The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

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ETHICS: EXPOSITION 163
1
and the individual s is bound in
thing ,
that good up
that of the community : what is good for the community
is
good for him ;
what is
good for him is good for the
community.
is not good for the swarm is not
good for the bee all that befalls the individual is
;
for the good of the whole (Aurelius, Med. vi. 54
and 45).
Zeus," says Epictetus (Diss. i. 19), has made the
nature of the rational animal such that it cannot obtain
any good proper to itself, unless it contribute something
to the common interest. In this way, it is no longer
unsocial for a man to do everything for the sake of
himself. For what do you expect ? that a man should
stand aloof from himself and his own interest? And
how in that case could there be one and the same prin
ciple to all namely,
the principle of affection (oi/cetWis)
for themselves?" And, again (ibid. ii. 5): "What
are you ? A man. If you look at yourself as separate
from other men, it
is according to nature to live to old
age, to be rich, to be healthy. But if
you look at
yourself as a man, and as a part of a certain whole, for
the sake of that whole it may now become you to be
sick, at another time to sail the seas and to run
into danger, at another time to be in want, and,
perchance, to die before your time."
Yea more, it is
only by
own highest good can be realized.
Altruism that the individual s
Nor can any one
live happily who looks only to himself, who turns all
things to his own advantage :
you must live for others,
if
you wish to live for yourself" (Seneca, Ep. 48).
Hence the relation between self-interest and altruism,
according to Stoic teaching.
Self-interest is a necessity