Single Idea 20862

[catalogued under 23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 4. External Goods / a. External goods]

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.

Gist of Idea

Crafts like music and letters are virtuous conditions, and they accord with virtue

Source

report of Stoic school (fragments/reports [c.200 BCE]) by John Stobaeus - Anthology 2.05b11

Book Reference

'The Stoics Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B/Gerson,L.P. [Hackett 2008], p.128


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.