophy as a Way of Life'', trans. Michael Chase. Blackwell Publishing, p. 58.
"Forms of Life and Forms of Discourse in Ancient Philosophy", ''Critical Inquiry'', Vol. 16, No. 3 (Spring, 1990), pp. 483–505. Indeed, the actions of the sage are propounded to be how a god would act in the same situation.

In Platonism and Aristotelianism

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

's ''

Symposium In ancient Greece, the symposium ( grc-gre, συμπόσιον ''symposion'' or ''symposio'', from συμπίνειν ''sympinein'', "to drink together") was a part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was acc ...

Socrates Socrates (; ; –399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no t ...

says the difference between a sage and a

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

( grc, φιλόσοφος, meaning ''lover of wisdom'') was that the sage has what the philosopher seeks. While analyzing the concept of

love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...

, Socrates concludes love is that which lacks the object it seeks. Therefore, the philosopher does not have the wisdom sought, while the sage, on the other hand, does not love or seek wisdom, for it is already possessed. Socrates then examines the two categories of persons who do not partake in philosophy: # Gods and sages, because they ''are'' wise; # Senseless people, because they ''think'' they are wise. The position of the philosopher is between these two groups. The philosopher is not wise, but possesses the self-awareness of lacking wisdom, and thus pursues it. Plato is also the first to develop this notion of the sage in various works. Within ''The Republic'', Plato indicates that when a friend of a sage dies, the sage "will not think that for a good man... death is a terrible thing." In the ''Theaetetus'', Plato defines the sage as one who becomes "righteous and holy and wise." The Platonic sages would raise themselves by the life of their mind, while the Aristotelian sages raise themselves to the realm of the divine Mind.

In Epicureanism

Epicurus Epicurus (; grc-gre, Ἐπίκουρος ; 341–270 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and sage who founded Epicureanism, a highly influential school of philosophy. He was born on the Greek island of Samos to Athenian parents. Influence ...

believed that one would achieve

ataraxia ''Ataraxia'' (Greek: ἀταραξία, from ("a-", negation) and ''tarachē'' "disturbance, trouble"; hence, "unperturbedness", generally translated as "imperturbability", " equanimity", or "tranquility") is a Greek term first used in Ancient ...

by intense study and examination of

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

. This sage would be like the gods and would " atchthe infinity of worlds arising out of atoms in the infinite void" and because of this nothing ever disturbs the peace of his soul. Certainly, they would be "unconcerned by mundane affairs in their bright, eternal tranquility, they spend their time contemplating the infinity of space, time, and the multiple worlds." According to

Seneca the Younger Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (; 65 AD), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature. Seneca was born ...

, Epicurus believed that the sage rarely gets married, because marriage is accompanied by many inconveniences.Emily Wilson (2014). ''The Greatest Empire: A Life of Seneca''. Oxford University Press. p. 74
The excerpt Wilson translates from is cited as 'Fragment 5' Léon Robin, in his commentary on

Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem '' De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into E ...

, writes "the sage places himself within the immutability of eternal Nature, which is independent of time."

In Stoicism

The concept of the sage within

Stoicism Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century BCE. It is a philosophy of personal virtue ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world, asserting tha ...

was an important topic. Indeed, the discussion of Stoic ethics within Stobaeus, which depended on

Arius Didymus Arius Didymus ( grc-gre, Ἄρειος Δίδυμος ''Areios Didymos''; fl. 1st century BCE) was a Stoic philosopher and teacher of Augustus. Fragments of his handbooks summarizing Stoic and Peripatetic doctrines are preserved by Stobaeus and Eu ...

, spent over a third of its length discussing the sage. The Stoic sage was understood to be an inaccessible ideal rather than a concrete reality.

, ''The Inner Citadel'', trans. Michael Chase. Harvard University Press, 1998.
''The Discipline Of Actions, Or Action In The Service Of Mankind'', p. 192 The aim of Stoicism was to live a life of

virtue Virtue ( la, virtus) is morality, moral excellence. A virtue is a trait or quality that is deemed to be morally good and thus is Value (ethics), valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being. In other words, it is a behavior that sh ...

, where "virtue consists in a will which is in agreement with Nature." As such, the sage is one who has attained such a state of being and whose life consequently becomes tranquil. The standard was so high that Stoics were unsure whether one had ever existed; if so, possibly only

or Diogenes of Sinope had achieved such a state. Despite this, the Stoics regarded sages as the only virtuous and happy humans. All others are regarded as fools, morally vicious, slaves and unfortunate. The Stoics did not admit any middle ground, as

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...

articulated the concept: "every non-sage is mad." The Stoics conceived of the sage as an individual beyond any possibility of harm from fate. The difficulties of life faced by other humans (illness, poverty, criticism, bad reputation, death, etc.) could not cause any sorrow to the sage, while the circumstances of life sought by other people (good health, wealth, praise, fame, long life, etc.) were regarded by the Stoic sage as unnecessary externals. This indifference to externals was achieved by the sage through the correct knowledge of impressions, a core concept in Stoic

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Epi ...

. Thus, the sage's happiness, eudaimonia, was based entirely on

. The difficulty of becoming a sage was often discussed in Stoicism. When

Panaetius Panaetius (; grc-gre, Παναίτιος, Panaítios; – ) of Rhodes was an ancient Greek Stoic philosopher. He was a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon and Antipater of Tarsus in Athens, before moving to Rome where he did much to introduce Stoic ...

, the seventh and final scholarch of the Stoa, was asked by a young man whether a sage would fall in love, he responded by saying: "As to the wise man, we shall see. What concerns you and me, who are still a great distance from the wise man, is to ensure that we do not fall into a state of affairs which is disturbed, powerless, subservient to another and worthless to oneself." Epictetus claims that only after the removal of any attachments to things in the external world could a Stoic truly possess friendship. He also outlined that progress towards sagehood would occur when one has learned what is in one's power. This would only come from the correct use of impressions.

Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good E ...

defines the sage as one "who has knowledge of the beginning and the end, and of that all-pervading Reason which orders the universe in its determinate cycles to the end of time".''Meditations'', Marcus Aurelius, trans. Maxwell Staniforth. §5.32

References

{{Philosophy topics Epicureanism Stoicism Platonism Wisdom ?

In Platonism and Aristotelianism

In Epicureanism

In Stoicism

See also

References