The Systematic Integration of the Six Commitments

Claude:  I'll analyze how the six commitments function as an integrated system in Epictetus' teaching.

The Systematic Integration of the Six Commitments

The Foundational Architecture

The six commitments don't operate independently—they form a mutually reinforcing structure where each commitment depends on and supports the others:

Moral Realism serves as the anchor: objective moral facts exist and matter absolutely. Without this, everything else becomes arbitrary preference.

Substance Dualism creates the metaphysical space where moral realism can operate: prohairesis exists in a separate domain from physical causation, making it the locus of objective moral value.

Metaphysical Libertarianism makes moral realism actionable: genuine free will means we can align ourselves with objective moral facts through real choices, not merely follow causal chains.

Ethical Intuitionism provides epistemic access: we can directly apprehend the objective moral truths that moral realism posits, without infinite regress of justification.

Foundationalism organizes this knowledge: certain moral truths are self-evident starting points (archai) from which all practical guidance derives without circularity.

Correspondence Theory enables error-correction: our impressions and judgments can be tested against objective reality, making training possible.

How They Function Together in Practice

In Diagnostic Work:

When a student fears exile (Discourses 1.9):

• Moral Realism: There are objective facts about what's good/bad
• Ethical Intuitionism: The student already knows "only vice harms"
• Correspondence Theory: Their fear-impression fails to match reality
• Foundationalism: Return to basic principle: exile is external, externals are indifferent
• Substance Dualism: Exile affects body, not prohairesis
• Libertarianism: They can freely choose to correct their judgment

In Training Exercises:

The discipline of desire (withhold desire from externals):

• Foundationalism: Built on the internal/external dichotomy
• Substance Dualism: Justifies why only internals matter
• Moral Realism: Virtue in prohairesis is objectively good
• Libertarianism: We can genuinely redirect our desires
• Correspondence Theory: Success means desires match reality (only pursuing genuine goods)
• Ethical Intuitionism: We recognize improvement through rational self-awareness

In Therapeutic Intervention:

When correcting anger (Discourses 1.4):

• Ethical Intuitionism: Student already knows another's prohairesis can't harm them
• Substance Dualism: One prohairesis cannot affect another
• Moral Realism: This is objectively true, not preference
• Foundationalism: Derives from basic principle about what's "up to us"
• Correspondence Theory: Anger based on false impression that harm occurred
• Libertarianism: Student can freely choose different judgment

The Dependencies Are Non-Negotiable

Without Moral Realism:

• Substance dualism becomes arbitrary metaphysics (why privilege prohairesis?)
• Libertarianism loses its point (freedom for what?)
• Intuitionism has nothing to intuit (no objective truths to perceive)
• Foundationalism rests on conventions, not self-evident truths
• Correspondence theory has no moral facts to correspond to

Without Substance Dualism:

• Libertarianism fails (prohairesis subject to physical causation)
• The internal/external dichotomy collapses
• No metaphysical basis for privileging prohairesis
• Moral realism can't explain how we access moral domain

Without Libertarianism:

• No genuine moral responsibility (just causal chains)
• Training becomes behavior modification, not transformation
• "Ought" loses connection to "can"
• Moral realism persists but we can't align with it through real choice

Without Ethical Intuitionism:

• Infinite regress: how do we know foundations are true?
• Can't explain universal moral agreement
• Socratic method fails (can't appeal to what students "already know")
• Moral knowledge becomes impossible

Without Foundationalism:

• Circular reasoning or infinite regress
• No principled basis for training
• Can't identify error systematically
• Moral reasoning loses rational structure

Without Correspondence Theory:

• No basis for correcting impressions
• Can't distinguish true from false judgments
• Training becomes preference adjustment
• Moral realism becomes inaccessible

Sterling's Contribution

Grant Sterling didn't invent these commitments—he identified them as the necessary philosophical infrastructure making Stoic practice coherent. His insight: these aren't optional add-ons but essential load-bearing elements.

The systematic necessity: Each commitment solves a specific problem that would otherwise make Stoic training incoherent or arbitrary. Together they form a complete philosophical system where:

1. Objective moral facts exist (Moral Realism)
2. In a domain separate from physical causation (Substance Dualism)
3. Which we can freely align with (Libertarianism)
4. That we directly perceive (Ethical Intuitionism)
5. Organized from self-evident foundations (Foundationalism)
6. Against which we test our judgments (Correspondence Theory)

Epictetus never argues for these explicitly because he operates from within this framework. Sterling's achievement was excavating the implicit philosophical architecture that makes Epictetus' therapeutic practice possible.

Practical Implications

This synthesis reveals why piecemeal adoption fails. Modern appropriations that extract Stoic techniques while rejecting the commitments:

• Mindfulness-Stoicism (rejects substance dualism) → loses metaphysical grounding for why prohairesis matters
• Therapeutic Stoicism (agnostic on moral realism) → becomes preference adjustment, not truth-seeking
• Compatibilist Stoicism (rejects libertarianism) → "ought" loses connection to genuine "can"
• Pragmatic Stoicism (rejects correspondence theory) → no basis for distinguishing helpful from true

The six commitments aren't philosophical decoration—they're the structural requirements for coherent Stoic practice. Remove any one, and the entire edifice becomes unstable.