UNIVERSAL TEMPLATE FOR LOGICAL REFORMULATION OF STOIC TEXTS
Purpose
To reformulate any Stoic text into the formal logical style of Grant C. Sterling's "Core Stoicism" (Excerpt 9) — using theorem numbering, subordinate propositions, and Ergo conclusions forming a continuous deductive chain.
1. Source Text
The user must always provide the exact source text to be reformulated. The model must work only from the supplied passage, never from memory, paraphrase, or assumed knowledge of the text.
2. Governing Principles
- Use only the logical syntax and grammar found in Core Stoicism (Excerpt 9).
- Express reasoning through numbered Theorems (Th), supporting sub-propositions, and explicit Ergo deductions.
- Preserve the Stoic causal chain: belief → value judgment → desire → emotion → action → character → eudaimonia.
- Each conclusion must follow demonstrably from prior premises.
- Keep vocabulary strictly Stoic: virtue, vice, externals, belief, desire, impression, assent, prohairesis, eudaimonia, indifferents, preferred indifferents, dispreferred indifferents, apatheia, katalepsis, phantasia, hegemonikon.
3. Structural Format
```
## [Optional Section Title]
Th 1) [Primary proposition]
1*) [Supporting statement]
2*) [Further premise]
3*) Ergo, [Logical conclusion]
Th 2) [Next theorem]
1*) …
2*) Ergo, …
```
Note on Ergo placement: The Ergo may appear either as a numbered sub-proposition (e.g., '3*) Ergo...') or as an unnumbered conclusion following the sub-propositions, depending on logical flow. Maintain consistency within each theorem.
4. Logical and Linguistic Standards
Universalization
Convert particulars ("my body") → universals ("the body").
Value Logic
- If X is not in our control → X has no moral value.
- False belief about X → emotion (pathos).
- True belief → freedom → happiness (eudaimonia).
Logical Closure
Each theorem or sub-proposition sequence must conclude with an explicit 'Ergo' statement that deductively follows from the preceding premises. Every Ergo must be logically warranted—not merely a restatement, but a necessary inference that could not be otherwise given the premises.
5. Output Requirements
- Produce a single continuous text in the theorem-and-ergo style, with consistent numbering and syntax, concluding in a summary deduction uniting virtue, freedom, and happiness.
- Do not add explanatory commentary, introductory remarks, or interpretive notes. Produce only the logical reformulation itself.
- Add nothing beyond the logical reformulation.
6. Invocation Example
Using the Universal Logical Reformulation Template, convert the following passage from Epictetus' Enchiridion 2 into the formal logical style of Grant C. Sterling's Core Stoicism (Excerpt 9). Number theorems sequentially, include supporting propositions and Ergo conclusions, and use only Stoic logical language. Here is the verified text:
"Remember that the promise of desire is the attainment of what you desire, that of aversion is not to fall into what is avoided, and that he who fails in his desire is unfortunate, while he who falls into what he would avoid experiences misfortune. If, then, you avoid only what is unnatural among those things which are under your control, you will fall into none of the things which you avoid; but if you try to avoid disease, or death, or poverty, you will experience misfortune. Withdraw, therefore, your aversion from all the matters that are not under our control, and transfer it to what is unnatural among those which are under our control. But for the time being remove utterly your desire; for if you desire some one of the things that are not under our control you are bound to be unfortunate; and, at the same time, not one of the things that are under our control, which it would be excellent for you to desire, is within your grasp. But employ only choice and refusal, and these too but lightly, and with reservations, and without straining" (W. A. Oldfather).
7. Embedded Example – Reference Model
to Epictetus' Enchiridion 2:
Logical Reformulation of Epictetus' Enchiridion 2
of aversion is to avoid what is judged evil.
1*) Whoever fails in his desire is unfortunate, and whoever falls into what he
would avoid experiences misfortune.
2*) Ergo, success in life depends on the truth of one's value judgments about
good and evil.
T1h 2) Desire and aversion arise from beliefs concerning what is good and what is evil.
1*) If the belief is false, the resulting desire or aversion is irrational and produces emotion.
2*) Ergo, true belief about value is the sole condition of right desire and right aversion.
Th 3) Only inner events — beliefs, desires, and acts of will — are in our control; all externals are not.
1*) Therefore, only in regard to what is in our control can desire and aversion be rational.
2*) To apply desire or aversion to externals is to hold a false value belief.
Th 4) If you avoid only what is unnatural among the things in your control, you will never fall into what you avoid.
1*) What is unnatural within the will is false judgment or vice.
2*) Ergo, aversion should be directed solely toward false judgment and moral error.
Th 5) But if you try to avoid disease, death, or poverty — things not in your control — you will experience misfortune.
1*) All misfortune follows from valuing externals as evils.
2*) Ergo, to transfer aversion from externals to internal error removes misfortune at its root.
Th 6) Withdraw aversion from all things not in your control and transfer it to what is unnatural within those that are.
1*) "Unnatural" means contrary to reason, that is, contrary to virtue.
2*) Ergo, correct aversion is moral vigilance, not fear of circumstance.
Th 7) For the time being, remove utterly your desire.
1*) If you desire anything not in your control, you are bound to be unfortunate.
2*) None of the things now within your control that it would be excellent to desire — virtue, correct judgment, rational will — are yet perfected in you.
3*) Ergo, suspend desire until true value judgment has been established.
Th 8) Employ only choice and refusal, and these too but lightly and with reservation.
1*) Choice and refusal belong to the faculty of assent, not to passion.
2*) To act "lightly and with reservation" is to choose conditionally — "if this accords with right reason."
3*) Ergo, moderation of impulse preserves freedom even amid uncertainty.
Th 9) Since all desire and aversion depend upon belief about good and evil, and only internal acts are truly in our control, the rational agent must:
1*) Withdraw desire from externals.
2*) Direct aversion only toward false judgment and vice.
3*) Exercise choice and refusal with calm reservation.
4*) Ergo, by these acts he eliminates misfortune and secures freedom from disturbance.
Th 10) All misfortune arises from desiring or avoiding what lies beyond our control; all freedom and happiness arise from confining desire and aversion to what lies within it.
1*) Ergo, he who suspends desire for externals and limits aversion to vice alone lives in accordance with reason, suffers no misfortune, and attains eudaimonia.
---
8. Prohibition Against Interpolation
The model must never:
- Add opinions about what the text "really means"
- Introduce concepts not present in the source text
- Explain why Epictetus or other Stoics believed something
- Compare the passage to other philosophical schools
- Offer historical context or biographical information
- Include phrases like "Here Epictetus argues..." or "This shows that..."
The output must contain only the logical reformulation in Sterling's style.
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