You’ve Got To Think Before You Act — Wisdom: The Chief Virtues Series (1/4)
About a month ago, I posted about the foundations of Stoicism — the Stoic Disciplines. It’s on this that the next part of Stoicism — the virtues — are built on. This article will focus on the first virtue — wisdom.
Before I discuss this virtue, however, I first have to define what virtue is. Keeping it short, virtue is a form of actionable moral excellence, or the actions and behaviors that display high moral standards.
So if virtue are different types of behaviors that display a moral standard, then one could argue that there are different perspectives on what virtue and its stemming moralities are. So what then are the Stoic virtues?
Marcus Tullius Cicero, the Roman Republic’s greatest orator, coined the phrase summum bonum — the highest good. To the ancient Stoics, virtue was a way to achieve this highest good. Cicero is quoted to have said, “[t]he man who has virtue is in need of nothing whatever for the purpose of living well.”
While there were many virtues, especially in Roman society, the ancient Stoics believed that four virtues were the most important for living up to the summum bonum: Wisdom; Courage; Justice; and Temperance. These virtues were and are how Stoics approach and answer questions such as
- How do I deal with situation X or Y?
- How do I act in situation X or Y?
These virtues are guides for a Stoic’s actions, a compass of sorts to point them in the right direction during times of hardship, confusion, or just everyday life.
The Virtue of Wisdom
So let’s start with Wisdom. What is wisdom?
Wisdom is the ability to define what is good, not good, and what is indifferent. Diogenes Laertius wrote in Lives of the Eminent Philosophers that
[w]isdom they define as the knowledge of what we ought to choose, what we ought to be aware of, and what is indifferent.
Now at this point you may say here, “John. In your article on perception you noted that events are just events, not necessarily good or bad. Now you’re saying that things can be good, bad, or indifferent. What gives?
To answer this, let’s move forward one article to the one I wrote on action. Therein, I noted how certain actions you take can either harmonize or de-harmonize yourself and those around you. This is what I mean by good, bad, or indifferent: good, meaning what increases one’s harmony and is aligned with Nature, such as acting with virtue; bad, meaning the actions that de-harmonize you and are unaligned with Nature, such as lying to someone, taking advantage of others to get ahead, or building on bad habits; and indifferent, which are things or situations that are neither good nor bad in and of themselves, like money, fame, possession of goods, etc.
On this notion of indifference, I want to add something. There are concepts within this notion called “preferred” and “dispreferred” indifferences. With this, you’re saying that, as an example, “I’m indifferent to external things like friendship and solitude, but if I was forced to choose between the two, I would prefer friendship.
Wealth is preferable to poverty, health is preferable to sickness, friendship is preferable to solitude — you get my point. These things are neither good nor bad, but some of these things are preferable than others.
While there are things that are objectively good and bad, there are other things that you perceive to be good or bad when it’s simply an event occurring in your life. I can perceive an action to be aligned with nature, making it good. I can also perceive an action to not be aligned with nature, making it bad. Epictetus argues a similar notion in Section 20 of the Enchiridion.
Remember that it is not he who reviles you or strikes you, who insults you, but it is your opinion about those things as being insulting. When a man irritates you, you must know that it is your own opinion which has irritated you. Therefore especially try not to be carried away by the appearance. For if you gain time and delay, you will more easily master yourself.
This is where your perception comes in, having the ability to objectively look at an event or situation, identify where it belongs, and then act accordingly. Having this knowledge, you can see that wisdom begets action. Viktor Frankl said that
[b]etween stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.
In that space, no matter how brief or long, is the ability to apply wisdom, identifying if the situation or action you want to take is good or bad. It’s in this space that you can apply your knowledge of virtue and what’s right and wrong, or ignore it and act impulsively and irrationally.
You can learn about what’s good, what’s bad, and what’s indifferent. But when the rubber meets the road, the truth of your knowledge and ability to use it is tested. Wisdom is taking this knowledge and applying it to your life in action. As Lucius Annaeus Seneca — Seneca the Younger — put it, “acta non verba” — deeds, not words.
As you go through you week, before you make a choice, stop yourself and ask: is what I’m about to do good or bad? Is it bringing harmony to my life and the lives of those around me? How can I take what I know and apply it to my life? As Abu Bakr said,
[w]ithout knowledge, action is useless, and knowledge without action is futile.
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