What to Do With the Stoic Teaching on Providence and Fate

Platonists tend to agree with the stoics about virtue and happiness. But they take exception to other features of stoicism, such as determinism. Plotinus too deals with rival schools by criticising them loudly but accepting their ideas quietly. He absorbs stoic ideas about universal providence, but rejects their determinism. Above all, he simply assumes that plato is a dogmatic philosopher whose theories can be extracted from dialogues.