The Good Of the Whole: Stoic Ethics and Cosmology
Like many of their contemporaries, the Stoics viewed the world (kosmos) as a unified whole, fueled by pure reason. An interesting innovation in their cosmology is the perspective that individual human natures are part of this same reason, or logos. Thus, virtue is not as much a matter of self-inflicted discipline, but of harmony with a divine energy that serves as the very breath of existence (p.267). This direct relationship between a macrocosm and microcosm of logos, between the self-moving nature of the world and that of individual ensouled beings, defines Stoic virtue as being “in accordance with nature” (p. 352). This entails accordance with reason, and resistance towards passion. The Stoic guidelines for a virtuous life are refreshing in their sense of harmony and completion, and yet are challenging enough to seem nearly impossible. Perhaps it is not their actualization but their example that should be stressed.
Natural law and ethics, from the standpoint of this philosophical school, are not and were never separate. The world in which natural law applies is finite, making it identical to the individual human life. Both macrocosm and microcosm are dictated by fate to eventually perish (p. 276). The law of nature finds itself acted out by the fusion of two basic principles, that of the unqualified matter acted upon and that which acts: the logos, or reason, of nature (p. 268). This concept of the continuous interaction between passive and active forces provides a balance that is paralleled by the similar balance between the individual body and soul. Therefore, for an individual to be virtuous is simply a matter of the given individual to be fully integrated into the greater whole of a nature that is alive and run by pure reason.
Humans share with their world an energy that fuels and forms all of the myriad manifestations of the four basic elements, fire, air, water, and earth (p.279). This energy is logos itself, tying into a basic Stoic tenet that “only bodies can act or be acted upon” (p.340). Based on this assertion, logos cannot be without form. Its form is thereby expressed as a state of pure fire that designs and consists of the vital principle in all things (p.278). This fire outlives even the world itself, and is the source of the nature that it is our duty to be in accordance with. Its own cycle of cold expansion and hot contraction is linked and even described by a kind of breathing.
The observable cycles of breath are intrinsic in Stoic cosmology, a set of theories that must be explored to further apprehend how virtue is defined. An important aspect of virtue is to avoid struggling against the inevitability of fate (p.389). Likewise, the “designing fire” that is matter and logos fused together has its own fate it adheres to. Periodically, the entire world is subject to engulfment by the same fire that sustains it, a conflagration of pure fire that contracts like an inhalation (p. 276). Then, following the natural cycles that we ourselves are part of, an exhalation issues forth. The fire begins to change into other, cooler elements, and thus recreates a new world.
All of this process is as sudden and complete as the transition from vice to virtue (p.386). Interestingly enough, there is no wide range of values in between the two extremes. From the Stoic standpoint, one either lives in accordance to or in contrast with nature. There is no middle ground. Likewise, happiness and unhappiness compliment virtue and vice in the same absolute manner, and are not thought of as separate values (p.357). Happiness and virtue are both determined by the rationality of a given person as it reflects or is in tune with the larger rationality of the living, breathing world itself. This world is intelligent, and provides systems available to humans that inevitably contain the potential for virtue.
This system that divine reason has set up remains a mystery to the vast majority of people, who are viewed by the Stoics to be unenlightened, trapped in an ignorance that does not allow them to see the true value in things (p.345). At the same time, they all are granted a system of “impulsive activity” that, if followed wholeheartedly, is not only self-sustaining but leads to the greater good in a way that is described as “other-related” (p.352). It is this sense of interconnectedness which can entail virtuous behavior, because concern for others is recognized as a further evolutionary step that begins with concern for self.
Virtue as defined by the Stoics differs from Aristotle’s definition, because it is not conditioned upon certain material gains having to be met beforehand. In fact, the conventional wisdom of good and bad as set forth in the time of the Stoics cannot be applied to their definition of happiness. It does not hinge upon material gain, any more than “an odd rather than an even number of hairs on one’s head” (p.357). Aspects of reality such as material gain are considered as being off the map off good and bad completely. Such concepts are labeled as “indifferent,” because their possible rating as good or bad is not the point (p.364).
For example, the concept of being in accordance with nature is not seen as a choice of good as opposed to bad, right as opposed to wrong, as much as it is simply assumed to be part of the regular or primary behavior (oikeiōsis) of people and even animals (p.364). Therefore it is more of a common sense that needs to be remembered than something that is acquired or learned. This regular behavior is part of a wider scheme of things that falls under the heading of ‘proper functions” (kathēkon), involving an expectation not necessarily to be right, but mainly to be natural (p.365).
If this is taken to be true, however, then there remains the issue of being able to distinguish between the rare and virtuous Stoic person and a member of the misguided majority. The discerning quality in this case that makes the difference is not even the impact of actions, but the “virtuous disposition” that the true Stoic exhibits through actions (p.366). The virtue that is capable of realization is very exact and exhibited with every breath, becoming not just actualization of a proper function, but actualization of the perfection of such. It is very Stoic to not only perceive the nature of the world as perfect, but to firmly believe that the nature of a virtuous person can reach perfection also, which is an expression of humanity’s most natural state.
The conditions under which the majority of humans fail to reach this goal, those of vice, unhappiness, and general character flaws, are all blamed on the destructive force of passion (p.419). It is a curious trend in Stoicism that for all its insistence on being natural, the passions that are taken to be our very nature are demonized as spurious influences that lead us away from our true nature. How can such imperfections exist in a world that is run by perfect and pure reason? The Stoic position maintains that such imperfections, such as vice and its inherent unhappiness, are necessary parts of a greater whole. In this sense, vice must exist so that its opposite quality can exist also (p.386).
In the end, one is left with an impression of fundamental, intrinsic nature that seems arbitrary and leans to one side of experience. If the nature of the world (kosmos) is perfect reason (logos), and virtue is the perfection of this reason, then virtue in Stoic standards entails the perfection of human life. Reality shows through experience that such perfection in human terms is a lofty and rather simplistic goal. In addition, if virtue is its own reward, with nothing beyond it to be achieved, then that renders the majority of humanity as outside this elite circle of perfection. It seems they must remain so, to enable the very existence of the perfected Stoic.
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