The Stoic View of Life

1
The Stoic View of Life
2
Introduction
3
Introduction

• A school of the Hellenistic period and the Roman
  Empire

4
Introduction

• A school of the Hellenistic period and the Roman
  Empire
• Began with Zenos discourses in the painted
  porch in Athens

5
Introduction

• A school of the Hellenistic period and the Roman
  Empire
• Began with Zenos discourses in the painted
  porch in Athens

6
Introduction

• A school of the Hellenistic period and the Roman
  Empire
• Began with Zenos discourses in the painted
  porch in Athens

7
Introduction

• A school of the Hellenistic period and the Roman
  Empire
• Began with Zenos discourses in the painted
  porch in Athens
• Sources

8
Introduction

• A school of the Hellenistic period and the Roman
  Empire
• Began with Zenos discourses in the painted
  porch in Athens
• Sources
• Cicero de Finibus (On Ends)

9
Introduction

• A school of the Hellenistic period and the Roman
  Empire
• Began with Zenos discourses in the painted
  porch in Athens
• Sources
• Cicero de Finibus (On Ends)
• Seneca Moral Essays

10
Introduction

• A school of the Hellenistic period and the Roman
  Empire
• Began with Zenos discourses in the painted
  porch in Athens
• Sources
• Cicero de Finibus (On Ends)
• Seneca Moral Essays
• Epictetus Enchiridion (Handbook)

11
Introduction

• A school of the Hellenistic period and the Roman
  Empire
• Began with Zenos discourses in the painted
  porch in Athens
• Sources
• Cicero de Finibus (On Ends)
• Seneca Moral Essays
• Epictetus Enchiridion (Handbook)
• Marcus Aurelius Meditations

12
Background
13
Background

• An age of Empires

14
Background

• An age of Empires

15
Background

• An age of Empires

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Background

• An age of Empires

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Background

• An age of Empires

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Background

• An age of Empires
• Irrelevance of cities for values

19
Background

• An age of Empires
• Irrelevance of cities for values
• Insignificance

20
Background

• An age of Empires
• Irrelevance of cities for values
• Insignificance
• Fatalism?

21
Background

• New Schools of Thought

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Background

• New Schools of Thought
• Sceptics - We cant know anything

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Background

• New Schools of Thought
• Sceptics
• Epicureans - Avoid pain

24
Background

• New Schools of Thought
• Sceptics
• Epicureans
• Cyrenaics - Seek pleasure

25
Background

• New Schools of Thought
• Sceptics
• Epicureans
• Cyrenaics
• Cynics - Act like a dog be natural

26
Background

• New Schools of Thought
• Sceptics
• Epicureans
• Cyrenaics
• Cynics
• Stoics

27
Norms, Nature, and Law
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Norms, Nature, and Law

• To be a good thing is to be able to perform your
  proper function (ergon) well.

29
Norms, Nature, and Law

• To be a good thing is to be able to perform your
  proper function (ergon) well.
• To have a proper function is a normative claim
  there is a way a thing ought to be.

30
Norms, Nature, and Law

• To be a good thing is to be able to perform your
  proper function (ergon) well.
• To have a proper function is a normative claim
  there is a way a thing ought to be.
• It is in the nature of a thing.

31
Norms, Nature, and Law

• To be a good thing is to be able to perform your
  proper function (ergon) well.
• To have a proper function is a normative claim
  there is a way a thing ought to be.
• It is in the nature of a thing.
• There is a law that applies to the thing.

32
Norms, Nature, and Law

• To be a good thing is to be able to perform your
  proper function (ergon) well.
• To have a proper function is a normative claim
  there is a way a thing ought to be.
• It is in the nature of a thing.
• There is a law that applies to the thing.
• There is a Law of Nature that applies to the
  entire universe.

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Norms, Nature, and Law

• Everything that happens in the world is according
  to Nature

34
Norms, Nature, and Law

• Everything that happens in the world is according
  to Nature
• Welcome everything which happens, even if it
  seems harsh, because it contributes to the health
  of the universe and the well-faring and
  well-being of Zeus. For he would not have brought
  this on a man unless it had been advantageous to
  the whole

35
Norms, Nature, and Law

• Everything that happens in the world is according
  to Nature
• Welcome everything which happens, even if it
  seems harsh, because it contributes to the health
  of the universe and the well-faring and
  well-being of Zeus. For he would not have brought
  this on a man unless it had been advantageous to
  the whole
• NB Zeus Lawgiver Law Nature

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Virtues and Values
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Virtues and Values

• Man is different from all other things in the
  world because Man is a rational animal. Man is
  able to act in accord with or contrary to Nature.
  

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Virtues and Values

• Man is different from all other things in the
  world because Man is a rational animal. Man is
  able to act in accord with or contrary to Nature.
  
• Proper aim of Man is to perfect rationality and
  come into agreement with Nature.

39
Virtues and Values

• Man is different from all other things in the
  world because Man is a rational animal. Man is
  able to act in accord with or contrary to Nature.
  
• Proper aim of Man is to perfect rationality and
  come into agreement with Nature.
• There is a path to perfection

40
Virtues and Values

• Man is different from all other things in the
  world because Man is a rational animal. Man is
  able to act in accord with or contrary to Nature.
  
• Proper aim of Man is to perfect rationality and
  come into agreement with Nature.
• There is a path to perfection
• oikeiôsis (affinity) evolves in step with
  perfection

41
Virtues and Values

• Cicero
• We begin with a classification the Stoics call
  valuable (this, I think, is the term we should
  use) whatever is either itself in accordance with
  nature, or brings about something that is. Worthy
  of selection, therefore, is whatever has
  sufficient importance to be worthy of value
  (value the Stoics call axia). On the other hand,
  they call non-valuable what is contrary to the
  above. The starting-point, therefore, is that
  things in accordance with nature are to be
  adopted for their own sake, and their contraries
  are likewise to be rejected.

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Virtues and Values

• Cicero
• With this established, the initial appropriate
  action (this is what I call the Greek kathêkon)
  is to preserve oneself in ones natural
  constitution. The next is to take what is in
  accordance with nature and reject its opposite.
  Once this method of selection (and likewise
  rejection) has been discovered, selection then
  goes hand in hand with appropriate action. Then
  such selection becomes continuous, and, finally,
  stable and in agreement with nature. At this
  point that which can truly be said to be good
  first appears and is recognized for what it is.

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Virtues and Values

• Cicero
• A human beings earliest concern is for what is
  in accordance with nature. But as soon as one has
  gained some understanding, or rather conception
  (what the Stoics call ennoia), and sees an order
  and as it were concordance in the things which
  one ought to do, one then values that concordance
  much more highly than those first objects of
  affection. Hence through learning and reason one
  concludes that this is the place to find the
  supreme human good, that good which is to be
  praised and sought on its own account. This good
  lies in what the Stoics call homologia. Let us
  use the term consistency, if you approve.
  Herein lies that good, namely moral action and
  morality itself, at which everything else ought
  to be directed. Though it is a later development,
  it is none the less the only thing to be sought
  in virtue of its own power and worth, whereas
  none of the primary objects of nature is to be
  sought on its own account.

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Virtues and Values

• 5 Stages to perfection

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Virtues and Values

• 5 Stages to perfection
• Affinity to primary goods food, etc.

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Virtues and Values

• 5 Stages to perfection
• Affinity to primary goods food, etc.
• Affinity to non-primary things like wealth.

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Virtues and Values

• 5 Stages to perfection
• Affinity to primary goods food, etc.
• Affinity to non-primary things like wealth.
• appropriate actions that are justifiable.

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Virtues and Values

• 5 Stages to perfection
• Affinity to primary goods food, etc.
• Affinity to non-primary things like wealth.
• appropriate actions that are justifiable.
• A continuous use of reason.

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Virtues and Values

• 5 Stages to perfection
• Affinity to primary goods food, etc.
• Affinity to non-primary things like wealth.
• appropriate actions that are justifiable.
• A continuous use of reason.
• A complete and consistent understanding.

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Virtues and Values

• Virtue is just what the person who has achieved
  the perfection of wisdom would do.

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Virtues and Values

• Virtue is just what the person who has achieved
  the perfection of wisdom would do.
• Only Virtue is good.

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Virtues and Values

• Virtue is just what the person who has achieved
  the perfection of wisdom would do.
• Only Virtue is good.
• Other things health, etc. are indifferent
  only good or bad in relative terms.
• Call them preferable or to-be-avoided.

53
Virtues and Values

• Virtue is just what the person who has achieved
  the perfection of wisdom would do.
• Only Virtue is good.
• Other things health, etc. are only good or
  bad in relative terms.
• Call them preferable or to-be-avoided.
• Traditional virtues are required by Virtue.

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Virtues and Values

• Brotherhood of Man

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Virtues and Values

• Brotherhood of Man
• oikeiôsis (affinity) expands to all

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Virtues and Values

• Brotherhood of Man
• oikeiôsis (affinity) expands to all
• Universal Law covers all equally

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Virtues and Values

• Brotherhood of Man
• oikeiôsis (affinity) expands to all
• Universal Law covers all equally
• The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the
  few

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Criticisms
59
Criticisms

• Why not settle for the merely preferable since we
  cant know what the Virtuous is?

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Criticisms

• Why not settle for the merely preferable since we
  cant know what the Virtuous is?
• Is this the eudaimonia we really want?
  Independent of the world? The virtuous man can be
  happy even while hes on the rack.

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Passions
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Passions

• Since the world is irrelevant to happiness
  passions should not be engaged by worldly
  happenings.

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Passions

• Since the world is irrelevant to happiness
  passions should not be engaged by worldly
  happenings.