Stoic Ethics, Human Nature, and the Environment

Abstract

AbstractChapter 7 explores the scope for Stoic ethics to contribute to modern thinking on ethical naturalism, especially in virtue ethics. Stoicism, like Aristotle, conceives virtue-based happiness as the realization of human nature, in a form that makes sense in modern, as well as ancient, terms. Stoicism, as elsewhere, does so in a way that is more fully worked out than in Aristotle, especially in its theory of appropriation. In addition, by extending the ethical framework to include universal nature, the Stoics can contribute significantly to modern attempts to respond ethically to the challenge of climate breakdown. Particularly important is their view that the natural world or universe has intrinsic value and that it embodies order, ideas which can support modern attempts to combat the disorder of climate breakdown.