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Revision as of 21:02, 28 March 2007 by Eletheia (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Kathekon (plural: kathekonta) is a Greek concept, forged by the founder of Stoicism, Zeno of Citium. It may be translated as "befitting actions," or "convenient action for nature," ," or also "proper function." Kathekon has been translated in Latin by Cicero by officium, and by Seneca as convenentia . Kathekonta are contrasted, in Stoic moral, with katorthomata, roughly "perfect actions."
Kathekonta and katorthomata
According to Stoic philosophy, each being, whether animate or inanimate (plant, animal or human being), carried on fitting actions corresponding to its own nature. They distinguished between "kathekon" and "katorthomata," a perfect action derived from the "orthos logos" (reason) (also "teleion kathekon": a perfect, achieved kathekon ). They said that the wise man necessarily carried out katorthomata, that is, virtuous kathekon, and that what distinguished both was not the nature of the act, but the way it was done. Thus, in exceptional circumstances, a wise man (which, in Stoic philosophy, is a nearly impossible to achieve state of being) could carry out katorthoma which, according to ordinary standards, would be deemed monstruous (for example, having sexual intercourse with one's daughter, if the destiny of humanity is at stakes).
Stoic moral is complex, and has various, hierarchical, levels. On the first, lay-man level, one must carry out the action corresponding to his own nature. But, according to the Stoic strict moral ideas, the acts of laymen are always insane (amartemata , or "mistakes," or peccata), while the acts of the rare wise-man are always katorthomata, perfect actions. The wise man acts in view of the good, while the ordinary being (layman, animal or plant) acts only in view of its survival.
Stoic philosophers distinguished another, intermediary level between kathekonta and katorthomata: mesa kathekonta, or indifferent actions (which are neither appropriate, nor good). A list of kathekon would include: to stay in good health, to respect one's parents, etc. Para to kathekon, or actions contrary to befitting actions, would be the reverse of this type of actions (to insult one's parents, etc.)
As there are variations between Stoic philosophers, Stobaeus defined kathekonta as probable actions (probabilis ratio), or everything done for one reason (eulogos apologia). Cicero wrote: "quod autem ratione est, id officium appellamus; est igitur officium eius generis, quod nec in bonis ponatur nec in contrariis, in De Finibus, Bonorum et Malorum (About the Ends of Goods and Evils, III,58).
Another distinction between kathekon and katorthomata has been to say that kathortamata were kathekonta which "possessed all the numbers" , a Stoic expression meaning perfection.
References
- ^ Nova Roma, interview of A. Poliseno, "Stoicism in Ancient Rome"
- Two Concepts of Morality: A Distinction of Adam Smith's Ethics and its Stoic Origin, extract on Jstor
- Stobaeus, in Long, A. A., Sedley, D. N. (1987). The Hellenistic Philosophers: vol. 1. translations of the principle sources with philosophical commentary, 59B. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press (SVF III, 494)
- Review of Keimpe Algra, Jonathan Barnes, Jaap Mansfeld, Malcolm Schofield, The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp. xix + 916. ISBN 0-521-25028-5.