Epistemology and Theory of Action of the Stoics

Abstract

The article is devoted to the epistemological foundations of the theory of action of the Stoics. According to the Stoics, the ideal moral subject acts correctly because she possesses knowledge. This knowledge can be understood in two ways: either it is awareness in the divine plan, or it is a correct axiological assessment. In linguistic terms, knowledge is expressed by subject-predicate judgments, to which the moral agent give an agreement, which leads to the appearance of an impulse, which prompts action. Skeptics turned their criticism to the Stoic criterion of truth – the comprehending representation and its result (comprehension), believing that by doing so they destroyed the ethics and Stoic’s theory of action, since these parts of the teaching depend on the theory of knowledge. However, the knowledge, thanks to which the moral subject receives his perfection, is much broader than a simple accurate comprehension of individual objects of external reality.