Single Idea 21679

[catalogued under 16. Persons / F. Free Will / 6. Determinism / b. Fate]

Full Idea

Some causes are perfect and principal, others auxiliary and proximate. Hence when we say that everything takes place by fate owing to antecedent causes, what we wish to be understood is not perfect and principal causes but auxiliary and proximate causes.

Gist of Idea

When we say events are fated by antecedent causes, do we mean principal or auxiliary causes?

Source

Chrysippus (fragments/reports [c.240 BCE]), quoted by M. Tullius Cicero - On Fate ('De fato') 18.41

Book Reference

Cicero: 'On Fate, Stoic Paradoxes, Oratory', ed/tr. Rackham,H. [Harvard Loeb 1942], p.237


A Reaction

This move is described by Cicero as enabling Chrysippus to 'escape necessity and to retain fate'.