SVF III.4

Original — Ancient Greek

πάλιν δ᾽ ἴσον ἐστὶ τὸ κατ᾽ ἀρετὴν ζῆν τῷ κατ᾽ ἐμπειρίαν τῶν φύσει συμβαινόντων ζῆν, ὥς φησι Χρύσιππος ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ περὶ Τελῶν· μέρη γάρ εἰσιν αἱ ἡμέτεραι φύσεις τῆς τοῦ ὅλου. διόπερ τέλος γίνεται τὸ ἀκολούθως τῇ φύσει ζῆν, ὅπερ ἐστὶ κατά τε τὴν αὑτοῦ καὶ κατὰ τὴν τῶν ὅλων. — (ibid. 89) φύσιν δὲ Χρύσιππος μὲν ἐξακούει, ᾗ ἀκολούθως δεῖ ζῆν, τήν τε κοινὴν καὶ ἰδίως τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην.

StoicOs Translation

Again, living according to virtue is equal to living according to experience of what happens by nature, as Chrysippus says in the first book On Ends: for our natures are parts of the nature of the whole. Therefore the end becomes living in accordance with nature — that is, according to one's own nature and according to that of the whole. — (ibid. 89) By the nature which one must follow in living, Chrysippus understands both the common nature and, specifically, human nature.

Context

Diogenes' survey of the Stoic telos runs from Zeno's 'living in agreement' through Cleanthes' 'with nature' to Chrysippus' refinement in On Ends book 1 — the third step of the school's central formula.

Source notes:Text visually verified against the page scan of von Arnim, SVF III (1903), no. 4, pp. 3–4 (the Vol. III OCR renders Greek unreliably, so the printed page itself was checked). Book title in the source: On Ends, book 1. DL 7.89 appended as printed by von Arnim.

What the source actually tells us

Named, with book and book-number; the addition at 7.89 ('common and specifically human nature') is likewise expressly Chrysippus' — Diogenes contrasts it there with Cleanthes, who admitted only the common nature.

Philosophical meaning

Virtue is not obedience to an external rule but skill in the world's grammar: to live by 'experience of what happens by nature' is to act as a part that understands its whole. And because our natures are parts of the whole's nature, following oneself rightly and following the cosmos are one movement.

Scholarly uncertainty

Diogenes compiles from handbooks; the connective phrasing is his, though the formula and book citation are presented as Chrysippus'. The precise difference from Cleanthes' telos was debated already in antiquity.

Go deeper

• Read SVF I.179 — Zeno's formula: living in agreement →
• Read SVF I.552 — Cleanthes adds: with nature →
• Read SVF III.178 — oikeiōsis: the first impulse →