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The Stoics and the Practical: a Roman Reply to Aristotle DePaul University Via Sapientiae College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences 8-2013 The Stoics and the practical: a Roman reply to Aristotle Robin Weiss DePaul University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd Recommended Citation Weiss, Robin, "The Stoics and the practical: a Roman reply to Aristotle" (2013). College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 143. https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd/143 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE STOICS AND THE PRACTICAL: A ROMAN REPLY TO ARISTOTLE A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August, 2013 BY Robin Weiss Department of Philosophy College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences DePaul University Chicago, IL - TABLE OF CONTENTS - Introduction……………………..............................................................................................................p.i Chapter One: Practical Knowledge and its Others Technê and Natural Philosophy…………………………….....……..……………………………….....p. 1 Virtue and technical expertise conflated – subsequently distinguished in Plato – ethical knowledge contrasted with that of nature in the Phaedo – the divesting of ethical knowledge of its relation to nature in Aristotle – connection to nature as established via contemplation – subsequent attempts by Aristotle to reunite ethics and nature. Chapter Two: The Divided Self The Aristotelian and Stoic Search for Inner Harmony………………………………………………p. 21 Usual methodological approach rejected – nature as guide to the good in Aristotle – potential disharmony between logos and orexis found in orexis itself – references to pre-rational impulses in Seneca, not as a sign of dualism but unity between the two – reason explained as the assent to pre-rational impulses – Stoic assent and Aristotelian deliberation compared – common supposition that reason independently establishes what impulse enacts rejected – the possibility of akrasia in Stoicism considered – akrasia in Tusculan Disputations and De Ira as the result of overreaching logos – causes of disharmony between reason and desire found in reason – original harmony between the two posited – the role of anticipation in passions – the role of externals in driving us from our path – the threefold effect of passions in Stoicism and Aristotle – the choice between ethical and practical as sign of an oncoming passion. Chapter Three: The Search for an Ars Vitae Neither Too Technical nor Too Theoretical………………………………….…………………...…p. 73 Stoic practical knowledge as resembling theôria – Stoic practical knowledge contrasted with Epicurean practical knowledge as technê in De Finibus – Stoic theory of knowledge in De Academica – divination as model for technical knowledge in De Divinatione – Stoic technê defined as the travelling of a path – the lack of a transition from technical to non-technical knowledge in Seneca and De Finibus – assent to virtue explained – Stoic practical knowledge nevertheless demonstrated to remain technical in kind – practical knowledge as knowledge neither of archai nor telos but what lies between them – comparison of ethical life to the performing arts – the aesthetic harmony of self with itself in De Finibus – evidence of Foucauldian aesthetic self-formation found in De Officiis. Chapter Four: The Meaning of Ascetic Practice and Spiritual Exercise in Stoicism……………………………………………….............................. p. 129 The current neglect of the role of praxis in attaining truth – the supposed refutation of Platonic dualism in Stoicism – Platonic assumptions underlying current interpretations – the question of whether asceticism necessarily entails Platonic dualism, as considered by Cicero in Tusculan Disputations – the cura animi and the removal of false beliefs – shared assumptions in Cicero and Seneca about the treatment truth provides – preliminary analysis of praecepta and decreta in Seneca – the negative role of truth in removing passions which disrupt the harmony of the soul examined – Hadot and Foucault on self-renunciation and self- formation – the hermeneutic relationship between the subject and truth – praecepta as sufficient without theoretical support – philosophical and rhetorical discourse compared. Chapter Five: Technê and Phronêsis at Rome……………………………………………………....... p. 169 Nature in Aristotle – that the technician does not impose ends on things they do not already have – that in Stoicism, things ask to be used in particular ways – the diminished role of the forms in Stoicism – the subsequent need to distinguish phronêsis from technê examined – the five-fold manner in which the distinction is dissolved – its preservation in the form of a distinction between artistic and non-artistic activity – the gap in Aristotle’s account of moral development and the absence thereof in Stoicism – the Platonic role of the forms in Aristotelian practical intelligence retains – subsequent conclusion that practical knowledge is more technical in Aristotle than in Stoicism – the Stoic art of life as requiring freedom from a regula. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………..………………....p. 209 APPENDICES Appendix One: Historical Evidence for the Relationship Between Aristotle, Cicero, and the Stoics..………………………………………………..………………………………………..p.213 Appendix Two: Antiochus……………………………………………………………………………………....p.218 Appendix Three: The Process of Moral Development………………………………………………………...…p.222 Appendix Four: The Specter of Dualism……………………………………………………………………..…p.22 WORKS FREQUENTLY CITED ARISTOTLE De An. De Anima Met. Metaphysics Nic. Eth. Nicomachean Ethics Pol. Politics Rhet. Rhetoric CICERO Ac. Academica De Am. De Amicitia De Fat. De Fato De Inv. De Inventione De Off. De Officiis De Orat. De Oratore Div. De Divinatione Fin. Finibus Bonorum et Malorum Leg. De Legibus Nat. De Natura Deorum Parad. Paradoxa Stoicorum Rep. De Re Publica Tusc. Tusculanae Disputationes DIOGENES LAERTIUS DL Lives of Eminent Philosophers EPICTETUS Dis. Discourses Ench. Enchiridion FRAGMENTS LS The Hellenistic Philosophers SVF Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta DK Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker GALEN PHP De Placitis Hippocratis et Platonis PLUTARCH Comm. Not. De Communibus Notitiis Stoic. Rep. De Stoicorum Repugnantiis Virt. Mor. De Virtute Morali SENECA Ben. De Beneficiis Brev. Vit. De Brevitate Vitae Const. De Constantia De Ir. De Ira Ep. Epistulae Prov. De Providentia Tranq. De Tranquilitate Animi Vit. Beat. De Vita Beata SEXTUS EMPIRICUS Adv. Math. Adversus Mathematicos STOBAEUS Ecl. Ecloges Except where noted otherwise, translations are drawn with only slight emendation from the Loeb editions, with the exception of Aristotle. These translations are drawn, except where otherwise noted, from the Princeton version of the collected works. Where translations have been rendered by Long and Sedley, I have tried to use them, but in almost every case, with slight modification. Neither the separation between politics and contemplation, between living together and living in solitude as two distinct modes of life, nor their hierarchical structure, was ever doubted after Plato had established both. Here again the only exception is Cicero, who, out of his tremendous Roman political experience, doubted the validity of the superiority of the bios theôrêtikos over the bios politikos, the validity of solitude over the communitas. - Hannah Arendt, The Promise of Politics (New York: Schoken, 2002), 86 – INTRODUCTION – “In the pursuit of truth, which is both natural and virtuous, two vices are to be avoided; first, we must not treat the unknown as known and too readily accept it…The other vice is that some people devote too much effort and work to matters that are obscure and difficult, and not needful.” - Cicero, De Off. I.vi.19 ot so long ago, nobody assumed that the truths at which different philosophers arrived, or claimed to arrive, by differing means could be directly applied in everyday life. At N Rome, there was special cause for doubt that philosophy had any place in the public sphere. If philosophical theories could not be directly applied in practice, if Plato’s republic could not simply be recreated on earth, then what part could philosophy play in political life? Hence the significance of Cicero’s attempt to promote the search for truth. According to Cicero, it would bring the seeker a particular kind of knowledge, one with palpable and immediate repercussions for everyday life. We shall then claim to find in his works a kind of knowledge having, to the present day, implications for ethical and political life. After a period of waning interest in post-Aristotelian philosophy, which has deprived us, in the meantime, of our fluency in the terms of a debate held after Aristotle’s death, we have steadily begun to preoccupy ourselves again with what the Ancients had to say about an important question. The debated question was, ‘How does the fact of our already being immersed in practical life place constraints on what we may know?’ The limits of human knowledge ascertained, the question for all philosophical schools then became, ‘What of that which it possible to know has import for practical life?’ If we want to familiarize ourselves
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