This article has moved:
https://janniklindquist.substack.com/p/a-few-quick-notes-on-committing-injustice-18-12-20
This article has moved: https://janniklindquist.substack.com/p/stoicism-and-evil-governments-19-01-03
Thoughts and notes on the ancient Greek and Roman philosophy of happiness in general and on Stoicism and Seneca in particular.
*Addendum*: injustice is, of course, even for Stoics always a bad thing and should be stopped regardless of our chances to improve the degree of wisdom of either the person or persons committing the injustice or the person or persons suffering the injustice. It's unjust to deprive anyone of whatever they are entitled to regardless of whether they care about it or not and it's downright cruel to cause other people to suffer - even if they wouldn't suffer if they were wise. To this extent, Stoicism does align with our basics intuitions about injustice. But it also offers additional insights.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant. Thanks. :)
ReplyDeleteWould a completely wise person procreate?
ReplyDeleteAnother thing: It seems that to change things, one must care about how they are. What is the specific formulation for the stoic intention to stop injustice? How is it formulated, without a desire or a driving motivation born of care?
An entertaining and interesting answer to your question is given by Diotima as retold by Socrates in his speech in Plato's Symposium. In short, the answer given there is that the "children" of wise people is whatever interesting ideas they "give birth" to. But why would a wise person it procreate, in your opinion?
DeleteRegarding caring about how things are, a Stoic cares deeply about the things he or she loves - such as friends, family and the brotherhood of man. "A Stoic" does not mean "someone who doesn't care". A Stoic loves every manifestation of Logos.
DeleteIn summary, for Socrates and the Stoics it's much, much worse to commit an act of injustice than to suffer it. So, from this perspective, preventing wrong really means preventing people from doing wrong rather than preventing people from suffering wrong. In other words, the best way to fight for justice is to do our best to make the world a wiser place where fewer people feel tempted to act unjustly. One step toward that goal is to stop seeing the world as consisting of victims and aggressors - good people and bad people. We are all fools and we all act unjustly all the time.
ReplyDelete