Intermediate and Perfect Appropriate Actions in Stoicism

Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy 2 (3):5-10 (2018)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The essay examines the Stoic notion of appropriate actions, focusing on the relationship between the perfectly appropriate actions of the virtuous person and “intermediate appropriate actions”. I present some of the philosophical motivations behind the general Stoic theory of καθήκοντα, and argue against the common interpretation of μέσα καθήκοντα as action types that make no reference to the manner of their performance, and of κατορθώματα as μέσα καθήκοντα that are rightly performed by an agent with a virtuous disposition. Instead, I claim that the different types of καθήκοντα should be distinguished with reference to the kinds of things they aim at, rather than the manner in which they are performed. So, μέσα καθήκοντα should be understood as actions aiming at natural advantages that are indifferent, and κατορθώματα as actions aiming at the only true good, i.e., virtue. I discuss some of the advantages of the alternative view and outline the account of virtuous motivation that arises from it.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Actions and Their Parts.David-Hillel Ruben - 1999 - The Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 2:73-80.
Why Honesty is the Best Policy.Anju Joshi - 2018 - Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy 44:41-46.
Acting virtuously as an end in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics.Sukaina Hirji - 2018 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 26 (6):1006-1026.
Eudaimonia, External Results, and Choosing Virtuous Actions for Themselves.Jennifer Whiting - 2002 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 65 (2):270-290.
How to Think About Virtue and Right.Valerie Tiberius - 2006 - Philosophical Papers 35 (2):247-265.
Habitual Virtuous Actions and Automaticity.Nancy E. Snow - 2006 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 9 (5):545-561.
Right-Makers and the Targets of Virtue.Nicholas Ryan Smith - 2017 - Journal of Value Inquiry 51 (2):311-326.
Basic Mistakes in Performance.Kim Frost - 2018 - Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy 44:17-21.
Stoic Virtue: A Contemporary Interpretation.Wes Siscoe - 2020 - Philosophers' Imprint 20 (18):1-20.
Eudaimonia, external results, and choosing virtuous actions for themselves.Jennifer Whiting - 2002 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 65 (2):270-290.
Aristotle on Choosing Virtuous Action for its Own Sake.Yannig Luthra - 2015 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 96 (3):423-441.
Can virtuous actions be both habitual and rational?Bill Pollard - 2003 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 6 (4):411-425.
Can Intentional and Functional Explanations of Actions Coexist?Rob Vanderbeeken - 2006 - The Proceedings of the Twenty-First World Congress of Philosophy 9:143-147.

Analytics

Added to PP
2020-05-08

Downloads
6 (#1,269,502)

6 months
2 (#668,348)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Dimitrios Dentsoras
University of Manitoba

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references