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Table of Contents Table of Contents Preface................................................................................................................................ VII Table of Contents............................................................................................................... XI Abbreviations and Primary Sources Table...................................................................... XVII Part I: Mapping the Apostle Paul’s Moral Milieu 1 Chapter 1: An Introduction to Greco-Roman Philosophy of Mind............ 3 1. What Is Ancient Philosophy of Mind?.............................................................................. 3 2. Which Moral Transformation Systems and Why............................................................. 5 3. Power, Human Agency, and Divine Correspondence....................................................... 12 Chapter 2: Contingency, Coherence, and Philosophical Systems.............. 17 1. Methods and Models......................................................................................................... 17 1.1. A Proviso on the Use of the Term System.............................................................. 17 1.2. Toward an Abstracted Model of Moral Transformation........................................ 23 2. Components to Moral Transformation............................................................................ 31 2.1. Why Begin with the Passions: Defining Their Structure and Power.................... 31 2.2. Philosophical Reactions to Popular Views on the Passions .................................. 33 2.3. Self-Mastery, Moral Action, Virtue, and Other Components............................... 37 Fig. 1: Self-Mastery, Temperance, and Character Formation................................. 40 Summary Remarks for Part I......................................................................... 45 Part II: Moral Transformation in Middle Platonism 47 Chapter 3: The Body-Beating Platonist: The Non-Cognitive Structure of the Passions and the Platonic Counter-Cycle of Virtue Against Vice..... 49 1. Introducing Middle Platonism...................................................................................... 49 1.1. The Founder and His Followers: Plato, Plutarch, Alcinous, and Galen................ 50 1.2. Unifying Doctrines and Common Commitments.................................................... 51 XII Table of Contents 2. Self-Mastery as Moderation of the Passions................................................................... 56 2.1. The Platonic Non-Cognitive Theory of Emotions................................................. 57 2.2. The Platonic View of Self-Mastery......................................................................... 66 3. Vice, Virtue, and Character Formation........................................................................... 73 3.1. The Cycle of Error and Vice .................................................................................... 75 3.2. The Counter-Cycle of Virtuous Action, Habit, and Character Formation............ 78 Fig. 2: The Middle Platonic Program of Behavior Modification........................... 85 3.3. Debilitating Desire and Exercising Reason’s Power ............................................. 88 Fig. 3: Plato’s Anthropology..................................................................................... 98 Fig. 4: Middle Platonic Anthropology...................................................................... 99 Chapter 4: “Becoming like God” and Nurturing Moral Progress in Middle Platonism....................................................................................... 103 1. The Goal to “Become like God”..................................................................................... 103 1.1. Plato’s Tension between the Virtuous Life and a Life of Contemplation........... 103 1.2. Assimilation through Contemplation.................................................................... 105 1.3. Assimilation through the Moral Life.................................................................... 112 2. Diverse Ways of Imitating the Divine: How the Middle Platonists Resolved Plato’s Tension............................................................................................................... 119 2.1. Moral Likeness to a Lesser, Demiurgic God according to Alcinous .................. 123 Excursus'. Plato’s Theology ..................................................................................... 129 Table 1: Plato’s Metaphysical Framework.............................................................. 130 Table 2: Plato’s Religious / Mythic Framework.................................................... 131 Table 3: Alcinous’ Theology................................................................................... 134 2.2. Moral Likeness to the Thoughts of the First God according to Alcinous........... 136 2.3. Moral Likeness to the Divine Attributes of God according to Plutarch.............. 139 Table 4: Plutarch’s Theology ... 147 2.4. A Non-Platonist Account of Assimilation to God according to Galen............... 148 3. Nature versus Nurture: Mentors, Friends, and the Hard-Wired Limitations to Moral Progress............................................................................................................... 155 3.1. “To Know Thyself’ Requires the Help of Others................................................. 156 3.2. Moral Mentors and Frank Friends.......................................................................... 158 3.3. Nature’s Limits on Moral Progress ....................................................................... 162 Summary Remarks for Part II...................................................................... 171 Table of Contents XIII Part III: Moral Transformation in Stoicism 173 Chapter 5: The Superhuman Stoic: The Cognitive Structure of the Passions and the Perfection of Moral Judgment............................... 175 1. Introducing the Roman Stoa of the Early Imperial Period.......................................... 175 1.1. The Founders and Their Followers: The Old Stoa, Seneca, Musonius Rufus, Epictetus, and Other Greco-Roman Stoics............................................................. 177 1.2. Neostoic Orthodoxy and Innovations.................................................................... 179 2. The Stoic Cognitive Theory of Emotions........................................................................ 183 2.1. The Taxonomy of Emotions.................................................................................. 184 2.2. The Mind Experiences an Appearance (Stage 1)................................................. 188 2.3. The Mind Judges the Impression (Stage 2)........................................................... 190 2.4. The Judgment Produces an Impulse (Stage 3)..................................................... 193 2.5. The Impulse Moves the Human Agent toward Action (Stage 4)........................ 195 2.6. A Stoic Example from Euripides on the Cognitive Origin of Emotion............... 202 3. The Stoic View of Self-Mastery....................................................................................... 207 3.1. Aiming for Stoic ’AirctOeia ..................................................................................... 207 3.2. Extirpating the Passions ......................................................................................... 213 3.3. Self-Mastery and Temperance as the Consistent Exercise of Knowledge .......... 219 Chapter 6: The Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent: Stoic Moral Psychology of Action and Character Formation............................... 221 1. The Cognitive Formation of Virtue versus Vice............................................................ 221 1.1. Virtues as Types of Knowledge and Virtue as a Stable State.............................. 222 1.2. Vices as Types of Ignorance and Viciousness as an Unstable State................... 226 2. The Instantaneous and Comprehensive Character of Stoic Perfection....................... 228 2.1. The Taxonomies and Unity of the Virtues............................................................ 228 2.2. Transformation as Radical Change not Gradual Progress................................... 236 2.3. Stoic Perfection: Available to All, Attainable by Few......................................... 242 3. Moral Valuation, Action, and Choice............................................................................ 245 3.1. Defining the Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent.................................................. 247 3.2. Distinguishing Preferred versus Dispreferred Indifferents.................................. 253 Fig. 5: Goods, Evils, and Indifferents (Preferred, Dispreferred, or Neither) ....... 258 3.3. Types of Moral Acts: Right, Erroneous, Appropriate, and Unsuitable............... 259 Fig. 6: Appropriate vs. Inappropriate Acts: Right, Intermediate, and Erroneous .......................................................................................................... 261 3.4. A Very Short Epitome of Stoic Ethics................................................................... 270 XIV Table of Contents Chapter 7: Neostoic Innovations to Chrysippan Moral Psychology........ 271 1. The Prominence of Power Language in Neostoic Accounts......................................... 271 1.1. The Exaggerated Power of Appearances, Assent, and Impulses......................... 272 1.2. The Excessive Power of the
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