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Single Idea 22757

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / b. Rational ethics ]

Full Idea

The Stoics say that folly alone is evil.

Gist of Idea

Stoics say that folly alone is evil

Source

report of Stoic school (fragments/reports [c.200 BCE]) by Sextus Empiricus - Against the Ethicists (one book) II.90

Book Ref

Sextus Empiricus: 'Against the Physicists/Against the Ethicists', ed/tr. Bury,R.G. [Harvard Loeb 1997], p.429


A Reaction

This is Socrates' intellectualist view of weakness of will. Is the evil in the succumbing to a temptation, or in the intellectual error that leads to it? 'Folly' in English is stupid action, not just stupid belief.