Core Stoicism Spelled Out — Series Index v1.0

 

Core Stoicism Spelled Out — Series Index v1.0

Theoretical foundations: Grant C. Sterling (Eastern Illinois University). Analysis and synthesis: Dave Kelly. Prose rendering: Claude (Anthropic). 2026.

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I. The Series Mandate

In Core Stoicism (ISF, September 19, 2005), Sterling presented his skeleton of Stoicism and stated the task directly:

Here is my own version--or, at any rate, the skeleton of my version. Obviously all the points below would need to be spelled out. I offer as the only virtue of my version the fact that I have tried to show how the ideas of Stoicism are connected--how they flow.

Sterling never systematically fulfilled that spelling-out. This series takes up the task: one document per numbered line of Core Stoicism, twenty-nine documents in all, published in Sterling’s section order. The connective virtue Sterling claimed for the skeleton — how the ideas flow — is the organizing principle of the series: every document states what the line rests on and what rests on it.

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II. The Uniform Document Template

Each document in the series carries five fixed parts:

• The line verbatim — Sterling’s text, blockquoted, unaltered.
• Sterling’s dated elaboration — where the ISF archive supplies Sterling’s own spelling-out of the line, his dated primary text leads. Where the archive is silent, the section states: no dated elaboration located. The gaps are findings, not omissions to be papered over.
• Dependency position — the line’s classification under the Atomic Foundation (basic and load-bearing, basic but peripheral, or derived), what it derives from, and what derives from it.
• Commitment grounding — which of the six commitments (C1–C6) the line rests on, per the ratified integration.
• Synthesis — Dave Kelly’s analytical spelling-out, clearly separated from Sterling’s primary text.

Depth is proportional to load: the seven load-bearing theorems receive full treatment; derived lines may need little more than their derivation made explicit — which is itself the flow Sterling prized. Argument-strength gaps Sterling left open (most notably Th7, maximally load-bearing yet defended only by illustration) are flagged as corpus findings, never silently filled.

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III. Section One: Preliminaries

• Th1 — Everyone wants happiness. Basic, peripheral.
• Th2 — Accepting incomplete happiness when complete happiness is available is irrational. Basic, load-bearing. This document also covers 2* (complete happiness is possible), Sterling’s placeholder discharged at line 14.

IV. Section Two: Negative Happiness

• Th3 — All unhappiness is caused by desiring an outcome that fails to result. Basic, load-bearing.
• 4 — Desiring the uncontrolled risks unhappiness. Derived from Th3.
• 5 — Desiring the uncontrolled is irrational. Derived; by 4, 2*, and Th2.
• Th6 — Only our beliefs and will, and what they entail, are in our control. Basic, load-bearing.
• Th7 — Desires are caused by beliefs about good and evil. Basic, load-bearing; Sterling’s stated collapse-test theorem.
• 8 — Desires are in our control. Derived from Th6 + Th7.
• 9 — Desiring things out of our control is irrational. Derived; by 5 and 8.
• Th10 — The only thing actually good is virtue, the only thing actually evil is vice. Basic, load-bearing; the value axiom.
• 11 — Virtue and vice are in our control. Derived from Th10 + Th6.
• 12 — Externals are never good or evil. Derived from Th10 + 11.
• 13 — Desiring externals involves false judgment. Derived; cf. 9.
• 14 — Valuing only virtue yields true judgment and immunity to unhappiness. Derived; terminus of the negative-happiness proof; discharges 2*.

V. Section Three: Positive Happiness or Appropriate Positive Feelings

• 15 — True judgment that virtue is good produces desire for it. Derived from 14.
• Th16 — Achieving a desire produces a positive feeling. Basic, peripheral.
• 17 — Correct judgment and will produce appropriate positive feelings. Derived from 15 + Th16.
• Th18 — Some positive feelings do not result from desires. Basic, peripheral.
• 19 — Such feelings are not irrational unless their continuation is desired. Derived from Th18.
• Th20 — The universe is, or is governed by, Nature, Providence, God or the gods. Basic, peripheral; marked droppable by Sterling directly.
• Th21 — What is Providential is exactly as it should be. Basic, peripheral; paired with Th20 by Sterling.
• Th22 — Regarding the world as it should be produces positive feeling. Basic, peripheral; conditional on Th20/21.
• 23 — The Stoic is positively happy in three ways. Derived from 17 + 19 + Th22.

VI. Section Four: Virtue

• Th24 — An act of will must have content: the result aimed at. Basic, peripheral; definitional scaffolding.
• Th25 — Some things are appropriate objects of aim without being genuinely good. Basic, load-bearing; the preferred-indifferents axiom.
• Th26 — Examples of appropriate objects: life, health, pleasure, knowledge, justice, truth-telling. Illustrative, not axiomatic; an instantiation of Th25.
• Th27 — Virtue consists of rational acts of will, vice of irrational acts of will. Basic, load-bearing; the definition of virtue. Document to flag the Th7-style asymmetry where applicable.
• 28 — Aiming at external desire-objects is not virtuous. Derived from Th27 + 13.
• 29 — Virtue is the pursuit of appropriate aims; it yields positive feeling and never unhappiness. Derived from 28 + 17 + Th25; terminus of the system.

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VII. Registration Status

No theorem documents yet exist. Inter-document links will be added to this index as each document is ratified and published. This index registers to the System Map as the series spine.

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Theoretical foundations: Grant C. Sterling (Eastern Illinois University). Analysis and synthesis: Dave Kelly. Prose rendering: Claude (Anthropic). 2026.