beckerChapter7

CLAS 196/PHIL 196
Stoicism

Becker Chapter 7: Happiness

Happiness is like the polestar: it's not a destination one can aim at.
But reaching virtue is tantamount to reaching the most exalted happiness imaginable.

In retrospect, many things in life are clear
That is because any restricted frame of reference (i.e. any current situation) distorts any rational endeavor, but looking back removes many of the restrictions from the frame of reference (we are not longer in the situation, so we can see the situation from outside)
The frame of reference a stoic should take is her whole life.

So we can adopt a point of view that is outside of any given current frame of reference.

Life as one organized whole with no unintegrated parts, full of roads taken, lessons learned, successes.
COMPLETE in what sense?

Biologically, complete in the sense that one has "used up" one's body: not prematurely ended by disease, etc.

Biographically, complete in the sense that the story arc is not cut short, but has come to an appropriate ending.

The stoic prefers all those senses of completeness, but virtue is what really matters: THE MOST IMPORTANT WAY A LIFE CAN BE COMPLETE:

Complete in the sense that one's rational agency has been optimally used to do what can be done to strive for those other senses of completeness and to optimize completion of all life projects

No particular set of them belongs in a complete life (but a complete life does not usually lack them: it's just that you can't come up with a specific list)
The sage can thrive even when the only pleasure attainable is the pleasure of virtuoso agency
That joy is sufficient for a sage
Non-agency goods add to a life, but they do not add any virtue
Non-agency goods are never worth trading for agency ones
Should the Sage have a master plan for her whole life?

Not necessarily: detailed long-range plans carry their own risks: the Sage must be ultimately flexible

Given that most of us fall short of "Ideal Agency" (sagehood), we will have some mix of agency goods and non-agency goods

There is no way, a priori, to give a unitary account of what mix will be best for non-ideal agents generally
Each one is different

Positive stability means that the plane will fly straight and level UNLESS someone uses the controls to fly non-straight or non-level
Negative stability means that the plane will deviate from any given flight attitude UNLESS someone uses the controls to keep it on that flight attitude
Neutral stability means that the plane will continue in any attitude it is put in UNLESS someone uses the controls to alter that attitude

"Agency is a balance of control and stability in an analogous way. That is, it is a balance between our dispositional ability to maneuver effectively toward our goals, responding with practical intelligence to salient events along the way, and our dispositional resistance to being deflected by the shifting winds of impulse and circumstance. When we have perfect control over our conduct, we no longer have anything worth calling character; we are simply untethered actors in an atmosphere of possibilities. When we have perfectly stable dispositions, we no longer have anything worth calling control; we simply follow the trajectory determined by our fixed traits, unable to maneuver at all in response to new information about our endeavors or circumstances." P142

"...there is a set of traits that jointly constitute a sort of boot sector for agency--a mechanism for recovering from various sorts of failure and loss. For example, people whose default positions with respect to their basic psychological tenor and primal dispositions are characterized by optimism, a sense of security or trust, and primal curiosity, courage, perseverance, benevolence, and reciprocity will be in a position to rebuild productive social relationships even out of ashes ..." P. 144

"insofar as we need to maneuver outside of a given trait in order to improve our agency, we will want that trait to be weak enough to permit maneuvers." P 144

Stoics prefer to have optimal abilities, but that does not mean that they need always exercise them:

being overcome by emotion is no different than being overcome by sleep for a stoic: it is a compromise of agency, but may be necessary for healthy agency in the long run.

Consider a man whose parents, brothers, sisters, children, and wife are all killed in front of him, then he is taken as a slave to work for years in a dark damp mine. He is tortured and subjected to vicious games. Finally, his owners decide on one last game. They will break his arms and legs, fingers and toes, and leave him buried up to the neck near a fire ant nest in the desert.

The ancient stoics invited such sarcastic extreme examples.
Becker says that human agency can be defeated, shut down, damaged, and destroyed. That is to say, he does not deny that such treatment is likely to defeat any human agent who is not ideal.

But the sage will still make the best of even that situation: the whole of his life will still be there to give him happiness. It's not a satisfying answer, but that is largely because of the extremity of the case.

Sages suffer, but they retain their agency as long as possible.
Sages would break down, and "When that happens, the joke, such as it may be, is on the torturer. Next Question." P. 148

Transient joys and pleasures are not important for a Sage, but she'll take them when she can.
Purpose gives her life meaning, not transient pleasures and joys.

the Sage simply realizes that fact of human existence and prepares to make the best of whatever fortune hands her.