ETHICS

RYA N B A L B U E N A K AT I G B A K
U N I V E R S I T Y O F B ATA N G A S
PART 2: Theories and Frameworks
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Cynicism the Origin of Stoic Philosophy
 Cynicism was a school which revolted against the
rigidly ordered philosophies of Plato and
Aristotle.
 Founded by Antisthenes and took Socrates as its
model.
 After the death of Socrates, Antisthenes founded
a school called the Cynosarges (the silver dog).
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 Diogenes of Sinope (404-323BC)
 Antisthenes was greatly influenced by the stinging attacks on such sophistic
values as power, prestige, wealth, and clever deception.
 The Cynics believed that the very essence of civilization is corrupt. (Tragic
fate of Socrates)
 Manners are hypocritical and phony.
 Material wealth weakens the people and makes them physically and morally
soft.
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 The desire for success and power produces dishonesty and dependency.
 Flattery, fashion, and convention destroy individual and make everyone
vulnerable to the whims of future.
 Happiness could not be obtained by means of pleasure for luxury always
brings complications and, eventually, to great frustrations.
 HAPPINESS can come from self-discipline, rational control of all desires
and appetites, and minimal contact with conventional society.
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 Few Cynics exhibited the moral or intellectual virtues of Antisthenes or
Diogenes. For this reason, Cynicism fell into disrepute.
 Later Cynics were hostile, arrogant individuals, who despised everyone
else and hated the society which they lived.
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 Zeno of Citium (c.334-262 BCE) was the known
founder of Stoicism.
 Stoicism – “portico or painted porch.”
 According to history, in order to help Zeno overcome
his attachment to social convention, Crates would
publicly embarrass Zeno by smashing a pot he was
carrying.
 The Stoics have great admiration to the strong
character of Socrates who faced death with courage
and serenity.
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 Due to the fate of Socrates, the followers of Stoicism realized the
immoralities of the people of Athens, hence, they placed a tremendous
emphasis on the morality of the human person.
 He was able to inherit the Cynics’ distrust of social niceties.
 Stoicism had given importance to the three division of philosophy
formulated by Aristotle: namely, logic, physics, and ethics.
 Morality is life in accordance with nature and controlled by virtue.
 The Stoics believed that both pain and pleasure, poverty and luxury,
sickness and health, were supposed to be equally unimportant.
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 Like Epicureanism, Stoicism was also aiming for happiness.
 This happiness cannot be not found in pleasure but in wisdom.
 Stoics believed that excessive desires may lead a person to depression and
therefore, to unhappiness.
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 Wisdom will enable man to control what has been within the
human power and to accept with dignified resignation what
had to be.
 Therefore, happiness comes from self-discipline, rational
control of all desires and appetites, and minimal contact with
conventional society.
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Stoic Philosophers
Epictetus, the Sage Slave (c. 50-130CE)
- Controlling what we can and accepting what is beyond our control.
- He was always reminded that what happened to him had no bearing on his
own wishes or behavior.
- The only absolute control he has was over his own reaction to what was
happening.
- “Bear and forbear.”
 Man should control his attitude.
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The Stoic Emperor, Marcus Aurelius ( 121-180 CE)
 Although he lived his life in the midst of lies and betrayals, Marcus was
loved by many Romans for his kindness and mercy.
 He refused to turn away from his incompetent stepbrother, choosing
instead to carry out both their duties.
 He convinced the senate to pardon the family of his traitorous general.
 Instead of taking a revenge against those accused as his lover’s wife, he
promoted them as such will be for the good of Rome.
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The Philosophy of the Stoics
 The stoic philosophy centers on the Ethical living. Its ethical teaching is
based on the two principles:
1. The universe is governed by absolute law which admits no exception.
2. The essential nature of the human person is reason.
(LIVE ACCORDING TO NATURE!)
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 The Stoic maxim has two aspects. First, it means that human persons
should conform themselves to nature in the wider sense, i.e., to the laws
of the universe; and second, they should conform their actions to nature
in the narrower sense, i.e., to their own essential nature - reason.
 The universe is governed not only by law, but also by the law of ourselves,
and we, in following our rational nature, are conforming ourselves to the
laws of the larger world.
 There is no possibility of disobeying the laws of nature for we, like all else
in the world, act out of necessity.
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 Virtue is a life according to reason.
 Morality is rational action.
 Morality is a universal reason, which is to govern our lives, not the caprice
of the self-will of the individual.
 Life should be according to the life of the whole universe.
 One is a gear in a great machine that without which, this machine will not
be able to function.
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 Although natural order is divine, man has the capacity to understand its
divinity as well as its laws through the reason possessed by all human
person.
 Stoics see in nature the operation of reason and law.
 For the Stoics, the world was so arranged that everything on it was
acting on the principle of purpose.
 The world has a rational substance – “Logos” (God or Absolute Reason)
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 God being reason, then the world is governed by reason.
Meanings:
1. There is a purpose in the world, and therefore, there is order, harmony,
beauty, and design.
2. Reason being law, the universe is subjected to absolute sway of law.
 The universe is governed by the rigorously necessity of cause and effect.
 Every individual is not free and then there can be no freedom of the will
that s governed by necessity.
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 Stoics believed in destiny and fate.
 No one knows what will happen in the future. Man cannot control what
may transpire, but man should learn to control the attitudes
towards what might happen.
 Stoics talked about choosing appropriate actions.
 Man has some degree of influence over his own actions.
 For the Stoics, happiness means attainment of wisdom.
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The Human Drama
 Stoicism sees the world as a stage where every person is an actor or
actress.
 There is a director (God) who selects actors to play various roles.
 Divine providence governs everything that happens in the world.
 Stoics viewed the world not as a product of chance but as a product of an
ordering mind, or by reason – Divine Providence.
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 Adopt realistic expectations and accept one’s limit.
 Hardships and sufferings are not totally negative.
 The goal is not really to avoid trials and sufferings but to use them to
become a good person.
 Each actor has its own role to place.
 Actors do not have control over the story, however they can control their
attitudes and emotions.
 Knowing the role which an individual will play, he/she acquires wisdom in
dealing with life.
 Moral virtue is the only good and wickedness is the only evil.
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The Stoic Morality
 What is a good deed?
 What is the meaning of virtue?
 When is a person considered to be virtuous?
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 The foundation of Stoic morality is a doctrine that has its own basis in
physics. i.e., in the nature of living things.
 This doctrine is oikeiōsis which means “orientation and appropriation.”
 The basic desire of all living things is self-preservation. (The one thing that
is most important to human person is our own existence and its
continuation.)
 People choose what they think will be good for them and avoid what they
think will be bad for them.
 Stoic ethics is based on selfish attitude.
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 Stoics held that people should learn to live in accordance to nature = living
according to virtue.
 Moral tenet: Virtue alone is necessary and sufficient for happiness.
Virtue was not only the final end and the supreme good: it was also the
only real good.
 Virtue means living according to reason, and reason tells us that all things
happen must happen in order to actuate a superior good willed by the
Divine Nature.
 Man is said to be virtuous if he wishes that events will be in accordance to
the will of the Divine Providence.
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 Passion and emotions are irrational elements and vices and must be
eradicated in order to complete the domination of reason.
 If this complete domination of reason cannot be retained, the stoic will
have to recourse to suicide, for it is better to flee life than to lose the
tranquility of the spirit.
 Stoic morality is focused on the absolute renunciation of things, i.e.,
temporal things.
 Such renunciation is made for selfish motive – not to lose the tranquility of
the soul.
 Stoics Morality is based on egoistic pride.
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What is the Stoic’s concept of Justice?
 There is a great significance in the human relations since each person
shared a common element – reason.
 All have right reason which is regarded as the Law.
 Those who share law must also share justice, correspondingly, they are
regarded as members of the same commonwealth (COSMOPOLITANISM)
 Every human person is acting on a universal brotherhood.
 Every human person is equal to one another.
 Depriving others of their right is against the concept of cosmopolitanism,
hence, morally unacceptable.
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 Although Stoicism shared many characteristics with the Epicureanism, it
has made some radical innovations.
 They regard self-control as the center of ethics and they view all of nature
in materialistic terms.

“while making reasonable efforts to get what we want, it is wise

to learn to be happy with what we get.”
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Criticism
 The following of the Reason or the Divine Providence may lead to idleness
since everything is already planned, accordingly, there is no need for a
person to work hard.
 Learning to be happy with what one gets may lead to contentment can be
looked in two perspective.
 On the positive side, one will be able to accept one’s fate and will not feel
bad should there be failures.
 On the negative side, being contented may lead one to rely on one’s fate.
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Thank you!