Stoicism
...to Western culture and are responsible for some of the most influential idea and systems of morality on the planet. From the first discussions of the material of the universe to the deliberations on the ideal government, nothing can be taken away from their work, whether it is agreed to be true or not. There is, however, a caveat to this praise that I feel must be addressed: most philosophers become more concerned with physics or metaphysics than with ethics, by which I mean finding the right way to live. Of course I don't mean to say that living correctly did not concern anyone, but what does seem to be of note is that many ethical systems come from metaphysical discussions. This is something that Stoic thinkers rebelled against. The groundwork for living has got to come from life in the real world, not some esoteric "forms." Of course the Stoics discussed metaphysics, and the nature of the universe, and many other topics, but here we are concerned primarily with happiness and living well. Stoicism is at its core a life philosophy and outlook on the world; that is far more important to the Stoics than the discourse on philosophical trifles.
Let us take as an example Plato's Forms and the Allegory of the Cave. How does this help men to live? What do we gain by believing that we are in The Matrix, or that we are the blind cave dwellers? We follow that white tail down the rabbit hole to see that we know nothing, and that all we have seen is false. We eventually come into the sun, and behold the Truth that is the penultimate forms of things. This mental game serves only to remind us that we do not necessarily know everything. We might not have learned of something, or we may be blind to it, but any logical discussion of knowledge would lead to this conclusion. One thing Plato does not discuss is what happens if we are not actually chained in the cave? What if we...
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