Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the ontology developed by ancient Stoics in support of their scientific account of technical divination. It will do so also in light of recent anthropological studies, and by considering the everlasting human need to know the future as a way to appease present anxieties.

Paper long abstract:

Ancient Stoics theorised divination as a form of technical knowledge, based on the decipherment of signs scattered in the world, and fully compatible with scientific thinking. Their idea of divination was founded on an understanding of the cosmos as a perfect mechanism of interconnected phenomena, unfolding according to a predetermined series of causes. Within this framework, divination served the purpose of formulating predictions of future events, thus offering a concrete support to human life.

By exploring the Stoic divinatory system, also in light of recent anthropological studies (Boyer, Zeitlyn), this contribution will assess the interdependence of divinatory theories and cosmological accounts in the Graeco-Roman world and in the modern world (De Martino, Sabbatucci, Ginzburg). Finally, it will address the question as to whether divinatory prediction theories and their connected ontological assumptions can somehow resonate with the world of today, in which technology embodies the illusion to operate in a fully predictable environment.