The Stoic Synonyms

How virtue was defined by the early Stoics

The early Stoics, particularly Zeno of Citium, were known for employing very simple and concise arguments. We’re told that someone once complained that their arguments were too abrupt, presumably compared to the rambling dialogues typical of Academics and the Sophists’ notoriously long-winded and ornate speeches. Zeno, half-joking, replied: “You speak the truth, but if possible their syllables should be abbreviated too.” If he could, that is, he would have made his reasoning even more concise. For this reason, in part, the Stoics were said to speak like Spartans, i.e., laconically. They seem to have believed that our philosophical reasoning should be condensed, so that it can easily be memorized and recalled. Complex and elaborate arguments might win praise in Plato’s Academy but you won’t have them ready to hand if you need help coping in the real world.

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In Diogenes Laertius’ life of Zeno, we find a highly compressed argument employing the method known as synonymia, which proceeds by asserting that a series of different terms are synonymous, or nearly synonymous. These passages can be difficult to interpret because they often depend on semantic nuances of the ancient Greek language, which are lost in translation. In some cases the original meaning remains quite unclear. Nevertheless, here is one possible translation of a key Stoic argument based on synonyms for man’s highest good:

And all that is good [according to the Stoics] is advantageous [συμφέρον, sympheron], appropriate [δέον, deon], profitable [λυσιτελές, lysitelês], useful [χρήσιμον, chrêsimon], well-used [εὔχρηστον, euchrêston], honorable [καλόν, kalon], beneficial [ὠφέλιμον, ôphelimon], choiceworthy [αἱρετόν, haireton], and just [δίκαιον, dikaion].

We’re then told precisely what is meant, in this context, by each of these terms. I’m going to divide the passage up, therefore, and comment on each aspect of the good in turn. For the Stoics, “the good” for humans is synonymous, first and foremost, with wisdom or virtue. I think it helps to bear that in mind when considering these other synonyms, so I’ll try to explain them by relating them primarily to the Stoic concept of virtue.

Advantageous because it brings things that, when they occur, benefit us.

I think the point here is that virtue is advantageous, in the sense of being expedient, because as well as being an end in itself it serves as a means of creating other things that are beneficial for flourishing. Virtue creates virtue; vice creates vice. Wisdom and virtue perpetuate themselves. Virtue does not lead to vice.

Appropriate because it holds things together in the way that is needed.

The word here, deon, means what is appropriate or fitting, but it also implies a duty. Virtue is our duty, it is always appropriate and morally binding, because it gives our life the type of coherence, or integrity, necessary for human flourishing. This seems related to the notion of the constancy of the ideal Sage, who is free from hypocrisy or contradiction. (Vice, by contrast, is divisive and contradictory.)

Profitable because it repays the costs incurred for it, such that the return derived from the effort surpasses the cost.

Virtue is always a good investment. Its intrinsic value inherently outweighs any expense incurred in obtaining it. No matter how much effort is required to live virtuously, it is a negligible cost compared to the benefits we reap.

Useful because it furnishes us with the means for benefiting ourselves.

Virtue gives us all the tools we need in order to flourish and fulfil our true goal in life. Wisdom, in other words, is the most useful thing in life because it allows us to use everything else well.

Well-used because it renders its use praiseworthy.

Virtue is always well-used or artfully-used, because it is precisely virtue itself that renders the use of anything else praiseworthy. The indifferents, by contrast, can be used either well or badly. Folly and vice can never be used well, but wisdom and virtue, by their nature, can never be used badly.

Honorable because it possesses due measure in relation to its own function.

The Greek word kalon means both honorable and beautiful, and the Stoics probably intend both meanings. Virtue is beautiful because it is in perfect harmony with its own true purpose. It has everything that nature intended humans to achieve in order to be complete, and flourishing. Honor and (moral) beauty also makes their possessor genuinely praiseworthy. Vice is never praiseworthy; virtue, in itself, is never ugly or contemptible.

Beneficial because it is such as to confer benefit.

Virtue helps us, whereas vice harms us. By its very nature it is beneficial, or “good for us”. We might say virtue is fundamentally healthy for us, because it constitutes our flourishing. Vice never benefits us; virtue never harms us. The indifferents, such as wealth and reputation, are only beneficial or harmful insofar as they’re used well or badly by us.

Choiceworthy because it is such that one would reasonably choose it.

This means that virtue is always worth choosing, or that we should choose it, if we are living in accord with reason. Virtue is the only rational choice if we want to flourish. Virtue is what a wise person, living consistently in accord with reason, would choose to value above everything else. It is never rational to choose vice.

Just because it is in accordance with law and productive of community.

Virtue is just, or the right thing to do, because it is consistent with natural law, and it allows us to live in harmony with the rest of mankind. Virtue is the path that leads toward the brotherhood of mankind, and the cosmopolis or universal city of Zeus.

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It’s long struck me that the synonyms for our “good”, or virtue, in Stoicism can be divided into two main categories:

1. What is honorable, or morally good

2. What is healthy, or good for us

It’s particularly important for the Stoics to maintain that, in some fundamental sense, what is honorable and what is healthy coincide. Vice is not only bad for society but also bad for the individual. Virtue is not only good for society but also good for the individual. As Marcus Aurelius famously put it: “What is not good for the hive is not good for the bee.”