Abstract
One of the most discussed parts of Cicero’s De Officiis is a theory (1.107–121), attributed by Cicero to a Stoic scholarch Panaetius, which attributes to all human beings four different roles (personae): our universal or rational nature; a set of our individual natural dispositions or traits; what we are by external circumstances; and the vocation or lifestyle that we freely choose. An appropriate action (officium) is to conform to constraints associated with one or more of these personae. Since Cicero does not provide any clear model for weighing up or harmonizing constraints corresponding with different roles, scholars have worried that this theory is unstable and even conflicting. In particular, our individual inclinations often seem to pull against our reason or virtue. The aim of the first part of this article is to vindicate the cogency of the four-personae account by interpreting the relationship between the first and second persona in terms of the Stoic distinction between virtue and indifferent things. Our individual psychological dispositions are quasi-externals that are to be used well by our reason: they are first-order constraints on our reason, which itself is the second order constraint. Therefore, the first and second personae cannot directly conflict with each other. We are to use the individual dispositions well by choosing in the given circumstances (the third persona) a profession or a way of life (the fourth persona) that best suits these dispositions. In the second part, I am trying to show that this two-order psychological model of the self was adopted by other Stoics after Panaetius, particularly Epictetus and Seneca. All these thinkers distinguished between our universal psychological traits, i.e. our rationality, and individual natural psychological dispositions that are to be used well by our reason. I also provide an assessment of how this psychological model bears on recent debates in the scholarship about the Stoic philosophy of self, and suggest how it was motivated by developments in the Stoic ethics.
Acknowledgments
My sincere thanks go to Máté Veres, Brad Inwood, and an anonymous referee for their most helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.
References
Alesse, F. 1994. Panezio Di Rodi E La Tradizione Stoica. Napoli: Elenchos, 23.Search in Google Scholar
Asmis, E. 1990. “Seneca’s on the Happy Life and Stoic Individualism.” Apeiron 23 (4):219–55.10.1515/APEIRON.1990.23.4.219Search in Google Scholar
Bénatouïl, T. 2007. Faire Usage: La Pratique Du Stoïcisme. Paris: Vrin.Search in Google Scholar
Brouwer, R. 2014. The Stoic Sage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139162487Search in Google Scholar
Brunt, P. 2013. Studies in Stoicism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
De Lacy, P. 1977. “The Four Stoic Personae.” Illinois Classical Studies 2:163–72.Search in Google Scholar
Dyck, A. 1996. A Commentary on Cicero, De Officiis. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.10.3998/mpub.15366Search in Google Scholar
Frede, M. 2007. “A Notion of Person in Epictetus”. In Philosophy of Epictetus, edited by T. Scaltsas and A. Mason, 153–68. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199233076.003.0011Search in Google Scholar
Gill, C. 1988. “Personhood and Personality: The Four-Personae Theory in Cicero, De Officiis I.” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 6:169–99.Search in Google Scholar
Gill, C. 1994. “Peace of Mind and Being Yourself: Panaetius to Plutarch.” Aufstieg Und Niedergang Der Römischen Welt 36 (7):4599–640.10.1515/9783110883732-005Search in Google Scholar
Gill, C. 2006. The Structured Self in Hellenistic and Roman Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198152682.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Griffin, M., and E. Atkins, trans. 1991. Cicero’s on Duties. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Inwood, B. 2014. Ethics After Aristotle. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.10.4159/harvard.9780674369788Search in Google Scholar
Inwood, B., and L. Gerson. 2008. The Stoics Reader : Selected Writings and Testimonia. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett [=IG).Search in Google Scholar
Johnson, B. 2013. The Role Ethics of Epictetus. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.Search in Google Scholar
Kidd, I. 1971. “Stoic Intermediates and the End for Man.” In Problems in Stoicism, edited by A. Long, 150–72. London: The Athlone Press.Search in Google Scholar
Lefévre, E. 2001. Panaitios Und Ciceros Pflichtenlehre. Vom Philosophischen Traktat Zum Politischen Lehrbuch. F. Steiner: Historia, Einzelschrift 150. Stuttgart.Search in Google Scholar
Long, A. A. 1996. Stoic Studies. Berkeley, CA: California University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Long, A. A. 2004. Epictetus: A Stoic and Socratic Guide to Life. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Search in Google Scholar
Long, A. A., and D. Sedley. 1987. The Hellenistic Philosophers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press [=LS].10.1017/CBO9780511808050Search in Google Scholar
Lutz, C. 1947. “Musonius Rufus: The Roman Socrates”. In Yale Classical Studies, 10. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Puhle, A. 1987. Persona. Zur Ethik Des Panaitios. P. Lang: Europäische Hochshulschriften XX, 224. Frankfurt am Main.Search in Google Scholar
Reydams-Schils, G. 2005. The Roman Stoics: Self, Responsibility and Affection. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Roskam, G. 2005. On the Path to Virtue. the Stoic Doctrine of Moral Progress and Its Reception in (Middle) Platonism. Leuven: Leuven University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Sharples, R. 2010. Peripatetic Philosophy, 200 BC to AD 200: An Introduction and Collection of Sources in Translation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511781506Search in Google Scholar
Sorabji, R. 2006. Self: Ancient and Modern Insights About Individuality, Life, and Death. Oxford: Clarendon Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226768304.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Tieleman, T. 2000. “Review of Alesse (1994).” Mnemosyne IV 53 (3):367–71.Search in Google Scholar
Van Straaten, M. 1946. Panétius; Sa Vie, Ses Écrits Et Sa Doctrine Avec Une Édition Des Fragments. Paris: Amsterdam H.J.Search in Google Scholar
Veillard, C. 2015. Les Stoïciens II. Le Stoïcisme Intermédiaire. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.10.14375/NP.9782251760803Search in Google Scholar
Vimercati, E. 2002. Il Mediostoicismo Di Panezio. Milano: Vita e pensiero.Search in Google Scholar
©2016 by De Gruyter