A New Stoicism

by Becker, Lawrence C.

• ISBN13: 9780691009643
• ISBN10: 0691009643
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-07-01
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

What would stoic ethics be like today if stoicism had survived as a systematic approach to ethical theory, if it had coped successfully with the challenges of modern philosophy and experimental science?A New Stoicismproposes an answer to that question, offered from within the stoic tradition but without the metaphysical and psychological assumptions that modern philosophy and science have abandoned. Lawrence Becker argues that a secular version of the stoic ethical project, based on contemporary cosmology and developmental psychology, provides the basis for a sophisticated form of ethical naturalism, in which virtually all the hard doctrines of the ancient Stoics can be clearly restated and defended. Becker argues, in keeping with the ancients, that virtue is one thing, not many; that it, and not happiness, is the proper end of all activity; that it alone is good, all other things being merely rank-ordered relative to each other for the sake of the good; and that virtue is sufficient for happiness. Moreover, he rejects the popular caricature of the stoic as a grave figure, emotionally detached and capable mainly of endurance, resignation, and coping with pain. To the contrary, he holds that while stoic sages are able to endure the extremes of human suffering, they do not have to sacrifice joy to have that ability, and he seeks to turn our attention from the familiar, therapeutic part of stoic moral training to a reconsideration of its theoretical foundations.

Author Biography

Lawrence C. Becker is William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at the College of William and Mary.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
The Way Things Stand	p. 1
The Conceit	p. 3
A New Agenda for Stoic Ethics	p. 5
The Ruins of Doctrine	p. 8
Science, Logic, and Ethics	p. 8
Norms and Moral Training	p. 14
Virtue and Happiness	p. 20
Commentary	p. 22
Acknowledgments	p. 30
The Way Things Might Go	p. 33
Normative Logic	p. 35
Norms and Normative Propositions	p. 36
Normative Constructs	p. 39
Axioms of Stoic Normative Logic	p. 42
Following the Facts	p. 43
Impossibilities	p. 44
A Posteriori Normative Propositions	p. 46
Motivated Norms	p. 52
Heteronomous Endeavors, Autonomous Agency, and Freedom	p. 59
Commentary	p. 69
Acknowledgments	p. 80
Virtue	p. 81
The Development of Virtue as the Perfection of Agency	p. 81
The Structure of Agency	p. 82
Agency Constructed and Perfected	p. 103
Virtue As Ideal Agency	p. 112
The Argument for Virtue as the Perfection of Agency	p. 114
Exalted Virtue	p. 119
Commentary	p. 123
Acknowledgments	p. 137
Happiness	p. 138
A Complete Life	p. 138
A Controlled Life	p. 142
Life on the Rack	p. 146
Joy	p. 148
Commentary	p. 150
Acknowledgments	p. 158
A Calculus for Normative Logic	p. 159
Notation and Interpretation	p. 159
Basic Definitions, Rules, and Axioms	p. 163
Normative Constructs	p. 167
Axioms of Stoic Normative Logic	p. 181
Immediate Inferences	p. 182
Commentary	p. 185
Acknowledgments	p. 191
Bibliography	p. 193
Index	p. 201
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