The Six Commitments and Their Classical Analogues

Below is a clean, non-rhetorical mapping of your six commitments to their classical philosophical analogues, historically and conceptually — not modern reconstructions, not theological versions, and not post-Kantian reinterpretations.

This is the philosophical lineage of each commitment.

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1. Substance Dualism

Your commitment:

The agent (prohairesis / mind) is ontologically distinct from the body and not reducible to it.

Classical analogues:

• Plato — Phaedo, Republic: the soul is not identical with the body; the body is an impediment to the soul’s proper function.
• Aristotle — De Anima (non-reductive hylomorphism): intellect (nous) is separable, impassible, and not bodily.
• Epictetus — Discourses 1.1: “You are not flesh and hair, but prohairesis.”
• Plotinus — Enneads: the soul belongs to a higher order than the body.
• Augustine — the mind is not extended in space and is not identical with matter.

Shared core:
Mind is not identical with body; rational agency is not a physical process.

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2. Metaphysical Libertarianism

Your commitment:

The agent can genuinely choose otherwise; assent is not causally necessitated.

Classical analogues:

• Aristotle — voluntary action (to hekousion) requires alternative possibilities.
• Epictetus — prohairesis is unconstrained by externals; responsibility presupposes freedom.
• Cicero — De Fato: rejects strict determinism for moral responsibility.
• Alexander of Aphrodisias — defends indeterminism against Stoic fate.
• Origen — moral responsibility requires freedom not determined by prior causes.

Shared core:
Moral responsibility requires genuine alternative possibilities.

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3. Ethical Intuitionism

Your commitment:

Moral truths are directly recognizable by rational insight, not derived by inference.

Classical analogues:

• Plato — knowledge of the Good is direct intellectual apprehension.
• Aristotle — phronesis directly sees the morally salient features of a situation.
• Stoics — katalēptic impressions grasp value directly.
• Cicero — natural law is known by reason immediately.
• Aquinas — synderesis apprehends first moral principles directly.

Shared core:
Reason directly apprehends moral truth; it is not constructed or inferred.

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4. Moral Realism

Your commitment:

Good and evil are objective features of reality, not projections or preferences.

Classical analogues:

• Plato — Forms, especially the Form of the Good, are objective realities.
• Aristotle — human good is grounded in objective function (ergon).
• Stoics — virtue is objectively good, vice objectively bad.
• Cicero — justice is not conventional but natural.
• Augustine — good is participation in being; evil is privation.

Shared core:
Moral value is not subjective or conventional; it is mind-independent.

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5. Foundationalism

Your commitment:

Moral knowledge rests on bedrock principles that are not derived from other beliefs.

Classical analogues:

• Aristotle — first principles (archai) are not demonstrated but known.
• Stoics — axioms of value (virtue is good) are not proven but presupposed.
• Aquinas — “do good and avoid evil” is self-evident.
• Plato — the Good is the ultimate explanatory terminus.

Shared core:
Justification terminates; not everything is proven.

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6. Correspondence Theory of Truth

Your commitment:

A judgment is true if and only if it matches reality.

Classical analogues:

• Aristotle — “to say of what is that it is” is truth.
• Plato — knowledge is of what is, opinion is of what appears.
• Stoics — true impressions correspond to what is the case.
• Aquinas — adaequatio intellectus et rei.

Shared core:
Truth is conformity of thought to being.

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Summary Table

Your Commitment	Classical Analogue	Core Thesis
Substance Dualism	Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, Augustine	Mind ≠ body
Libertarian Freedom	Aristotle, Epictetus, Cicero	Agency requires alternatives
Ethical Intuitionism	Plato, Aristotle, Stoics, Aquinas	Reason directly sees value
Moral Realism	Plato, Aristotle, Stoics, Cicero	Value is objective
Foundationalism	Aristotle, Stoics, Aquinas	Justification terminates
Correspondence Truth	Aristotle, Stoics, Aquinas	Truth = conformity to being

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Final Point

Your six commitments are not idiosyncratic, modern, or hybrid.

They are the classical moral-metaphysical spine of Western philosophy before the modern turn.

That is why they feel familiar, stable, strict, and heavy.

They are not fashionable.

They are structural.