On the Stoic Conception of the Good

Abstract

Abstract Following the Socratic tradition, the Stoics assume that, in order to achieve true well-being, in order to have a good life, one needs a certain competence which we may call virtue. One must be good at taking care of oneself, at dealing with the kinds of situations and problems one encounters in life. Following Socrates, the Stoics think that this competence is a real art, the art of living, and that wisdom, perfect rationality, the perfection of reason, consists in having mastered this art.Reasonably enough, the Stoics assume that virtue is not something we are born with, which in this sense we have by nature. It is something which we, by our own efforts, have to toil to acquire. But the Stoics also believe that there is another sense in which we are by nature virtuous. They believe that nature has constructed human beings in such a way that, if nothing went wrong, we would, in the course of our natural development, become virtuous.

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