SVF I.574

Original — Ancient Greek

ἀλλὰ Κλεάνθης μὲν μήτε κατὰ φύσιν αὐτὴν (scil. τὴν ἡδονὴν) εἶναι μήτ᾽ ἀξίαν ἔχειν αὐτὴν ἐν τῷ βίῳ, καθάπερ δὲ τὸ κάλλυντρον κατὰ φύσιν μὴ εἶναι.

StoicOs Translation

But Cleanthes (held) that pleasure is neither in accordance with nature nor has value in life — just as a cosmetic is not in accordance with nature.

Context

Sextus contrasts the positions of the early Stoics on pleasure: Cleanthes' austere denial stands against milder classifications by other Stoics, who granted pleasure at least the status of a natural, though indifferent, thing.

Source notes:Text verified against von Arnim, SVF I (1903), no. 574, p. 130 (OCR of the scanned edition; the OCR's locus “XI 14” is restored to M 11.74, the standard reference of this passage). Sextus reports in indirect speech within a survey of Stoic views on pleasure.

What the source actually tells us

A named report with a vivid simile — the kallyntron, a cosmetic or face-paint — that has the ring of Cleanthes' own image-making (cf. the trumpet, SVF I.487; the tablet of Pleasure enthroned, SVF I.553). The doctrine fits the man who wrote a book On Pleasure (cf. SVF I.552).

Philosophical meaning

Pleasure, for Cleanthes, is paint on the face of life: it adds nothing to health and can mask its absence. Against those who make pleasure nature's goal — and even against fellow Stoics who allowed it natural standing — he denies it both naturalness and value: the good life needs virtue's substance, not its decoration.

Scholarly uncertainty

Indirect speech in a late, polemically organised survey; the original context — probably his On Pleasure — is lost, and the transmitted clause has a slight grammatical roughness. The contrast Sextus draws with other Stoics is his arrangement, not necessarily Cleanthes'.

Go deeper

• Read SVF I.575 — grief is a paralysis of the soul →
• Read SVF I.552 — the goal: living in agreement with nature →