Legend has it Chrysippus died laughing. As the story goes, in a complete state of hysteria and a bout of laughter which ultimately led to his death, this great Stoic philosopher watched a donkey try to eat figs after giving it wine. Of course, this story is probably an urban legend, but it is one that is reflective of something quite essential in relation to Greek philosophy, namely that it was never as dry or disconnected from real life as we so often assume.
Most people today couldn’t tell you who Chrysippus was even if their very life depended on it. Nonetheless, his ideas are prevalent in our modern world, even hiding in plain sight. From therapy techniques to self-help books and our handling of stress, attributes of ancient Greek thought can be found throughout our busy, modern lives.
Chrysippus grew up in a Greek world that was going through a lot at the time. The reality was not ideal, as dozens of city-states constantly fought and competed. However, from this fractured world came some of humanity’s most foundational ideas.
Known as the “Second Founder of Stoicism,” Chrysippus took the earlier work of Zeno and turned it into something systematic and solid. It is safe to say that he was prolific—Chrysippus allegedly wrote over seven hundred works. Imagine creating that amount of content without computers, copy-pasting, or even decent paper, and yet, this ancient Greek philosopher is believed to have done just that. Nonetheless, none of his work has actually physically survived the depths of time.
Stoicism, as he had conceived of it, was a practical philosophy. It wasn’t about sitting around debating abstract concepts because every other problem had already been resolved. Rather, it focused more so on continuing to live well despite difficulties—and life in ancient Greece could get quite complicated indeed. The core Stoic ideas—focusing on what one can control, accepting what one can’t, and living according to reason rather than emotion–were survival tools for a messy world that wasn’t easy to navigate.
Every time we walk into any therapist’s office these days, we encounter ideas with which Chrysippus would have likely been familiar. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), for example, one of the most effective treatments for anxiety and depression, is basically Stoicism with a modern spin on psychology.
It can be argued that the CBT approach of identifying irrational thoughts, challenging them with evidence, and focusing on what you can actually do about a situation has come straight out of the Stoic playbook. When your therapist asks you to separate facts from feelings and emotions, or suggests you worry about what’s in your control rather than catastrophizing and fixating on everything that might go wrong, you’re getting a modern version of Chrysippus and ancient Greek philosophy.
Consider how we live now, with constant notifications, 24/7 news cycles, social media comparison traps, economic uncertainty, and the constant threat of a global conflict. The Stoic emphasis on inner calm and a focus on your own actions rather than external circumstances seems almost revolutionary for our society. Maybe those ancient philosophers were onto something after all.
Chrysippus taught us that our emotions and suffering don’t come from external events but from our judgments and opinions about those events—a principle similar to Epictetus’ idea that it is not things that disturb us but our personal evaluation of things. This core insight is parallel to modern cognitive behavioral therapy and its fundamental premise that thoughts rather than circumstances drive our emotional responses. He also emphasized the importance of distinguishing between what is “up to us” (our thoughts, desires, and actions) and what is “not up to us” (everything external), arguing that focusing exclusively on what we can control leads to tranquility and freedom from disturbance.
His concept of living according to nature meant living according to reason rather than being driven by irrational emotions or desires—essentially what modern psychologists call emotional regulation. These specific teachings on the relationship between cognition and emotion, importance of rational self-examination, and techniques for managing our responses to adversity formed the theoretical foundation modern CBT practitioners rely on in supporting clients when identifying issues and developing healthier thought patterns.
This crucial influence extends well beyond individual psychology to democratic ideals, legal reasoning, and scientific methodology—the intellectual DNA of Western civilization that can be traced back to ancient Greece and everything of which those known and lesser-known philosophers spoke. The Socratic method of questioning assumptions, Platonic concepts of justice and truth, and Aristotelian logic are built into the operating systems our cultures run on.
When we debate policy in democratic forums, for example, we’re coming close to those ancient agora discussions in which Chrysippus most likely took part. When scientists form hypotheses and test them systematically, they’re using approaches initially developed by Greek thinkers. When we argue about ethics and justice, we’re drawing on frameworks developed by these ancient philosophers.
The specific challenges we face—climate change, political polarization, economic inequality, technological disruption, and the fear of what’s to come from AI among other things—are new, but the underlying human struggles aren’t. How do we live meaningful lives during quite uncertain times? How do we maintain relationships and communities when everything seems to be falling apart? How do we find purpose when traditional sources of meaning feel inadequate?
The ancient Greeks pondered these very same fundamental questions. They didn’t have all the answers (nobody does), but they developed some remarkably durable approaches to tackling these problems. Chrysippus and his contemporaries showed us that practical discipline for finding ways to survive real life is crucial and fundamental. Their emphasis on rational thinking, ethical behavior, and resilience in the face of hardship offers tools that remain useful to this day.
