Alexander the Great's conquests brought an end to many of the traditional Greek ideals such as the polis or city-state. His conquests also brought in a new age, where Tyche or Fortune ruled as the supreme god in many city states. Fortunes for the individual and for rulers was constantly subject to change from good to bad or bad to good and many elite members of the new societies of the new Hellenistic world order sought guidance to find eudaimonia or happiness in this hectic new world order from philosophy. The philosophies that attempted to console the elites during the Hellenistic age included Cynicism, Stoicism, Sceptism, and Epicureanism.

Cynism shunned civilization and its institutions, because Cynics deplored the evils of civilization. They also sought only the basic necessities for survival and detested luxury. Cynics considered themselves to be citizens to the universe and not part of any society and wanted paddesia or complete independence. Cynics also objected to contemporary organized religion, yet did favor religion as it provided for the need of ritual and emotional stimulus and to follow God. They considered themselves to be the only true followers of god. Although the Romans were reluctant to accept Cynicism, some Romans accepted Cynism, for the Cynic value anaidsia(only seek basic necessities) was similar to frugalitas or simple tastes. Cynicism underwent several revivals during the Roman empire.

Stoicism began with Zeno of Citium, who called for the abolishment of all institutions and the formation of small communities to be as families unto themeslves without legal or political disputes. Stoic ethics were set up to seek happiness by ataraxia or internal calm by eliminating desires and fears and acheiving autarkia or self-sufficiency. People were also to learn virtue through acts and become the Stoic wise man, which appealed to the famous Roman orator, Cicero as he stated in his book De Finibus. Such as wise man would be in accord with the universe as it was dominated by Reason. Here Stoicism used physics to support their ideals of seeking virtue. Stoicism further sought to conform to the Romans, as it appealed to the Roman value of gravitas. Roman society continued to maintain Stoicism into its empire as Seneca wrote about it and an emporer, Marcus Aurelius embraced it.

Epicureanism is often misunderstood as being hedonistic, because it is known for emphasizing its pursuit of pleasure. Actually Epicurus called for the eliminating of as much pain as possible. If an activitiy was more painful than pleasurable, Epicurus objected to that activity. He even stated that a person shouldn't engage in sexual intercourse unless necessary, because he believed that sexual intercourse was more painful than pleasurable. Epicurus particularly object to the pain caused by fear as he believed this pain to be the greatest one. He sought to eliminate the fear of death, the fear of the gods, and advocated the use of science to overcome such fears and other fears. Epicureanism had a system of ethics, which dealt with the actions that led to pleasures. Epicurus believed that it wasn't possible to live with pleasure and without ethics. He extended his view on pleasure to reality, justice and society. The senses were to be trusted in determining reality, for not trusting them can cause confusion and pain. Justice was to be sought as fear of injustice was a great evil and caused pain. Friendship was also important and pleasurable and was the basis of society.

Scepticism also emerged during the Hellenistic era. It was introduced by Pyrrho of Elis, who had taught that almost nothing can be believed. Every side on every issue had equal validity. However they didn't believe in anything that couldn't be directly experienced by the senses. Yet sceptics still didn't trust the sense, and merely made propositions about what information can and cannot be trusted by the sense. They also merely advocated following the contemporary rules of society. Unlike other philosophies scepticism didn't provide an answer in acquiring happiness or inner calm.