VIRTUOUS LIVING - Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

goodness is, but rather to concentrate on how to become good. Knowing and applyingsuch knowledge of how to live and behave was regarded as the highest value ofwisdom.A Stoic was one who was not easily excited, one who repressed his emotions, wasindifferent to pain, and was not dependent on happiness from worldly pleasures. Theirdoctrine presupposed belief in the freedom of the individual’s volition. Thisphilosophical system believed “that no external thing alone can affect us for good orevil until we have woven it with the texture of our mental life” (Laing 1950:3427). Assuch, nothing could influence an individual unless he/she willed it to influence anddetermine his/her thoughts or actions. The Stoics’ emphasis was upon the “reaction”to external circumstances, compared to the internal circumstances in themselves.Their teaching inculcated virtues such as courage, self-control, temperance, andjustice.The Stoics’ moral virtue could be linked to their understanding and usage of a termhonestas, vaguely translated as “live righteously”. Cicero, though a leading anti-Stoicphilosopher, linked this term with the exercise of reason. He observed, “Whatever isfitting or right becomes apparent only when honestas is present” (in Hostler1975:64).This may be compared with Aristotle’s metaphysical “eye” which gives the moralagent a “vision” of right and wrong. Ultimately, virtue led to “happiness”(eudaimonia) (cf Sandbach 1975:29).For the Stoics, arete, translated as “virtue” or “excellence” of morality, includedknowledge or understanding. The possessor of virtue always did what was right,consistent with the assumption that the said virtuous person always knew what wasright. As such, to be wise was to be virtuous, and to be virtuous was to be wise. Virtuewas to be desired and sought after. However, there was dispute as to whether, once anindividual has acquired virtue, he/she could, for some reason, lose it. Although thiswas considered to be generally unthinkable for a virtuous person, it was possible,owing to some “intoxication or madness (which) might cause the loss” (Sandbach1975:28). A virtuous person was not expected to oscillate between virtue and vice as apattern of his/her character disposition.229