STERLING'S STOIC SYSTEM: GROUND-UP RECONSTRUCTION v2.0
# STERLING'S STOIC SYSTEM: GROUND-UP RECONSTRUCTION v2.0
## METHODOLOGICAL NOTE
**What We're Doing:**
- Extracting concepts from Sterling's Nine Excerpts and My "Action" Is _My_Choice
- Organizing by logical dependency
- Building from simplest to most complex
- Showing how each concept depends on prior concepts
**Reading Strategy:**
- Master each level before advancing
- Later concepts depend on earlier ones
- This is the logical structure of Stoicism
---
# LEVEL 0: ABSOLUTE FOUNDATIONS
### **0.1: The Concept of "Good"**
**From Excerpts: 3, 4, 5, 8, 9**
**Definition:**
"Good" = that which benefits us; what we should pursue; what constitutes our genuine well-being.
**Sterling's Words (Excerpt 9):**
"Th 10) The only thing actually good is virtue, the only thing actually evil is vice."
"12) Ergo, things that are not in our control are never good or evil."
**Sterling (Excerpt 5):**
"4) Therefore, only things that this part of me does can really be good or bad for me. Anything external to my will cannot be good or evil."
**What must be true of "the good":**
- Always beneficial (in all circumstances)
- Never harmful (in any circumstances)
- Sufficient for well-being
- In our power
---
### **0.2: The Concept of "In Our Power"**
**From Excerpts: 2, 3, 9**
**Definition:**
"In our power" (*eph' hēmin*) = what we have complete control over.
**Sterling (Excerpt 9):**
"Th 6) The only things in our control are our beliefs and will, and anything entailed by our beliefs and will."
**Sterling (Excerpt 3):**
"The Stoics believe that only things directly related to virtue (beliefs, desires, will) are in our control."
**Sterling (Excerpt 2):**
"Only internal things are in my control."
**Binary distinction:**
**IN OUR CONTROL:**
- Beliefs
- Will
- Judgments
- Desires
- Assent
- Choice
**NOT IN OUR CONTROL:**
- Everything external
- Body, health, wealth
- Reputation
- Others' opinions and choices
- Outcomes
- Life, death
---
### **0.3: The Concept of "Virtue"**
**From Excerpts: 3, 4, 8, 9**
**Sterling (Excerpt 8):**
"1. Happiness (eudaimonia) is to be found exclusively in Virtue."
"3. Virtue (or virtue and certain things that can be attained only by those with virtue) is the only genuine good, and vice the only genuine evil."
**Sterling (Excerpt 9):**
"Th 27) Virtue consists of rational acts of will, vice of irrational acts of will."
Virtue = excellence of character; rational use of our capacities.
---
# LEVEL 1: VALUE THEORY
### **1.1: The Core Claims**
**From Excerpts: 3, 4, 5, 8, 9**
**Sterling (Excerpt 9):**
"Th 10) The only thing actually good is virtue, the only thing actually evil is vice."
**Sterling (Excerpt 3):**
"They believe that only virtue is good and only vice is evil."
"They believe that all things not in our control ('externals') are neither good nor evil."
**Sterling (Excerpt 4):**
"d) No externals are ever good or evil."
"e) All beliefs that externals have value are, hence, false."
**Three claims:**
1. Only virtue is genuinely good
2. Only vice is genuinely evil
3. Everything else is indifferent
**Sterling's argument (Excerpt 9):**
```
Th 6: "The only things in our control are our beliefs and will"
Th 10: "The only thing actually good is virtue"
11: "Ergo, since virtue and vice are types of acts of will, they are in our control"
12: "Ergo, things that are not in our control are never good or evil"
```
---
### **1.2: Preferred and Dispreferred Indifferents**
**From Excerpt 9**
**Sterling (Excerpt 9, Section Four):**
"Th 25) Some things are appropriate objects at which to aim, although they are not genuinely good."
"Th 26) Some such objects are things like life [our own, or others'], health, pleasure, knowledge, justice, truth-telling, etc."
**Preferred indifferents:**
- Health, wealth, reputation, life
- Rationally selected
- NOT genuinely good
**Dispreferred indifferents:**
- Disease, poverty, death, pain
- Rationally avoided
- NOT genuinely evil
**Distinction:**
- VALUE: Only virtue good, only vice evil
- SELECTION: Some externals preferred, some dispreferred
- Selection ≠ value
---
### **1.3: Prohairesis**
**From Excerpts: 2, 3, 4, 7**
**Sterling (Excerpt 4):**
"b) I am my soul/prohairesis/inner self."
"c) Everything else, including my body, is an external."
*Prohairesis* = faculty of rational choice; moral character; seat of virtue and vice.
**What it controls:**
- Beliefs about good and evil
- Value judgments
- Assents
- Desires
- Choices
Virtue = excellence of prohairesis
Vice = defect of prohairesis
---
# LEVEL 2: CONTROL DISTINCTION
### **2.1: Complete Control Distinction**
**From Excerpts: 2, 3, 9**
**Sterling (Excerpt 9):**
"Th 6) The only things in our control are our beliefs and will, and anything entailed by our beliefs and will."
**IN OUR COMPLETE CONTROL:**
- Acts of prohairesis only
- Beliefs, judgments, assents, choices
- Desires (caused by beliefs)
**NOT IN OUR CONTROL:**
- Everything else
- Body, property, reputation
- Others' choices
- Outcomes
**Why this follows from value theory:**
Sterling (Excerpt 9):
```
Premise 1: Only virtue is good
Premise 2: Virtue is in prohairesis/will
Th 10: "The only thing actually good is virtue"
11: "Ergo, since virtue and vice are types of acts of will, they are in our control"
12: "Ergo, things that are not in our control are never good or evil"
```
Logical order:
1. Value theory first
2. Control distinction follows
---
### **2.2: Externals as Indifferent**
**From Excerpts: 2, 3, 4, 9**
Externals:
- Not in our control
- Not genuinely good or evil
- Cannot affect genuine well-being
- Can be preferred or dispreferred
**Sterling (Excerpt 2):**
"If I eliminate my belief that externals are ever bad, I can even prevent all grief when my child or wife dies, or when I myself face death."
Even life itself is indifferent (preferred, but indifferent).
---
# LEVEL 3: COGNITIVE THEORY
### **3.1: Impression and Assent**
**From Excerpts: 1, 7**
**Sterling (Excerpt 7):**
"I receive impressions. For the moment, let [us] take these as being out of our control. Those impressions are cognitive, propositional--they are not uninterpreted raw data, but rather ideas that claim that the world is a certain way."
**Sequence:**
```
1. IMPRESSION arises
- NOT in our control
2. JUDGMENT occurs
- IS in our control
3. ASSENT or REFUSAL
- IS in our control
- Crucial moment
4. IMPULSE follows
5. EMOTION and/or ACTION results
```
**Sterling (Excerpt 7):**
"What _is_ in our control is how we react to them. We can assent, or not assent. That is, we can accept that a given impression is _true_, or reject it as unproven or false."
"If I refuse to assent to an impression, nothing happens. No emotion, no action, nothing."
"If I assent to an impression with a value component, then a desire will result."
---
### **3.2: Cognitive Theory of Emotion**
**From Excerpts: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7**
**Sterling (Excerpt 3):**
"They believe that our feelings of love, hate fear, grief, anger, frustration, disappointment, etc., are all caused by beliefs that external things are good or evil."
**Sterling (Excerpt 4):**
"a) Emotions are caused by value beliefs (beliefs about what things are good or evil)."
"f) All feelings that result from false value beliefs are, therefore, pathological and should be eliminated."
**Sterling (Excerpt 1):**
"1) Emotions are bad.
2) Emotions are caused by false value judgments.
3) Ergo, if we change those false value judgments, the bad emotions will go away."
**Four disturbed emotions:**
- Pleasure: false belief present external is good
- Distress: false belief present external is evil
- Desire: false belief future external is good
- Fear: false belief future external is evil
**Sterling (Excerpt 7):**
"Th 7) Desire[s] are caused by beliefs (judgments) about good and evil. [You desire what you judge to be good, and desire to avoid what you judge to be evil.]"
**Therapeutic implication:**
Correct the belief → emotion dissipates
NOT suppression
BUT correction of false judgment
---
### **3.3: Good Feelings**
**From Excerpts: 4, 5, 6, 9**
**Sterling (Excerpt 4):**
"g) Any feelings that arise from true value beliefs are not pathological."
"j) Eudaimonia includes both living a virtuous life and living a life of positive feelings."
"k) Living a virtuous life is necessary for eudaimonia [because it is part of the very definition of eudaimonia], and is also sufficient for eudaimonia [because the virtuous person will experience Joy, a positive feeling, and no negative feelings whatsoever]."
**Three good feelings:**
**Joy (chara):**
- From recognition of virtue
**Sterling (Excerpt 9):**
"Th 16) If you desire something, and achieve it, you will get a positive feeling."
"17) Ergo, if we correctly judge and correctly will, we will have appropriate positive feelings as a result."
**Wish (boulēsis):**
- Rational wanting of virtue
**Caution (eulabeia):**
- Rational avoidance of vice
---
# LEVEL 4: HAPPINESS THEORY
### **4.1: Negative Happiness**
**From Excerpts: 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9**
Happiness = Freedom from disturbance
**Sterling (Excerpt 2):**
"Unhappiness is caused by (falsely) believing that externals are good or evil, which causes us to desire the world to be one way rather than another, which inevitably causes unhappiness when the world doesn't conform."
**Sterling (Excerpt 9):**
"Th 3) All human unhappiness is caused by having a desire or emotional commitment to some outcome, and then that outcome does not result."
"4) Ergo, if you desire something which is out of your control, you will be subject to possible unhappiness."
"14) Ergo, if we value only virtue, we will both judge truly and be immune to all unhappiness."
Eliminate false judgments → achieve tranquility
---
### **4.2: Positive Happiness**
**From Excerpts: 4, 5, 6, 9**
**Sterling (Excerpt 5):**
"1) The goal of life is to obtain eudaimonia, which means both to act morally and to enjoy life."
**Sterling (Excerpt 6):**
"1) Eudaimonia (perhaps that's what you mean by 'genuine happiness') consists in both complete psychological contentment and complete moral perfection."
**Sterling (Excerpt 9):**
"15) Ergo, if we truly judge that virtue is good, we will desire it.
Th 16) If you desire something, and achieve it, you will get a positive feeling.
17) Ergo, if we correctly judge and correctly will, we will have appropriate positive feelings as a result."
"Th 18) Some positive feelings do not result from desires, and hence do not result from judgments about value. [E.g., the taste of a good meal, the sight of a beautiful sunset, etc.]"
"23) Ergo, the Stoic will be positively happy, will have positive feelings, in at least three ways: appreciation of his own virtue, physical and sensory pleasures, and the appreciation of the world as it is."
Happiness includes:
- Freedom from disturbance (negative)
- Joy in virtue (positive)
- Appropriate positive feelings
---
### **4.3: Sufficiency of Virtue**
**From Excerpts: 4, 5, 6, 8, 9**
**Sterling (Excerpt 8):**
"1. Happiness (eudaimonia) is to be found exclusively in Virtue."
**Sterling (Excerpt 4):**
"k) Living a virtuous life is necessary for eudaimonia [because it is part of the very definition of eudaimonia], and is also sufficient for eudaimonia [because the virtuous person will experience Joy, a positive feeling, and no negative feelings whatsoever]."
**Sterling (Excerpt 9, Final Synthesis):**
"So now the threads of the sections can be tied together. Someone who judges truly will never be unhappy, will in fact experience continual uninterrupted appropriate positive feelings, and will always act virtuously. Anyone would agree that someone who led a life like that was happy. Judgment is in our control. Hence, not only is perfect continual happiness possible, it is actually in our control--we can actually guarantee it by simply judging correctly, and acting on those judgments."
Virtue alone is sufficient for complete happiness.
---
# LEVEL 5: ACTION THEORY
### **5.1: Action as Choice**
**From Excerpts: 7, 9, "My Action Is My Choice"**
**Sterling ("My Action Is My Choice"):**
"On the Stoic view, my 'action' is _my _choice, not anything I physically do."
"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."
Action = choice/assent, not physical movement
**Why this matters:**
- Choice is in our control
- Physical outcome is external
- Success = appropriate choice
- External obstacles don't prevent action (the choice)
**Sterling (Excerpt 7):**
"All of this sounds complicated, but it boils down to this: _everything_ on the Stoic view comes down to assent to impressions. Choosing whether or not to assent to impressions is the only thing in our control...and yet, everything critical to leading the best possible life is contained in that one act. All our desires, all our emotions, all our actions are tied to assenting to impressions."
---
### **5.2: Appropriate Actions**
**From Excerpts: 7, 9, "My Action Is My Choice"**
**Sterling ("My Action Is My Choice"):**
"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...appropriate of me to agree to accompany him when he asked me to go."
*Kathēkon* = appropriate action; what reason prescribes
**What makes action appropriate:**
- Prescribed by reason
- Suitable to circumstances
- Rationally selected means to rational ends
**Sterling ("My Action Is My Choice"):**
"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...or if my method of getting there was immoral or irrational...then my choices would be inappropriate."
---
### **5.3: Skopos and Telos**
**From Excerpts: 9, "My Action Is My Choice"**
**Sterling (Excerpt 9):**
"Th 24) In order to perform an act of will, the act of will must have some content. The content is composed of the result at which one aims."
"Th 25) Some things are appropriate objects at which to aim, although they are not genuinely good."
"Th 26) Some such objects are things like life [our own, or others'], health, pleasure, knowledge, justice, truth-telling, etc."
"Th 27) Virtue consists of rational acts of will, vice of irrational acts of will."
"29) Ergo, virtue consists of the pursuit of appropriate objects of aim, not the pursuit of the [external] objects of our desires."
**Distinction:**
***Skopos* = external goal**
- Eating at restaurant
- Preferred indifferent
- NOT in complete control
***Telos* = appropriate pursuit**
- Choosing rationally to go
- Virtue in choosing
- IN complete control
**Sterling ("My Action Is My Choice"):**
"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."
The choice (telos) is complete at the moment of choosing.
The outcome (skopos) is external and separate.
**Sterling ("My Action Is My Choice"):**
"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."
Appropriateness of choice judged independently of outcome.
---
### **5.4: Reserve Clause**
**From Excerpts: 7, 9, "My Action Is My Choice"**
**Sterling ("My Action Is My Choice"):**
"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."
*Hypexairesis* = reserve clause
**Formula:**
"I choose X, if nothing prevents"
"If the gods will it"
**Sterling ("My Action Is My Choice"):**
"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 _if_ it 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.}"
**Sterling's three-part formula ("My Action Is My Choice"):**
"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'."
---
# LEVEL 6: THE THREE DISCIPLINES
### **6.1: Discipline of Assent**
**From Excerpts: 1, 7**
**Sterling (Excerpt 7):**
"All of this sounds complicated, but it boils down to this: _everything_ on the Stoic view comes down to assent to impressions. Choosing whether or not to assent to impressions is the only thing in our control...and yet, everything critical to leading the best possible life is contained in that one act."
**Practice:**
**Sterling (Excerpt 7):**
"So what we should be striving for is:
a) Don't assent to impressions that depict externals as either good or evil.
b) If we fail 'a', don't assent to subsequent impressions that depict immoral responses to the good or bad thing as being appropriate.
c) Consciously formulate true propositions regarding the lack of value of external things. As far as possible, do this in advance. Remind yourself that your own life and health are neither good nor evil, as are the lives and health of those around you."
---
### **6.2: Discipline of Desire**
**From Excerpts: 2, 3, 9**
**Sterling (Excerpt 3):**
"Hence, the good Stoic will have no desires whatsoever regarding external things."
**Sterling (Excerpt 9):**
"Th 7) Desire[s] are caused by beliefs (judgments) about good and evil. [You desire what you judge to be good, and desire to avoid what you judge to be evil.]"
"Th 13) Desiring things out of our control is irrational, since it involves false judgment."
"Th 14) Ergo, if we value only virtue, we will both judge truly and be immune to all unhappiness."
Desire only virtue
Rationally select preferred indifferents (without desire)
---
### **6.3: Discipline of Action**
**From Excerpts: 7, 9, "My Action Is My Choice"**
**Sterling (Excerpt 7):**
"d) Consciously formulate true action propositions. 'I should report truthfully to my boss regarding the sales numbers from the last quarter: truth telling is virtuous, and I have a duty to act faithfully at work. If my boss fires me, I should remember that my job is an external, neither good not evil.' By paying attention to preferred and dispreferred indifferents, and to the duties connected with my various roles in life, I can recognize what it would actually be correct for me to do in each situation. Bring this consciously to mind, and assent to it."
**Sterling ("My Action Is My Choice"):**
"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."
Perform appropriate actions with reservation about outcomes.
---
# LEVEL 7: COMPLETE INTEGRATION
### **7.1: The Complete System**
**Sterling (Excerpt 7):**
"All our desires, all our emotions, all our actions are tied to assenting to impressions. If I get my assents right, then I have guaranteed eudaimonia. If I get one wrong, I cannot have eudaimonia."
**Sterling (Excerpt 9, Final Synthesis):**
"So now the threads of the sections can be tied together. Someone who judges truly will never be unhappy, will in fact experience continual uninterrupted appropriate positive feelings, and will always act virtuously. Anyone would agree that someone who led a life like that was happy. Judgment is in our control. Hence, not only is perfect continual happiness possible, it is actually in our control--we can actually guarantee it by simply judging correctly, and acting on those judgments."
**The system:**
```
Value theory → Control distinction → Cognitive theory → Happiness theory → Action theory → Three disciplines → Eudaimonia
```
---
### **7.2: The Sage**
**From Excerpts: 3, 4, 7**
**Sterling (Excerpt 3):**
"Hence, the good Stoic will never experience any of those feelings [love, hate fear, grief, anger, frustration, disappointment], even in the slightest degree."
**Sterling (Excerpt 7):**
"The Sage is simply someone who has controlled their assents so carefully for such a long period of time that they no longer receive the false value impressions (that externals are good or bad) in the first place."
**Sterling (Excerpt 4):**
"k) the virtuous person will experience Joy, a positive feeling, and no negative feelings whatsoever."
---
### **7.3: Progress**
**From Excerpt 7**
**Sterling (Excerpt 7):**
"Our impressions are closely connected to our character. If you reject an impression, then it makes that same type of impression less common and weaker. If you assent to it, it becomes more common and stronger...So, in this way, by being careful with our acts of assent (which are in our control), the impressions that we receive will be altered over time. This is a long process, but is critical for the Stoics--this is building a virtuous character."
"f) Over time, my character will change such that I no longer have the false value impressions in 'a' and 'b', and 'c' and 'd' and 'e' become routine. This is eudaimonia--good feelings combined with virtuous actions."
---
## CONCLUSION
**Sterling (Excerpt 9):**
"Judgment is in our control. Hence, not only is perfect continual happiness possible, it is actually in our control--we can actually guarantee it by simply judging correctly, and acting on those judgments."
**Sterling ("My Action Is My Choice"):**
"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'."
Study Sterling's Excerpts.
Master the logical structure.
Practice the disciplines.
Live as a Stoic.
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