Aristotle's Legacy to Stoic Ethics (original) (raw)

1968, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies

In his life of Zen0 Diogenes Laertius (vii, 2; 25) makes the founder of Stoicism a pupil of Crates the Cynic, Stilpo the Megarian, Xenocrates and Polemo of the Academy, and Diodorus Cronus. The same teachers, except Diodorus, are mentioned by Numenius (Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta = SVF i, 11) and Strabo and Cicero also cite Polemo (ibid. 10 and 13). Chrysippus with such a varied formal education, but he did apparently go beyond the Stoa to hear Arcesilaus at the Academy (Diog. Laert. vii, 183-4). Peripatetics, Theophrastus, Strato and Lyco, as having any direct influence on the early Stoics. Plutarch (Comm. not. 1069e) asserts that Zen0 agreed with Aristotle and Theophrastus, a s well a s Polemo and Xenocrates, in taking q6uis and ~b K~T & p6uiv as the 'elements of happiness'. This enigmatic remark, which I will attempt to explain later, is the nearest Plutarch comes to suggesting a Peripatetic influenceand a shared one at thaton the Stoics, though Aristotle is mentioned several times in his antistoic treatises. (De fin. iii, 41) for the view that only terminology distinguished Stoic ethics from that taught in the Lyceum, and Piso, the spokesman for Antiochus (ibid. v, 74), claims essential agreement between the 'Old Academy' and the Stoics, after expounding a system allegedly based on Aristotle and Theophrastus (ibid. 9-13). But the polemic of the sceptic and the oversimplification of the eclectic have been sufficient grounds for discrediting these statements, though it remains to ask why they could have been made at all. Tradition does not credit No ancient authority mentions the Cicero, on the other hand, cites Carneades What then do we say about the antecedents of Stoicism? For Zeller, Socrates and the Cynics had the primary claim to influence Stoic ethical theory. Aristotle inspired much in logic and physics, but his influence on ethics is "restricted to the formal treatment of the material.. . and the psychological analysis of individual moral faculties" .2 and Xenocrates. Unfortunately, the ethical theories of these Academics are desperately elusive. are cited by eclectic sources not for independent moral positions but for positions which they shared with the Peripatetics. to Aristotle and give Polemo the credit are not c~n v i n c i n g .~ De fin. iv, 45, Polemone.. .a quo quae essent principia naturae acceperat (sc. Zeno). On the basis of this evidence Philippson and Brink reasonably concluded that Polemo influenced the Stoic concept of-rrpGjTa K~T & q 6 0 1 v .~ Not even so much can be said safely about Xenocrates. We should look rather to Polemo Professor Brink has recently given somewhat similar instruction^.^ In most cases they Von Fritz's attempts to explain away the references in such passages Strangely enough, he omits Cicero