My "Action" Is _My _Choice
Grant Sterling email to the ISF.
Again, I am pressed for time so I will attempt
a broad response to multiple ideas....
On the Stoic view, my "action" is _my _choice,
not anything I physically do.
So, for example, today I agreed to go to lunch
with another professor. We left the building, walked
to the restaurant, ate our lunch, and returned. I
made the choice to promise to go, the choice to walk
out the door, the choice to continue walking toward
the restaurant, the choice to converse and say various
things, the choice to order one of the specials, etc.
Each of those choices was inappropriate or
appropriate. "Appropriate" means that it was rationally
correct. My choice to agree to go was based on several
considerations--I needed to eat some food, the walk
would give me exercise, the weather was nice, the
restaurant has good food that is not too expensive,
the other professor is a colleague on my department
so the conversation was likely to be both enjoyable and
productive, etc. Given these considerations, I think
it was correct...rational...
to accompany him when he asked me to go.
Having agreed to go with him, I needed to make
more (rational) choices. I needed to choose a route to
the restaurant that would get us there in a reasonable
time without breaking laws or endangering ourselves
or other people. I needed to make sure that I had cash
or a credit card to purchase my meal. Etc.
So I needed to:
1) Identify rational goals to pursue.
2) Select a rational course of action designed
to help realize these goals.
If I had failed in either case--if going to
the restaurant to eat was immoral or irrational (imagine
that the restaurant was known to use its proceeds to
sponsor terrorist attacks, or that it was prohibitively
expensive, or was known to frequently serve spoiled or
poisoned food), or if my method of getting there was
immoral or irrational (the restaurant is 50 miles away
and I was planning on walking there during my lunch
hour, the sidewalks are covered with ice and are highly
dangerous, etc.) then my choices would be inappropriate.
{To go beyond making appropriate choices and
achieve virtue, I must make appropriate choices _and_
those choices must be connected together in a settled
disposition to rationally evaluate all information that
comes to me. Hence, one cannot perform _one_ virtuous
action--virtuous actions come when one has reached the stage
where one's inner rational development has been perfected.
No-one achieves that except the Sage. I, personally, am
willing to be a bit more generous and call some actions
"virtuous", but most of the ancient Stoics would not.}
So my action _is_ my choice, and as such it is
appropriate (or inappropriate) at the instant the choice
is made. So it is utterly irrelevant if I am hit by a
car before I get there, or my colleague changes his mind
and decides not to go, or the restaurant turns out to be
closed when I get there, etc. I have already made the
choice, and it is already appropriate or inappropriate.
By the same token, a choice to unnecessarily walk along
ice and dangerous sidewalks is inappropriate, even if we
manage to safely negotiate the dangers unharmed.
If you'll forgive the odd comparison, the Stoic
attitude towards actions is very like Jesus' prayer
in the Garden of Gethsemene, as recorded in Luke.
"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me;
yet not my will, but yours be done." That is, Jesus is
saying "It seems that this outcome is best, but if God
wills otherwise then it must not be." This is very similar
to the Stoic doctrine of choosing "with reservation".
The Stoic, in effect, chooses "the most rational means to
a certain goal _if_ God (the gods) will allow it to
occur". All outcomes are out of our control and in the
hands of the gods--hence, it would be irrational as well
as productive of misery for us to assume that we can actually
produce any outcome. So I should choose the means that
are most rational to select aiming at the goal which is
most rational to aim at _with the conscious recognition
that if the gods don't want it to happen, their will takes
precedence. I choose a rational path to the restaurant,
but when we get there we find it closed. I am not in the
least upset, because all along I was _not_ aiming to
produce the outcome of eating at that restaurant, but
rather aiming at the outcome of eating at that restaurant
_is possible_. Now I recognize that it was not possible--
the gods did not will it. Nevertheless all my choices were
correct at the time, and so I am content. {Of course, now
I must make new choices about what to do now.}
So:
1) Choose objectively correct, rational ends.
2) Choose rational means to those ends.
3) Make all those choices with the "reservation" that
these outcomes are never really under my control, and
so if the all-wise gods will otherwise "not my will
but their be done".
Regards,
Grant
PS: On rare occasions it will be rational to do
some task in an inferior way. For example, I
may have good reason to take a shower, but at the
same time recognize that I have a good reason to
spend no more than 5 minutes showering and dressing.
I cannot shower and dress thoroughly and well in
5 minutes...in this case, I'll have to shower and
dress somewhat sloppily. But such cases are rare.
a broad response to multiple ideas....
On the Stoic view, my "action" is _my _choice,
not anything I physically do.
So, for example, today I agreed to go to lunch
with another professor. We left the building, walked
to the restaurant, ate our lunch, and returned. I
made the choice to promise to go, the choice to walk
out the door, the choice to continue walking toward
the restaurant, the choice to converse and say various
things, the choice to order one of the specials, etc.
Each of those choices was inappropriate or
appropriate. "Appropriate" means that it was rationally
correct. My choice to agree to go was based on several
considerations--I needed to eat some food, the walk
would give me exercise, the weather was nice, the
restaurant has good food that is not too expensive,
the other professor is a colleague on my department
so the conversation was likely to be both enjoyable and
productive, etc. Given these considerations, I think
it was correct...rational...
to accompany him when he asked me to go.
Having agreed to go with him, I needed to make
more (rational) choices. I needed to choose a route to
the restaurant that would get us there in a reasonable
time without breaking laws or endangering ourselves
or other people. I needed to make sure that I had cash
or a credit card to purchase my meal. Etc.
So I needed to:
1) Identify rational goals to pursue.
2) Select a rational course of action designed
to help realize these goals.
If I had failed in either case--if going to
the restaurant to eat was immoral or irrational (imagine
that the restaurant was known to use its proceeds to
sponsor terrorist attacks, or that it was prohibitively
expensive, or was known to frequently serve spoiled or
poisoned food), or if my method of getting there was
immoral or irrational (the restaurant is 50 miles away
and I was planning on walking there during my lunch
hour, the sidewalks are covered with ice and are highly
dangerous, etc.) then my choices would be inappropriate.
{To go beyond making appropriate choices and
achieve virtue, I must make appropriate choices _and_
those choices must be connected together in a settled
disposition to rationally evaluate all information that
comes to me. Hence, one cannot perform _one_ virtuous
action--virtuous actions come when one has reached the stage
where one's inner rational development has been perfected.
No-one achieves that except the Sage. I, personally, am
willing to be a bit more generous and call some actions
"virtuous", but most of the ancient Stoics would not.}
So my action _is_ my choice, and as such it is
appropriate (or inappropriate) at the instant the choice
is made. So it is utterly irrelevant if I am hit by a
car before I get there, or my colleague changes his mind
and decides not to go, or the restaurant turns out to be
closed when I get there, etc. I have already made the
choice, and it is already appropriate or inappropriate.
By the same token, a choice to unnecessarily walk along
ice and dangerous sidewalks is inappropriate, even if we
manage to safely negotiate the dangers unharmed.
If you'll forgive the odd comparison, the Stoic
attitude towards actions is very like Jesus' prayer
in the Garden of Gethsemene, as recorded in Luke.
"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me;
yet not my will, but yours be done." That is, Jesus is
saying "It seems that this outcome is best, but if God
wills otherwise then it must not be." This is very similar
to the Stoic doctrine of choosing "with reservation".
The Stoic, in effect, chooses "the most rational means to
a certain goal _if_ God (the gods) will allow it to
occur". All outcomes are out of our control and in the
hands of the gods--hence, it would be irrational as well
as productive of misery for us to assume that we can actually
produce any outcome. So I should choose the means that
are most rational to select aiming at the goal which is
most rational to aim at _with the conscious recognition
that if the gods don't want it to happen, their will takes
precedence. I choose a rational path to the restaurant,
but when we get there we find it closed. I am not in the
least upset, because all along I was _not_ aiming to
produce the outcome of eating at that restaurant, but
rather aiming at the outcome of eating at that restaurant
_is possible_. Now I recognize that it was not possible--
the gods did not will it. Nevertheless all my choices were
correct at the time, and so I am content. {Of course, now
I must make new choices about what to do now.}
So:
1) Choose objectively correct, rational ends.
2) Choose rational means to those ends.
3) Make all those choices with the "reservation" that
these outcomes are never really under my control, and
so if the all-wise gods will otherwise "not my will
but their be done".
Regards,
Grant
PS: On rare occasions it will be rational to do
some task in an inferior way. For example, I
may have good reason to take a shower, but at the
same time recognize that I have a good reason to
spend no more than 5 minutes showering and dressing.
I cannot shower and dress thoroughly and well in
5 minutes...in this case, I'll have to shower and
dress somewhat sloppily. But such cases are rare.
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