Interpreting what harmony means

The scholarchs succeeding Stoicism’s originator then each in turn expand this definition, adding additional features to the account, starting with Cleanthes clarifying that agreement “with nature” was what Zeno intended. His successor Chrysippus then introduces a further important distinction. Happiness requires that we live in accordance both with nature as a whole and with our specifically human nature. Diogenes then adds the reformulation “be[ing] circumspect in the selection and rejection of things in accord with nature”, adding emphasis to two key aspects of human being, our rationality (“circumspection” is eulogistein, involving using logos or reason well) and our capacity to orient ourselves affectively through choice. Antipater stresses this second aspect, offering the formula “to live continually selecting what is in accordance with nature and rejecting what is contrary to nature”. Another Stoic philosopher, Archedemus suggests “to live completing everything appropriate” (panta ta kathńkonta epitelountas), which places the stress upon fulfilling one’s duties.

Simple formula for complex reality

These different interpretations do not reflect any contradiction in Stoicism’s development. In fact, they are not only compatible, but function as complements to each other. They direct us to important aspects all of which are arguably central to any attempt at “living in harmony”. Some set greater stress on the “nature” we are to live in accordance with. Others focus on the need for us to make good use of our rational faculty, to select and reject rightly, or to fulfill our duties or appropriate actions. One could argue, rightly, that if we intend to take “living in accordance” as a goal, directing us towards happiness, we need to attend to all of these. Wider reading within classic Stoic literature, where we find hundreds of references, discussions, and reinterpretations of “living in accordance with nature”, reveals that this seemingly simple formula signifies a quite complex reality, one we would be imprudent to grasp in a reductive manner.

The ability to choose is at the core of our being

All of these themes play central roles in the teachings of the Late Stoic, Epictetus, who adds a further important clarification. He is unique among the Stoic writers whose works we possess in stressing the absolutely central importance of prohairesis. This part, or better put core, of our human being, often translated as “faculty of choice”, “moral purpose”, or even “will,” overlaps with the rational faculty or the ruling faculty. And Epictetus will say over and over again that it is the prohairesis that we must strive to bring or keep in harmony with nature, making this centuries-old Stoic ideal of living in accordance with nature yet more specific and concrete. 

By deliberating and choosing, by rejecting and selecting, by prioritizing planning, by disciplining ourselves or taking it easy, we apply that very faculty of prohairesis to itself as well as to all of our other powers, capacities, and possessions. And in doing so, because as Epictetus tells us “you are prohairesis”, we bring it, ourselves, and our lives into harmony with nature. Or we fail, likely in multiple complicated and confusing ways, to do so.

Understanding our failures

Understanding our failures is a precondition for being able to shift ourselves out of and away from them. Epictetus has many additional insights to offer us on this front, but to bring this to a close, let me suggest just one of them, which brings this short excursus through Stoic conceptions of “living in harmony” back full-circle. It is a word that Epictetus uses quite often, often translated in English as “contradiction”. The Greek for it is machń, and its earlier meanings  include “battle,” “combat”, or – you’ll notice this mentioned earlier – “conflict”. 

Any conflict is disharmony

The way that Epictetus uses it in his works does not mean simply logical contradiction, but any sort of conflict we might find ourselves in, ways in which we are in disharmony or discordance with and within ourselves. 

Realizing that we are a mess

Stoicism, like any other robust virtue ethics begins from the realization that we are a mess, and the further insight that we don’t grasp at first how wide and deep the tangles of those conflicts reside within us. We are unlikely to ever entirely unknot them, to remove all contradictions or conflicts from our own selves, and thus to attain completely living in harmony. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t make some, and perhaps continual, progress towards that goal.

Greg Sadler of ReasonIO is an educator and the editor of Stoicism Today (ModernStoicism.com).

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