Philosophical Foundation for Zeno's Stoic Doctrine of Indifferents.

 

Philosophical Foundation for Zeno's Stoic Doctrine of Indifferents. 

How does Plato's Euthydemus 278e--281e lay the groundwork for Zeno of Citium's doctrine of good, bad and indifferent? 

Claude:

This is a fascinating connection that shows how Stoic ethics emerged from earlier Socratic and Platonic thought. In Euthydemus 278e-281e, Plato presents a crucial argument that anticipates key Stoic distinctions. 

In this passage, Socrates examines what we should pray for to be happy. He initially considers conventional goods like wealth, health, and noble birth, but then demonstrates through questioning that these things aren't reliably beneficial. The pivotal insight comes when Socrates argues that these conventional "goods" only benefit us when used wisely, but can actually harm us when used foolishly. A person with wealth but no wisdom might use it destructively; health without wisdom might lead someone into dangerous pursuits. 

Socrates concludes that wisdom is the only thing that's always beneficial - it's what makes all other things genuinely good for us. Without wisdom, conventional goods become neutral at best, harmful at worst. 

This Platonic argument provides Zeno took Socrates' insight that conventional goods aren't reliably beneficial and formalized it into the tripartite classification: only virtue (which includes wisdom) is truly good, only vice is truly bad, and everything else - health, wealth, reputation - is "indifferent" to our genuine wellbeing. 

The Euthydemus passage essentially asks: what makes something truly good? And it answers: only that which always benefits us, which turns out to be wisdom/virtue alone. This is precisely the reasoning Zeno used to restrict "good" and "bad" to the moral sphere, treating everything else as external circumstances that derive their value only from how virtue or vice employs them. 

The Stoics were, in this sense, radicalizing and systematizing a Socratic insight that Plato had already articulated.