Stoic News

By Dave Kelly

Thursday, April 01, 2004

The Simple Enneagram

ptypes: "Virtue is the true absolute good of the personality.

"'In each Enneagram type a limited good has been turned into the absolute good of the personality' (Beesing, pp. 124-25). For example, the limited good of Type One is represented by the "Basic Desire" for control, but the absolute good of Type One is virtue, specifically the "Virtue" of Patience.

"Passions are bad.

"Passions are misjudgments of what is absolutely good or absolutely bad for the person. A passion is a desire for a limited good or a fear of not obtaining a limited good; passion is also delight in obtaining a limited good or distress in being deprived of a limited good. We shouldn't desire limited goods nor fear not getting them. We should desire only virtue and fear only vice."

Habitual passions constitute the viciousness of the personality. We should try to "catch ourselves in the act" of misjudging limited goods for absolute goods, and correct our judgments. We should oppose our habitual passions, our vices, with the habits of virtue.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home