"Encheirideon"
- Philosophy 1
- Spring, 2002
- G. J. Mattey
|
The Stoics
- Stoicism (literally, "porch-ism") was founded by Zeno of Citium
- The stoa was the porch of the house where the philosophers met
- Other notable Stoic philosophers:
- Zeno's pupil Cleanthes
- Cleanthes's pupil Chrysippus
- Stoicism became popular in the Roman empire
- Emperor Marcus Aurelius adopted Stoicism and wrote a book about the conduct of life
|
Contributions of the Stoics
- The first to articulate principles of propositional logic
- Tried to produce a criterion for separating truth from falsehood
- Produced an elaborate account of nature as governed by reason
- Tried to reconcile the necessity of natural events with human autonomy
- Produced an influential ethical theory, enjoining people to "live according to nature"
|
Epictetus
- Born 55
- From Phrygia (now central Turkey)
- Appeared several hundred years after the founding of Stoicism
- Originally a slave
- Influenced Marcus Aurelius
- Died about 135
|
Autonomy
- We must become clear about what is up to us and what is not up to us
- We are autonomous in our opinions, impulses, desires, aversions
- Nothing else is in our control
- Misery results from confusing what is in our control from what is not
- We can live smoothly by treating what is not in our control as being nothing to us
|
Desire and Aversion
- Desire proposes gaining something
- Frustration of desire is unfortunate
- Aversion proposes not falling into something
- Occurrence of what one is averse to is misfortune
- One will meet misfortune if and only if one is averse to what must happen by nature
- One should be averse only to what is against nature and up to us, and one should eliminate desire for anything not according to nature
|
Distress and Joy
- Distress occurs when we make a false judgment
- E.g., that death is dreadful
- We act as if death is something that is up to us
- We have only ourselves to blame for our distress
- We should be joyful only about our own superiority, not that of what we have
|
Progress
- The Stoic view was that individual humans can make progress toward an ideal state, exemplified by Socrates
- One must train one's self to disregard bad states of affairs out of one's control
- One must avoid interest in external goods and honors
- One must master one's desires, so that they concern nothing out of one's power
- For the most part, we are in the power of nature
|
Nature
- The natural universe is divine
- It is arranged in the best way
- So, nothing that happens is truly bad
- If one believes there is bad in the world, one must blame the gods
- To have the proper relation to the gods, one must confine value-judgments to what is up to one's self
|
Appropriate Behavior
- We should act appropriately at all times
- Our activities should be commensurate with our powers
- They should stem from a unified purpose and not take place haphazardly like the activities of children
- They should not call attention to themselves
- They should be directed only toward the improvement of the faculty of judgment
|
Judging Others
- Someone who is making progress will not judge others' actions as good or bad
- If someone acts badly toward you, you should recognize that the person thinks it appropriate
- So the badness lies in the other person's judgment
- The other person is harmed by the error
|
Live as a Philosopher
- Understanding how to live is not enough
- One must put ones understanding into action
- This must be done right away
- Socrates is the model: he paid attention only to reason in every affair
- The most important philosophical injunction is "not to hold to falsehood"
- But philosophers emphasize too much technical issues such as the nature of demonstration and of falsehood itself
|