structure for 'Ethics'    |     alphabetical list of themes    |     unexpand these ideas

23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 4. External Goods / a. External goods

[role of luck and possessions in the good life]

8 ideas
The fine deeds required for happiness need external resources, like friends or wealth [Aristotle]
     Full Idea: It seems clear that happiness needs the addition of external goods, for it is difficult if not impossible to do fine deeds without any resources; many can only be done by the help of friends, or wealth, or political influence.
     From: Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1099a32)
     A reaction: One should ask what fine deeds can be done without external resources, and also what corruptions of virtue result from the pursuit of external goods (esp. political influence!). Aristotle wants to DO good, where Stoics want to BE good.
A man can't be happy if he is ugly, or of low birth, or alone and childless [Aristotle]
     Full Idea: A man is scarcely happy if he is very ugly to look at, or of low birth, or solitary and childless.
     From: Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1099b03)
     A reaction: This seems a bit shocking for us, when none of these setbacks is the person's fault. Socrates was said to be ugly, and Plato seems to have had no children.
It is nonsense to say a good person is happy even if they are being tortured or suffering disaster [Aristotle]
     Full Idea: Those who say that a man who is being tortured and has suffered terrible calamities is happy if he is a good man are willy-nilly talking nonsense.
     From: Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1153b19)
     A reaction: Someone expressed this extreme idea, and the Stoics sympathised with it. Happiness is life going well. Making a supreme sacrifice for an enormous good seems like life going well.
Goods in the soul are more worthy than those outside it, as everybody wants them [Aristotle]
     Full Idea: All goods are either in the soul or outside it, and it is those in the soul that are more worthy of choice; for wisdom, virtue and pleasure are in the soul, and some or all of these seem to be an end for everyone.
     From: Aristotle (Eudemian Ethics [c.333 BCE], 1218b34)
     A reaction: An interesting reason for this assertion - that it is true because everybody agrees on it. See Idea 95. I would think that he might claim that our soul is our essence, whereas external goods pander to the non-essential in us.
A wise man would be happy even under torture [Epicurus, by Diog. Laertius]
     Full Idea: Even if the wise man were put to the torture, he would still be happy.
     From: report of Epicurus (fragments/reports [c.289 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 10.26
Stoics do not despise external goods, but subject them to reason, and not to desire [Taylor,R on Stoic school]
     Full Idea: Unlike the Cynics, the Stoics did not carry their indifference to conventional goods to outright scorn and rejection of them. They only insisted that such goods should not be the object of desire, since desire is something opposed to reason.
     From: comment on Stoic school (fragments/reports [c.200 BCE]) by Richard Taylor - Virtue Ethics: an Introduction Ch.8
     A reaction: The Stoic view would appear to be derived from Aristotle, who only wants external goods insofar as they can support the life of virtue (as in needing money to be generous). Perhaps the Cynics made the Stoics a bit more puritanical than Aristotle.
Crafts like music and letters are virtuous conditions, and they accord with virtue [Stoic school, by Stobaeus]
     Full Idea: Stoics call 'practices' the love of music, letters, horses, hunting and crafts. They are not knowledge, but virtuous conditions, and they say that only the wise man is a music lover and a lover of letters. Crafts lead to what accords with virtue.
     From: report of Stoic school (fragments/reports [c.200 BCE]) by John Stobaeus - Anthology 2.05b11
     A reaction: I like the distinction between virtue and 'virtuous conditions'. It might correspond to the eighteenth century idea of good taste, or the later idea of having a liberal education.
Nothing bad can happen to a good man [Seneca]
     Full Idea: Nothing bad can happen to a good man.
     From: Seneca the Younger (On Providence [c.60], §2)
     A reaction: This is a pithy summary of a well know ancient attitude - one that is rejected by Aristotle, but defended by Socrates. It depends what you mean by 'bad' - but that is a rather modern response.