ETHICS

DEBBIE M. PEREZ
Behavioral and Social Sciences Education Department
UNIVERSITY OF BATANGAS
 PART 2: Theories and Frameworks
Just like Epicureanism, Stoicism was also aiming for happiness. From our
previous lesson, Epicureans held that happiness can be obtained by way of
pleasure, on the other hand Stoics held that happiness can only be obtained
by way of wisdom.
But how can human obtained wisdom?
• Such wisdom will be the means in order to CONTROL what has been
within the HUMAN POWER and to ACCEPT with dignified resignation what
had to be.
(Wisdom can only be attained if we learn to control what has been within
our capabilities and to accept what can happened even if it is against our
will, wherein it is beyond human power.)
• Para sa mga stoics, ang acceptance o ang kakayahang tanggapin ang mga
pangyayari na hindi naaayon sa ating kagustuhan ay mahalaga sapagkat
dito natin nakakamtan ang wisdom.
 Cynicism
Cynicism the Origin of Stoic Philosophy
 Cynicism was a school which revolted against the rigidly
ordered philosophies of Plato and Aristotle.
 Cynics are believers of Cynicism. They break the society’s social norms.
They do not obey society’s rules because according to them one has to
live in accordance to nature.
 For a human person to virtuously, he must live in accordance to nature.
 Such social conventions (rules, norms and beliefs) is a way of destroying
the natural life of a person.
 Founded by Antisthenes and took Socrates as its model.
 After the death of Socrates, Antisthenes founded a school
called the Cynosarges (the silver dog).
 Cynicism
 Diogenes of Sinope is a student of Antisthenes known
for roaming around Athens looking for honest man, is
also known for refusing the conventional standards of
dress and behavior.
 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.
 Manners are hypocritical and phony.
 Material wealth weakens the people and makes them
physically and morally soft.
 Cynicism
 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.
 In this regard, pleasure should not be sought if one is aiming
for happiness.
 What is happiness for Cynics? (which was adopted by
Stoicism?)
 Happiness according to them can come from self-discipline,
rational control of all desires and appetites and minimal
contact with conventional society.
 Stoicism
 Zeno of Citium (c.334-262 BCE) was the known founder of
Stoicism.
 Stoicism – “portico or painted porch” a place where Zeno
could have his lectures.
 Like Epicureanism, Stoicism was also aiming for happiness.
 This kind of happiness cannot be not found in pleasure but in
wisdom.
 He was able to inherit the Cynics’ distrust of social niceties.
 Stoics believed that excessive desires may lead a person to
depression and therefore, to unhappiness.
 Stoicism
 Stoicism had given importance to the three division of philosophy
formulated by Aristotle: namely, logic, physics, and ethics.
 Ethics is guided by Logic as a theory of method, and rests upon
physics as its foundation.
 Morality is life in accordance with nature and controlled by virtue.
 Wisdom will enable man to control what has been within the
human power and to accept with dignified resignation what had
to be.
 Stoics gives emphasis on duty and self-control.
 Therefore, happiness comes from self-discipline, rational control of all
desires and appetites, and minimal contact with conventional society.
 If you could notice, Stoicism’s definition of happiness is the same
with Cynicism because Zeno was a student of a Cynic philosopher.
 Stoicism
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.
- Musonius Rufus, the most powerful Stoic since the days of Zeno
who was Epictetus’ teacher.
- “Bear and forbear.”
 Man should control his attitude.
 Stoicism
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.
 Stoicism
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
◦ We need to conform to the universal law.
2. The essential nature of the human person is reason.
◦ Which makes man a rational being, capable to control,
think and decide.
Stoic maxim– “live according to nature”
 The Stoic Ethics
 The Stoic maxim has two aspects.
1. First means human persons should conform themselves to
nature in the wider sense, i.e., to the laws of the universe;
2. 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.
• Conformity from general (laws of the universe) to specific
(accordance to nature). Pagsunod mula sa malawak
hanggang sa pinakamaliit.
 There is no possibility of disobeying the laws of nature for we,
like all else in the world, act out of necessity.
• Act out of necessity means doing our duty.
 The Stoic Ethics
 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.
 Instead of fearing the future, the people should control the
attitudes towards what will happen.
• On instances wherein what happened is already beyond
our control even if it is against our will, what we need to
do is accept it. The only thing that we can control after
what had happened is our attitude/reaction about it.
 Stoics also talked about choosing appropriate actions.
 Man has some degree of influence over his own actions.
 For the Stoics, happiness means attainment of wisdom.
The Stoic Ethics
 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.
 The world has a rational substance – “Logos”
(God or Absolute Reason)
 For the Stoics, the world was so arranged that
everything on it was acting on the principle of
purpose.
The Stoic Ethics
 God being reason, then the world is governed by
reason.
Meaning:
1. First, there is a purpose in the world, and therefore,
there is order, harmony, beauty, and design.
2. Second, 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 is governed by necessity.
The Stoic Ethics
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.
• The role needs to be accepted by an individual.
 Divine providence governs everything that happens
in the world.
 Each actor has its own role to place.
 Knowing the role which an individual will play,
he/she acquires wisdom in dealing with life.
The Stoic Ethics
The Human Drama
 Actors do not have any control over the story.
 The only thing that the actors can control is their
attitudes and emotions.
• Ex. You studied hard and gave your best in
answering the exam. You are confident that you
will pass the exam. However when the results
came out, it turned out that you weren’t able to
pass the exam.
• On that situation, what we can control is our
emotions regarding our score but what happened
is already beyond our control and we need to
accept it because it is the role given by the Divine
Providence in Human drama.
The Stoic Ethics
 Stoics viewed the world not as a product of chance
but as a product of an ordering mind, or by reason
– Divine Providence.
 Adopt realistic expectations and accept one’s limit.
• This limit are situations that is already beyond our
control, beyond what can do as human.
 Hardships and sufferings are not totally negative.
• Not negative in a sense that if it is part of the Divine
Providence's Plan then we need to accept it.
 The goal is not really to avoid trials and sufferings
but to use them to become a good person.
 Actors do not have control over the story, however
they can control their attitudes and emotions.
 Moral virtue is the only good and wickedness is
the only evil.
 The Stoic Ethics
The Stoic Morality
1. What is a good deed?
2. What is the meaning of virtue?
3. When is a person considered to be virtuous?

 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.
 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.
 Moral Standards
 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.
 An action is considered to be good if it conforms to universal law and
in accordance to nature.
 An action is considered to be morally acceptable if it promotes
justice.
 An action is considered to be evil if it deprives others of their rights.
 The Stoic Ethics
 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 loose the
tranquility of the soul.
 Stoics renounces all the temporal goods because these cause
disturbance of the minds.
 Stoics Morality is based on egoistic pride.
 The Stoic Ethics
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 other of their right is against the concept of
cosmopolitanism, hence, morally unacceptable.
 The Stoic Ethics
 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.”
 The Stoic Ethics
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.