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The sufficiency of virtue for happiness: not so easily overturned?1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2013

R.W. Sharples
R.W. Sharples
Affiliation:
University College London
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The sufficiency of virtue for happiness is a central Stoic doctrine. Indeed it can be argued that it is one of the doctrines that define the Stoic position; and it was the subject of extensive controversy in antiquity, coming under attack both from Academics and from Peripatetics. And Peripatetics had a particular interest in the topic, for Aristotle had already discussed it in Nicomachean Ethics 1.8–10, in a way which, to say the least, left room for a range of divergent interpretations.

The objections that were raised against the Stoic position in antiquity differ in their degree of persuasiveness. Some indeed point to fundamental differences of opinion of the sort that are not easily, if at all, reconcilable by argument. But others simply misinterpret or misrepresent the Stoic position. It is with some of the latter that the present paper will chiefly be concerned. Its aims are therefore limited even though the issue is important.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society (Second Series) , Volume 46 , 2001 , pp. 121 - 139
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s). Published online by Cambridge University Press 2001

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