The Stoic Cosmos
Conflagration, Cosmogony, and Recurrence in Early Stoicism

The first in-depth study of the Stoic thesis that our cosmos is periodically destroyed and restored.

Ricardo Salles (Author)

9781009422796, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 July 2025

318 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.627 kg

Stoic cosmology held that our cosmos is periodically destroyed and restored. In this, it is unique compared to earlier cosmologies. Ricardo Salles offers a detailed reconstruction of the philosophical ideas behind this thesis which explains its uniqueness and how it competes with earlier cosmologies. The reconstruction is based on a rigorous analysis of the evidence, made accessible to non-specialists who are familiar with the history of ancient philosophy but do not specialise in Stoicism. Furthermore, the book reveals how the Stoics combined their meteorology, their cosmology, their physics and their metaphysics to explain natural phenomena, thereby illustrating how different disciplines can interact in ancient philosophy. It also refers to central questions in the interpretation of Stoicism, such as the role of the Stoic god in cosmology.

Introduction
1. Overview of the Stoic cosmos
2. The Conflagration
3. Presocratic antecedents of the Stoic conflagration
4. The Cosmogony
5. The metaphysics of everlasting recurrence
6. The recurring cosmos: Why identical?
7. The paradox of destruction and restoration
8. Concluding remarks.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA]