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Friday, November 24, 2023

Stobaeus on Stoic Ethics 4


Of virtues some are primary, some subordinate to the primary. 

There are four primary virtues: prudence, temperance, courage, justice. 

And prudence concerns appropriate acts; temperance concerns human impulses; courage  concerns instances of standing firm; justice concerns distributions. 

Of those subordinate to these, some are subordinate to prudence, some to temperance, some to courage, some to justice. 

To prudence are subordinate deliberative excellence, good calculation, quick-wittedness, good sense, a good sense of purpose, resourcefulness. 

To temperance: organization, orderliness, modesty, self-control. 

To courage: endurance, confidence, great-heartedness, stout-heartedness, love of work. 

To justice: piety, good-heartedness, public-spiritedness, fair dealing. 

They say, then, that deliberative excellence is a knowledge of the type and manner of actions which we must perform in order to act advantageously. 

Good calculation is knowledge which draws up a balance and summarizes the value of what happens and is produced. 

Quick-wittedness is knowledge which instantly finds out what the appropriate action is. 

Good sense is knowledge of what is better and worse.

A good sense of purpose is knowledge that achieves its goal in each action. 

Resourcefulness is knowledge that discovers a way out of difficulties. 

Organization is knowledge of when one is to act and what [to do] after what and in general of the ordering of actions. 

Orderliness is knowledge of appropriate and inappropriate motions.

Modesty is knowledge which is cautious about proper criticism.

Self-control is an unsurpassable knowledge of what is revealed by right reason. 

Endurance is knowledge which stands by correct decisions. 

Confidence is knowledge in virtue of which we know that we shall meet with nothing which is terrible. 

Great-heartedness is knowledge which makes one superior to those things which naturally occur among both virtuous and base men. 

Stout-heartedness is knowledge in a soul which makes it the soul invincible. 

Love of work is a knowledge which achieves its goal by labor, not being deterred by hard work. 

Piety is knowledge of service to the gods. 

Good-heartedness is knowledge which does good to others. 

Public-spiritedness is knowledge of fairness in a community. 

Fair dealing is knowledge of how to deal with one’s neighbors blamelessly. 



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