DCI Run — “Virtue as Knowledge of the Whole” (Anonymous Survey, Argument 5) — Version 1.0

 

DCI Run — “Virtue as Knowledge of the Whole” (Anonymous Survey, Argument 5) — Version 1.0

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

Instrument: The Dependence Contest Instrument (DCI) v0.1. Instrument architecture: Dave Kelly.

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Key

• K1–K4: the DCI’s own premises (Section I of the instrument).
• Df1–Df4: the DCI’s definitions: dependence in argument, logical dependence, connection, and the three domains.
• P1–P3, C: the argument under test, set out as premises and conclusion.

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Step 0 — Activation

Source. An anonymous survey, “The Main Arguments That Stoic Ethics Depend on Stoic Physics,” supplied by Dave Kelly on 26 October 2026.

The argument, as the survey states it. “Genuine virtue requires understanding the relationship between the individual and the cosmos, so ethics cannot be fully understood independently of physics.” Its steps: “Virtue requires correct judgments about good, evil, and indifferents. Correct judgments require understanding what things are and how they relate to human flourishing. Human flourishing must be understood in relation to the nature of the human being and, on the stronger Stoic account, the cosmos. Therefore, complete ethical understanding requires physical knowledge.”

Corpus opened. The Traditionalist Case and the CPA Record v0.2 (B2, A4, A5); Sterling, “Physics, Logic, and Ethics,” International Stoic Forum, 2 March 2022. The survey’s attribution to Klein is unchecked; the verdict does not rest on it.

Self-audit: the argument is quoted from its source. Passed.

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Step 1 — Reconstruction

• P1. Virtue requires correct judgments about good, evil and indifferents. (ethical)
• P2. Correct judgments require understanding what things are and how they bear on flourishing. (epistemic)
• P3. Flourishing must be understood in relation to the cosmos. (physical, on “the stronger Stoic account”)
• C. Complete ethical understanding requires physical knowledge.

Charity takes the stronger account, the cosmos, as the survey offers it. On the weaker account, human nature only, P3 claims what a human being is, which is the broad physics K4 grants.

Self-audit: these are the survey’s own steps. Passed.

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Step 2 — Target

Correct value judgments: Th10, that only virtue is good and everything else is indifferent. Domain: virtue (Df4).

Self-audit: this is the claim the argument needs. Passed.

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Step 3 — Step Test

P3 is a step to C. Dependence in argument (Df1).

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Step 4 — Removal Test

Remove P3. Is there a corpus route to correct value judgments without knowledge of the cosmos?

• Route 1, the chain (K1). To judge a thing correctly, one needs to know whether it lies within control: “Only assent lies wholly within our control.” That is a classification by control, not by cosmology.
• Route 2, Sterling’s own word (K2; The Traditionalist Case v0.2, B2). Denying Th 20 or Th 21 “would not obviously damage the views on virtue or on avoiding unhappiness.”
• Route 3, indifferents. The Traditionalist Case v0.2, A4: what is fitting to aim at “falls under C3 (ruled 3 October 2026).” It is apprehended, not derived from the cosmos.

A route exists. Verdict: Dependence in argument only.

Self-audit: each route is cited from an opened document. Passed.

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Step 5 — Domain Check

“Complete ethical understanding” reaches past virtue. Appreciation of the world as it should be belongs to positive happiness, and B2 says denying Th 20 or Th 21 “would undermine much of the Stoic view of positive happiness.” For that part: Granted, positive happiness only.

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Step 6 — Report

Verdict: virtue — Dependence in argument only. “Complete” understanding, in its positive-happiness part — Granted, positive happiness only. On the weaker, human-nature reading — Broad physics only, granted (K4).

Route: classification by control (K1); Sterling’s statement at B2; fitting aims under C3 (A4).

What this run does not claim: Klein’s position; what the early Stoics required of the sage’s knowledge.

Ratified by the operator, 26 October 2026.

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Version Note

Version 1.0.

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