Welcome and Guidelines
Dave Kelly
This forum is a direct institutional successor to the original International Stoic Forum (ISF), founded by Erik Wiegardt. Wiegardt transferred ownership to Dr. Jan Garrett, who invited Dr. Keith Seddon to join him as co-moderator and to whom ownership passed when Garrett gave up moderation.
Part 1 — Welcome
Welcome to the International Stoic Forum — Classical (ISF-C).
This community is dedicated to high-level inquiry into Classical Stoicism. Our platform is modeled after the original International Stoic Forum founded by Erik Wiegardt and later guided by Jan Garrett and Keith Seddon.
The forum maintains a strict dual focus:
- Ancient Stoic Physics. Treatment of the original cosmological framework — logos, pneuma, and universal determinism — as a subject of serious inquiry rather than an embarrassment to be set aside.
- Classical Stoic Ethics. Moral practice grounded in correct judgment, drawing on Grant C. Sterling’s reconstruction to sustain traditional ethical practice through six classical commitments.
Please review the guidelines below.
The ISF-C Moderation Team
Part 2 — GuidelinesI. Purpose and Academic Scope
The Three Parts of Philosophy. We reject the modern reduction of Stoicism to a therapeutic tool. Beyond that, the forum takes no position on the relation of the three parts. Two views are tolerated here and neither is forum doctrine: that Logic, Physics, and Ethics form one inseparable system such that the ethics cannot stand without the ancient physics, and that the ethics is preserved by the six classical commitments even where the ancient physics is replaced. Members may argue either, and are expected to argue for whichever they hold rather than assume it.
Cosmological Physics. Members are encouraged to debate the metaphysical questions of the cosmos, including cosmic rationality, divine fire, Providence, and causal determinism.
The Sterling Alternative. For rigorous analytical discussion we draw on Dr. Grant C. Sterling’s framework, which isolates six classical philosophical commitments that preserve Classical Ethics even where the ancient physics is replaced:
- C1 — Substance Dualism. The non-material rational faculty is distinct from the material body.
- C2 — Libertarian Free Will. The rational mind has genuine freedom of assent and real origination of choice.
- C3 — Ethical Intuitionism. Objective moral truths are directly apprehensible by human reason.
- C4 — Foundationalism. Philosophical systems rest upon self-evident, fundamental axioms.
- C5 — Correspondence Theory of Truth. Statements and moral judgments are objectively true or false according to reality.
- C6 — Moral Realism. An objective moral law exists independent of human conventions or social environments.
Textual Grounding. Assertions regarding doctrine must be supported by citation from classical source texts — Zeno, Chrysippus, Epictetus, Seneca — or from formal modern commentary.
Civility and Dialectic. True to the standard set by Jan Garrett, discussion must mirror an academic seminar. Critique targets arguments, logic, and premises, never individual posters.
Historical Continuity. Members are encouraged to quote, reference, and critique archived discussions from the original ISF listserv, bridging the early revival with current scholarship.
III. Posting and Moderation RulesProhibition of AI Text. Posting AI-generated text is strictly prohibited.
Text-Oriented Focus. All messages must be strictly text-oriented.
No Shallow Content. Low-effort motivational quotes, superficial life-coaching, and pop-psychology memes are forbidden.
Quotation Format. Long quotations from classical texts or archived ISF essays must be set off plainly from the poster’s own words and given with author, work, and locus, so that the thread remains readable and the quoted matter is never mistaken for the poster’s own.
Topic Enforcement. Discussions that deviate into contemporary partisan politics, non-philosophical debate, or personal grievance will be removed by the moderation team.