return to list of latest ideas

Single Idea 20838

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 1. Nature of Ethics / g. Moral responsibility]

Full Idea

The order and reason of fate set in motion the general types and starting points of the causes, but each person's own will [or decisions] and the character of his mind govern the impulses of our thoughts and minds and our very actions.

Gist of Idea

Fate initiates general causes, but individual wills and characters dictate what we do

Source

Chrysippus (fragments/reports [c.240 BCE]), quoted by Aulus Gellius - Noctes Atticae 7.2.11

A Reaction

So if you try and fail it was fate, but if you try and succeed it was you?

Book Reference

'The Stoics Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B/Gerson,L.P. [Hackett 2008], p.110

Related Idea

Idea 433 For man character is destiny [Heraclitus]