The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

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LOGIC: THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE 71
only in the application
of them : for this is the cause
to men of all their evils, their not being able to adapt
the common notions to particular cases (Epictetus,
Diss. \v. i).
For example, all are agreed that the Good
is desirable, and is to be followed in all circumstances ;
but some men place the good in things not in our
own power (wealth, prosperity, etc.),
whereas it is to
be found only in things that are within our own
power namely, in the will and its acts. "When one
man says, He has done well ;
he is a brave man,
and another says, Not so ;
but he is obstinate, then
the disputes arise among men one with another.
This
is the dispute among the Jews and the Syrians, and
the Egyptians
and the Romans not whether holiness
should be preferred to all things,
and in all cases
should be pursued, but whether it is holy to eat pig s
flesh or not holy
(Epictetus, Diss. i. 22).
In this way, it will be seen that the Stoic Epistemology
struck direct at the root of scepticism ; and,
indeed, it was consciously aimed at Pyrrho and his
brother sceptics. According to the sceptics, Truth
is unattainable, all is uncertainty and doubt ;
and the
best thing that one can do is to assent to nothing,
to suspend one s judgment. 1 To this the Stoic replied,
that Reason itself can conquer doubt, that, through a
its spontaneous working, it shines by its own light and \
discloses truth ;
and he maintained further that absolute
that are sound
scepticism is suicidal. "Propositions
and perspicuous," says Epictetus (Diss. ii. "are
20),
of necessity used even by those who contradict them ;
and, perhaps, a man might
consider it to be the
1
This is cleverly caricatured in Lucian s Auction of Lives.