The Six Modern Replacements for Sterling's Classical Commitments

 

## The Six Modern Replacements for Sterling's Classical Commitments

Claude:

Sterling's six commitments restore classical philosophy precisely because modern philosophy systematically replaced each one. Here's the mapping:

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## 1. SUBSTANCE DUALISM → Replaced by Materialism/Physicalism

**Classical (Sterling's Commitment)**:

- Mind and body are distinct substances

- Mind is immaterial, not reducible to physical processes

- Consciousness/reason operates in non-physical domain

**Modern Replacement**:

- **Materialism/Physicalism**: Only physical substance exists

- Mind = brain states, neural patterns, computational processes

- Consciousness is emergent property of matter

- No "ghost in the machine" (Ryle's dismissal)

**Key Figures**:

- **Gilbert Ryle** (*The Concept of Mind*, 1949): Dualism is a "category mistake"

- **Daniel Dennett**: Consciousness explained as neural computation

- **Patricia Churchland**: Eliminative materialism—mental states don't exist as traditionally conceived

- **Neuroscience generally**: Assumes mental events = brain events

**Why this matters for Stoicism**:

- Without dualism, prohairesis collapses into neural causation

- No non-physical domain where the pause can occur

- No substance that could be "up to us" vs. physical determinism

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## 2. LIBERTARIAN FREE WILL → Replaced by Determinism/Compatibilism

**Classical (Sterling's Commitment)**:

- Genuine freedom: agent could have done otherwise

- Assent not determined by prior physical/psychological states

- Real authorship, not just feeling of freedom

**Modern Replacement**:

**A. Hard Determinism**:

- **Baruch Spinoza**: Everything necessarily follows from prior causes

- **Pierre-Simon Laplace**: Universe as clockwork—given initial conditions, all future states determined

- **Modern neuroscience**: Libet experiments—brain decides before conscious awareness

**B. Compatibilism** (more common in contemporary philosophy):

- **David Hume**: Freedom = acting according to your desires (even if desires are caused)

- **Daniel Dennett**: "Freedom Evolves"—freedom compatible with determinism

- **Harry Frankfurt**: Freedom = having desires you want to have (second-order desires)

- Free will = "doing what you want" (ignoring whether you could have wanted otherwise)

**Why this matters for Stoicism**:

- Without libertarian freedom, the pause is illusion (just delayed causation)

- Decision becomes predetermined outcome, not genuine choice

- Responsibility becomes legal fiction, not metaphysical fact

- Sterling: "Without this, no agency exists"

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## 3. CORRESPONDENCE THEORY OF TRUTH → Replaced by Coherence/Pragmatism/Deflationism

**Classical (Sterling's Commitment)**:

- Truth = correspondence to reality

- Propositions true when they match what is

- Objective reality exists independent of our representations

**Modern Replacements**:

**A. Coherence Theory**:

- **Idealists (Bradley, Bosanquet)**: Truth = coherence within system of beliefs

- No direct access to reality—only to other beliefs

- Truth as internal consistency, not external matching

**B. Pragmatism**:

- **William James**: Truth = "what works," what has "cash value"

- **John Dewey**: Truth = warranted assertibility, successful inquiry

- **Richard Rorty**: Truth as what your peers let you get away with saying

- Abandons correspondence for usefulness

**C. Deflationism/Minimalism**:

- **Quine, Tarski**: "True" is just a linguistic device

- No substantive property of truth—just disquotation ("Snow is white" is true iff snow is white)

- No metaphysical relation to reality

**Why this matters for Stoicism**:

- Impressions arrive claiming correspondence—"I am harmed" claims real harm occurred

- Without correspondence, examination tests coherence/utility, not match to reality

- Can't distinguish false impression from true one objectively

- Sterling: "The impression either corresponds to them or it does not. There is a fact of the matter."

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## 4. MORAL REALISM → Replaced by Emotivism/Subjectivism/Constructivism

**Classical (Sterling's Commitment)**:

- Objective moral facts exist

- Virtue is really good, vice really evil (not just "seems so to me")

- Moral properties are features of reality

**Modern Replacements**:

**A. Emotivism**:

- **A.J. Ayer**: Moral statements are just emotional expressions ("Boo murder!")

- **Charles Stevenson**: Moral language = expressions of approval/disapproval

- No moral facts, only feelings

**B. Subjectivism/Relativism**:

- **David Hume**: Morality based on sentiment, not reason

- **J.L. Mackie**: "Error theory"—moral realism is false, we're all mistaken

- **Cultural relativism**: Morality varies by culture, no objective standard

**C. Constructivism**:

- **Kant (partially)**: Morality constructed by reason, but not discovered in nature

- **Rawls**: Justice as procedurally constructed, not metaphysically real

- **Christine Korsgaard**: Normativity constructed through practical identity

**Why this matters for Stoicism**:

- Impressions claim objective moral properties: "This IS shameful" (not "seems shameful to me")

- Without moral realism, examination can't test whether externals truly are good/evil

- Can't distinguish false value judgment from true one

- Sterling: "These impressions don't report your feelings about events. They report the moral properties of events."

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## 5. FOUNDATIONALISM → Replaced by Coherentism/Infinitism

**Classical (Sterling's Commitment)**:

- Knowledge has foundations—bedrock beliefs that terminate justification

- Some beliefs are self-evident or directly apprehended

- Axiomatic structure (like Stoic "only virtue is good")

**Modern Replacements**:

**A. Coherentism**:

- **Wilfrid Sellars**: "Myth of the Given"—no foundations, only mutual support of beliefs

- **Laurence BonJour**: Justification through coherence with belief system

- No ultimate stopping point—beliefs justified by other beliefs circularly

- "It's turtles all down"

**B. Infinitism**:

- **Peter Klein**: Infinite regress of justification is fine

- No foundations needed, justification extends indefinitely

**C. Contextualism**:

- **Wittgenstein (later)**: Meaning as use within language games

- **Ludwig Wittgenstein**: Bedrock is just "this is what we do"—not rational foundation but practice

- No privileged starting point

**Why this matters for Stoicism**:

- Stoic axioms ("virtue = only good") function as bedrock, not derived

- Without foundations, examination has no stable standard—only coherence checking

- Can't test impressions against reality, only against other beliefs

- Sterling: "The standards used in examination are not derived from other beliefs. They terminate justification."

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## 6. ETHICAL INTUITIONISM → Replaced by Naturalism/Emotivism

**Classical (Sterling's Commitment)**:

- Direct rational apprehension of moral truths

- Non-inferential recognition (like perceiving color)

- Immediate grasp of "insult = external = indifferent"

**Modern Replacements**:

**A. Ethical Naturalism**:

- **Philippa Foot**: Moral properties reducible to natural properties

- **Frank Jackson**: Moral facts supervene on natural facts

- Morality discovered through empirical investigation, not intuition

- Must be inferred from natural facts

**B. Non-Cognitivism** (overlaps with emotivism):

- **Simon Blackburn**: "Quasi-realism"—moral judgments don't report facts

- **Allan Gibbard**: Moral judgments express plans/norms, not beliefs

- No intuition because nothing to intuit

**C. Reflective Equilibrium**:

- **John Rawls**: Moral knowledge through balancing principles and intuitions

- **Norman Daniels**: Coherentist methodology—no direct intuition

- All moral knowledge inferential and tentative

**Why this matters for Stoicism**:

- Stoic examination uses immediate recognition: "One does not compute that an insult is external; one recognizes it as such"

- Without intuitionism, every judgment requires inference (infinite regress or circularity)

- Can't have non-inferential bedrock apprehension

- Sterling: "Just as perception distinguishes colors without syllogism, rational intuition distinguishes moral kinds without proof"

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## The Modern Package That Replaced Classical Philosophy

Combine all six modern replacements and you get:

**The Standard Modern View**:

1. **Materialism**: Mind = brain

2. **Determinism/Compatibilism**: No libertarian freedom

3. **Pragmatism/Coherence**: Truth = usefulness or consistency

4. **Emotivism/Subjectivism**: Morality = feelings or conventions

5. **Coherentism**: No foundations, only mutual support

6. **Naturalism**: All knowledge inferential from empirical observation

**Result**: No metaphysical basis for Stoic practice possible

- No prohairesis (just neurons)

- No pause (just delayed causation)  

- No objective truth to test (just coherence or utility)

- No objective good/evil (just preferences)

- No bedrock principles (just circular justification)

- No direct moral knowledge (just inference or emotion)

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## The Systematicity of the Replacement

This wasn't random. Each replacement **depends on** and **reinforces** the others:

**Example chain**:

- Materialism → no substance for libertarian freedom to operate in → determinism

- Determinism → no agency → responsibility becomes useful fiction → emotivism/subjectivism

- No objective values → no foundations in ethics → coherentism

- No foundations → no direct rational apprehension → no intuitionism

- No correspondence → truth becomes coherence or pragmatism

**The modern package is systematically anti-classical**, and this is why restoring Stoic practice requires restoring all six classical commitments together.

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## Key Philosophical Movements That Executed the Replacement

1. **Enlightenment Empiricism** (Locke, Hume): Attacked innate ideas, foundations, moral realism

2. **19th Century Materialism** (La Mettrie, d'Holbach): Mind as matter

3. **Logical Positivism** (Vienna Circle, Ayer): Attacked metaphysics, moral realism, correspondence

4. **Pragmatism** (James, Dewey, Rorty): Replaced correspondence with utility

5. **Analytic Philosophy** (Quine, Davidson, Sellars): Attacked foundations, dualism

6. **Neuroscience/Cognitive Science** (20th-21st century): Assumes materialism, determinism

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## Sterling's Achievement

Sterling identified that these six replacements **systematically undermine** the possibility of Stoic practice, and that restoring classical commitments isn't nostalgia—it's **necessary** for the practice to be coherent.

Without the classical package:

- Impressions aren't truth-claims (no correspondence)

- Can't be separated from self (no dualism)

- Can't be suspended (no libertarian freedom)

- Can't be tested objectively (no moral realism or foundations)

- Can't be recognized directly (no intuitionism)

**The five steps collapse into therapeutic psychology** rather than rational engagement with objective moral reality.

Sterling's Core Stoicism is classical philosophy **restored as a systematic whole** against the modern replacements that fragmented it.