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Wednesday, July 3, 2024

Stobaeus on Stoic Ethics 9


The Stoics say that there are several virtues and that they are inseparable from each other. 

And that in substance they are identical with the leading part of the soul; accordingly, they say that every virtue is and is called a "body"; for the intellect and the soul are bodies. For they believe that the inborn pneuma (breath) in us, which is warm, is soul. 

And they also want to claim that the soul in us is an animal, since it lives and has sense-perception, and especially so the leading part of it, which is called "intellect". 

That is why every virtue too is an animal, since in substance it is the same as the intellect; accordingly, they say also that prudence acts prudently. For it is consistent for them to speak thus. 

IMAGE: Pieter Boel, Fighting Animals as an Allegory of the Combat between Virtue and Vice (c. 1660) 



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