STOIC ANALYSIS: ADULTERY

 # **STOIC ANALYSIS**

## 1. OPENING

You committed adultery with a neighbor. Your wife appears to know or suspect this.

## 2. CLASSIFICATION

```

INTERNAL:

• Whether you tell the truth

• Your judgment about what's right

• Your acknowledgment of wrongdoing

• Your character going forward

EXTERNAL:

• Your wife's knowledge or suspicion

• Your wife's response

• Whether your marriage continues

• Your neighbor's actions

• Social consequences

• Financial outcomes

```

## 3. VALUES

```

GOOD (Virtue):

✓ Telling the truth to your wife

✓ Acknowledging the wrong you committed

✓ Acting with justice toward your wife

EVIL (Vice):

✗ The adultery you committed (already done)

✗ Lying or concealing the truth now

✗ Continuing deception

✗ Any further injustice to your wife

INDIFFERENT - PREFERRED:

○ Marriage continuing

○ Avoiding social embarrassment

○ Financial stability

INDIFFERENT - DISPREFERRED:

○ Marriage ending

○ Social consequences

○ Financial loss

```

## 4. VIRTUE

```

WISDOM: You committed injustice (adultery). The right action now is truth. Lying compounds vice with vice.

COURAGE: Tell the truth despite fear of consequences. Face what you caused.

JUSTICE: Your wife is owed truth. You violated your commitment to her. Justice requires acknowledging this fully and honestly.

SELF-CONTROL: Do not let fear of consequences (divorce, social fallout) govern your choice now. Reason dictates honesty.

→ Virtue requires: Tell your wife the truth. Acknowledge the wrong fully. Accept whatever consequences follow.

```

## 5. ERRORS

```

PRIMARY ERROR: Judging the consequences of honesty (divorce, social fallout, financial loss) as evil

• Correction: Those outcomes are external, therefore indifferent. Only vice (lying, continued deception) is evil.

SECONDARY ERRORS:

• Catastrophizing: "Telling truth will destroy everything" - external outcome wrongly valued as terrible

• Fortune telling: "If I tell truth, marriage will end" - external outcome wrongly valued as determining action

• All stem from treating external consequences as evil rather than indifferent

```

## 6. ACTION

```

INTERNAL AIM (100%):

• Virtue: Honesty, justice, acknowledgment of wrong

• Success = "Did I tell the truth? Did I act justly toward my wife?"

EXTERNAL AIM (0%):

• Outcome: Marriage continues, consequences minimized

• NOT success = "Did marriage survive?"

STEPS:

1. Tell your wife the truth about the adultery

2. Acknowledge the injustice you committed against her

3. Maintain complete reservation about whether marriage continues

4. Accept divorce, social consequences, or any other outcome

```

## 7. OBSTACLE

```

DIFFICULTY: Fear of divorce, social embarrassment, financial loss, wife's pain

RESPONSE:

- Recognize: All external, therefore indifferent

- Accept: You caused this situation through vice

- Respond: Tell truth regardless of consequences

- Endure: Bear whatever external results follow

```

## 8. PERSPECTIVE

**The adultery is already committed.** That vice is done. You cannot undo it.

**The question now:** Will you compound that vice with another (lying/concealing), or will you act virtuously from this point forward?

**On your deathbed:** Will you care that you preserved your marriage through deception? Or that you acted with integrity after failing to do so before?

**Your wife's position:** She is owed truth. She is owed acknowledgment of the wrong done to her. Justice requires this regardless of outcome.

## 9. CONCLUSION

You control one thing: whether you tell the truth or lie/conceal. You don't control whether your marriage survives, what social consequences occur, or how your wife responds—those are external.

Your wife is owed the truth. You committed injustice against her. Compounding that injustice with deception adds vice to vice.

Virtue requires: Tell your wife the truth. Acknowledge the wrong you did. Accept whatever consequences follow. Only continued deception is actually evil. Everything else is indifferent.