Stoanism

THE ORIGINS OF STOANISM

Stoanism was conceived by Peter Fison in 2025 in response to a playful challenge to invent a “cult” or “movement” that would meet on his newly acquired land in Dartmoor, Great Britain. Peter had studied philosophy at Christ Church College, Oxford and saw this as an opportunity to consolidate and formalise some of his own thoughts and values as well as curated ideas from history’s great thinkers that seemed to him to have stood the test of time and still have relevance in a fast-paced digital world.

Foremost amongst those values was the habit of constantly learning and questioning – not just alone, but socially – and viewing philosophy as a process of discovery where asking and exploring difficult questions is often more important than arriving at any particular answer.

The plot of land where these thoughts were first discussed remains a historic and largely untouched area of hills, fields, and woodland, but is also home to two of Dartmoor’s lesser known rock outcrops (“Tors”). So the regional word “stoan” for “rock” or “stone” seemed worth incorporating in the cult’s name somehow. “Stoan” fits well with the Greek word “Petros” (Πέτρος) which also means “rock” and gave rise to the name “Peter”. Along with the Greek word “stoa” meaning a place to discuss philosophy, these root words jointly inspired the final choice of“Stoan-ism” as the name for the new movement, and “Stoan-ists” as the name for its members.