Why Be Good ????

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The stoic conception of virtue esponsed by Epictetus has left an indelible and underappreciated imprint on our culture. Descartes, Spinoza, Rousseau, Nietzsche, Marx, and the Founding Fathers of the United States are just a few of the movers and shakers who owe a great debt to stoic ethical thought. Virtue, Until its very recent revival, has sounded old-fashioned or even prissy to our modern ears, Epictetus's teachings on virtue had nothing to do with being a goody-goody or a doormant. Virtue, Happiness, and tranquilty are not separate or distinct experiences but co-emergent states. While he adovacated being good for its own sake, his practical observation was that a virutous life leads to inner coherence and outward harmony. There is great relief in being morally consistent. The soul relaxes, and we can thus efficiently move forward in our endeavors as Epicteus would say, "without hindrance". Inner confusion and evil itself spring from ambiguity. Epicteus coaches us to call forth the best we have by making our personal moral code examplicit to ourselves. Freedom, ease, and confidence are won as our outward actions gradually conform to this code. He asks us to minimize the importance we would place on "external" choices, what we might today call "lifestyle choices," and to concentrate on the small but significant inner moral choices we make in the course of any day.