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Single Idea 20850

[filed under theme 20. Action / B. Preliminaries of Action / 2. Willed Action / d. Weakness of will ]

Full Idea

Chrysippus says (in his On Passions) that the passions are judgements; for greed is a supposition that money is honorable, and similarly for drunkennes and wantonness and others.

Gist of Idea

Passions are judgements; greed thinks money is honorable, and likewise drinking and lust

Source

report of Chrysippus (fragments/reports [c.240 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 07.111

Book Ref

'The Stoics Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B/Gerson,L.P. [Hackett 2008], p.119


A Reaction

This is an endorsement of Socrates's intellectualist reading of weakness of will, as against Aristotle's assigning it to overpowering passions.

Related Idea

Idea 5963 Some say emotion is a sort of reason, and others say virtue concerns emotion [Plutarch]


The 60 ideas from 'fragments/reports'

Wise men should try to participate in politics, since they are a good influence [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
Wisdom for one instant is as good as wisdom for eternity [Chrysippus]
Three branches of philosophy: first logic, second ethics, third physics (which ends with theology) [Chrysippus]
Chrysippus said the uncaused is non-existent [Chrysippus, by Plutarch]
The causes of future true events must exist now, so they will happen because of destiny [Chrysippus, by Cicero]
Graspable presentations are criteria of facts, and are molded according to their objects [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
How could you ever know that the presentation is similar to the object? [Sext.Empiricus on Chrysippus]
Stoic propositional logic is like chemistry - how atoms make molecules, not the innards of atoms [Chrysippus, by Devlin]
Chrysippus has five obvious 'indemonstrables' of reasoning [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
Modus ponens is one of five inference rules identified by the Stoics [Chrysippus, by Devlin]
Every proposition is either true or false [Chrysippus, by Cicero]
Chrysippus says action is the criterion for existence, which must be physical [Chrysippus, by Tieleman]
There are simple and complex facts; the latter depend on further facts [Chrysippus, by Cicero]
Stoics categories are Substrate, Quality, Disposition, and Relation [Chrysippus, by Pasnau]
Dion and Theon coexist, but Theon lacks a foot. If Dion loses a foot, he ousts Theon? [Chrysippus, by Philo of Alexandria]
Change of matter doesn't destroy identity - in Dion and Theon change is a condition of identity [Chrysippus, by Long/Sedley]
Dogs show reason in decisions made by elimination [Chrysippus, by Sext.Empiricus]
Stoics say that God the creator is the perfection of all animals [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
Stoics teach that God is a unity, variously known as Mind, or Fate, or Jupiter [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
Chrysippus allows evil to say it is fated, or even that it is rational and natural [Plutarch on Chrysippus]
A swerve in the atoms would be unnatural, like scales settling differently for no reason [Chrysippus, by Plutarch]
Everything is fated, either by continuous causes or by a supreme rational principle [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
Chrysippus is wrong to believe in non-occurring future possibilities if he is a fatalist [Plutarch on Chrysippus]
The Lazy Argument responds to fate with 'why bother?', but the bothering is also fated [Chrysippus, by Cicero]
Fate is an eternal and fixed chain of causal events [Chrysippus]
When we say events are fated by antecedent causes, do we mean principal or auxiliary causes? [Chrysippus]
A proposition is what can be asserted or denied on its own [Chrysippus]
Passions are judgements; greed thinks money is honorable, and likewise drinking and lust [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
The highest degree of morality performs all that is appropriate, omitting nothing [Chrysippus]
Fate initiates general causes, but individual wills and characters dictate what we do [Chrysippus]
Stoics say that beauty and goodness are equivalent and linked [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
Human purpose is to contemplate and imitate the cosmos [Chrysippus]
Stoics say justice is a part of nature, not just an invented principle [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
Only nature is available to guide action and virtue [Chrysippus]
Live in agreement, according to experience of natural events [Chrysippus]
Chrysippus says virtue can be lost (though Cleanthes says it is too secure for that) [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
Chrysippus says nothing is blameworthy, as everything conforms with the best nature [Chrysippus, by Plutarch]
Rational animals begin uncorrupted, but externals and companions are bad influences [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
Justice, the law, and right reason are natural and not conventional [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
We don't have obligations to animals as they aren't like us [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
Justice is irrelevant to animals, because they are too unlike us [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
Covers are for shields, and sheaths for swords; likewise, all in the cosmos is for some other thing [Chrysippus]
The later Stoics identified the logos with an air-fire compound, called 'pneuma' [Chrysippus, by Long]
Fire is a separate element, not formed with others (as was previously believed) [Chrysippus, by Stobaeus]
Pleasure is not the good, because there are disgraceful pleasures [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
There are shameful pleasures, and nothing shameful is good, so pleasure is not a good [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
People need nothing except corn and water [Chrysippus, by Plutarch]
The past and the future subsist, but only the present exists [Chrysippus, by Plutarch]
The present does not exist, so our immediate experience is actually part past and part future [Chrysippus, by Plutarch]
Time is continous and infinitely divisible, so there cannot be a wholly present time [Chrysippus, by Stobaeus]
The origin of justice can only be in Zeus, and in nature [Chrysippus]
Stoics teach that law is identical with right reason, which is the will of Zeus [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
Death can't separate soul from body, because incorporeal soul can't unite with body [Chrysippus]
There is a rationale in terrible disasters; they are useful to the whole, and make good possible [Chrysippus]
All virtue is good, but not always praised (as in not lusting after someone ugly) [Chrysippus]
Justice can be preserved if pleasure is a good, but not if it is the goal [Chrysippus, by Plutarch]
The source of all justice is Zeus and the universal nature [Chrysippus]
Stoics say earth, air, fire and water are the primary elements [Chrysippus, by Plutarch]
Destiny is only a predisposing cause, not a sufficient cause [Chrysippus, by Plutarch]
Living happily is nothing but living virtuously [Chrysippus, by Plutarch]