UNIFIED STOIC PROPOSITIONAL SYSTEM
UNIFIED STOIC PROPOSITIONAL SYSTEM
From Nine Excerpts by Grant C. Sterling
Synthesized by Dave Kelly
SECTION I: FOUNDATIONS - METAPHYSICS AND ANTHROPOLOGY
1. The universe is rationally ordered and governed by divine reason (Providence/Logos).
2. All outcomes in the external world are determined by the will of the gods/Providence.
3. Human beings possess a rational faculty (prohairesis/rational part/soul).
4. A person's true identity is constituted by this rational faculty alone.
5. Everything other than the rational faculty is external to the self, including the body.
SECTION II: IMPRESSIONS AND ASSENT
6. Human beings receive impressions from the external world.
7. These impressions are cognitive and propositional (they claim that the world is a certain way).
8. Impressions present themselves to consciousness; their arrival is not in our control.
9. Some impressions are value-neutral; others contain value components (claims about good or evil).
10. The rational faculty has the power to assent to impressions or withhold assent.
11. The act of assenting to (or rejecting) impressions is the only thing in our control.
12. If we refuse to assent to an impression, nothing follows (no emotion, no desire, no action).
13. If we assent to an impression with a value component, a desire results: we desire the "good" thing to happen or the "bad" thing not to happen.
14. If we assent to an impression that something good or bad has already occurred, an emotion results (positive if good, negative if bad).
15. Assenting to impressions about courses of action leads to action.
SECTION III: VALUE THEORY - GOOD, EVIL, AND EXTERNALS
16. Only things directly related to virtue (beliefs, desires, will/choice) are in our control.
17. Only virtue is genuinely good; only vice is genuinely evil.
18. All things not in our control (externals) are neither genuinely good nor genuinely evil.
19. Externals include: life, death, health, sickness, wealth, poverty, reputation, other persons, physical outcomes, bodily states, and all events in the external world.
20. The belief that any external is good or evil is factually false.
21. Some externals are "preferred" (life, health, etc.) and some "dispreferred" (death, disease, etc.), but none are genuinely good or evil.
22. Preferred indifferents are appropriate objects to aim at, though not genuinely good.
SECTION IV: CAUSATION OF EMOTIONS AND DESIRES
23. All emotions are caused by beliefs about what is good or evil.
24. Specifically, emotions result from beliefs that externals have genuine value (are good or evil).
25. All beliefs that externals have value are false (by propositions 18, 20).
26. Therefore, all emotions caused by such beliefs are based on false judgments (are pathological).
27. Emotions include: fear, grief, anger, frustration, disappointment, passionate love, mental pleasure in externals, etc.
28. All desires for externals are caused by beliefs that externals are good or evil.
29. Therefore, all desires for externals are based on false beliefs.
30. The person who holds no false value beliefs will experience no pathological emotions.
31. The person who holds no false value beliefs will have no desires regarding externals.
SECTION V: VIRTUE AND ACTION
32. An action, properly understood, is an act of choice/will, not a physical outcome.
33. To perform an act of will, one must aim at some result.
34. Virtue consists of rational acts of will; vice consists of irrational acts of will.
35. A rational act of will involves:
a) Identifying rational goals to pursue (preferred indifferents)
b) Selecting rational means designed to help realize these goals
c) Making these choices with "reservation" - acknowledging that outcomes are in the hands of Providence
36. Any act that aims at an external object of desire (rather than an appropriate object of aim) is not virtuous.
37. Therefore, virtue consists of pursuing appropriate objects of aim, not pursuing objects of desire.
38. The appropriateness or inappropriateness of a choice is determined at the moment of choice, regardless of outcomes.
SECTION VI: APPROPRIATE POSITIVE FEELINGS
39. Not all positive feelings are pathological; some arise from true value beliefs.
40. Appropriate positive feelings include:
a) Joy in one's own virtue
b) Physical and sensory pleasures (not based on value judgments)
c) "Startlement" and other natural reactions
d) Appreciation of the world as it actually is
41. If one regards any aspect of the world as being exactly as it should be, appropriate positive feelings result.
42. The Stoic can experience continual appreciation of the world as it is, since at every moment one can perceive something as what it is and therefore what it should be.
SECTION VII: EUDAIMONIA (THE GOAL)
43. The goal of life is eudaimonia.
44. Eudaimonia consists of two components:
a) Complete moral perfection (acting virtuously)
b) Complete psychological contentment (positive feelings without negative feelings)
45. All psychological discontentment is caused by the belief that externals have value.
46. All moral imperfection is caused by the belief that externals have value.
47. Therefore, someone with true value beliefs will have psychological contentment (by 45, 20).
48. Therefore, someone with true value beliefs will have moral perfection (by 46, 20).
49. Therefore, someone with true value beliefs will have eudaimonia (by 44, 47, 48).
50. Living a virtuous life is necessary for eudaimonia (by definition, proposition 44a).
51. Living a virtuous life is sufficient for eudaimonia, because:
a) The virtuous person holds only true value beliefs
b) Therefore experiences Joy (appropriate positive feeling)
c) Therefore experiences no pathological negative feelings (by 30)
d) Therefore has complete psychological contentment (by 44b)
SECTION VIII: THE STOIC PATH
52. Judgment (assent to impressions) is in our control (by 10, 11).
53. By controlling our assent, we can eliminate all false value beliefs.
54. By eliminating false value beliefs, we eliminate all pathological emotions and desires for externals (by 24-29).
55. By having only true value beliefs and acting on them, we act virtuously (by 34-37).
56. By having only true value beliefs, we experience continual appropriate positive feelings (by 39-42, 51).
57. Therefore, perfect continual eudaimonia is not only possible but actually in our control.
58. We can guarantee eudaimonia by judging correctly (assenting only to true impressions) and acting on those judgments (by 49, 52-56).
CORE REDUCTION (Most Basic Level)
A. Emotions are caused by false value judgments.
B. Emotions are bad (pathological, prevent eudaimonia).
C. Therefore, if we change those false value judgments, the bad emotions will go away.
D. This is accomplished through disciplining our assent to impressions.
E. Success in this discipline guarantees eudaimonia.
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