Abstract:
According to current interpretation of their ethics the Stoics incorporated in the theory of happiness the conception of attachment to oneself (οἰκείωσις πρὸς ἑαυτόν) supposed to be changed into attachment to reason. This article aims to show that there is no textual evidence to corroborate this idea, and that, on the contrary, several texts and conceptual configurations tell against it. The same seems to hold true for the life of human adults who are not wise and keep their animal attachment to themselves (Hierocles): as Cicero apparently suspected, the moral maxim of this life, i.e. self-preservation in natural circumstances, is incompatible with the consequence of animal attachment to oneself which is the impulse of self-preservation tout court.
© De Gruyter
