SVF I.190

Original — Ancient Greek

ταῦτ᾽ εἶναί φησιν ὁ Ζήνων ὅσα οὐσίας μετέχει, τῶν δ᾽ ὄντων τὰ μὲν ἀγαθά, τὰ δὲ κακά, τὰ δὲ ἀδιάφορα. ἀγαθὰ μὲν τὰ τοιαῦτα· φρόνησιν, σωφροσύνην, δικαιοσύνην, ἀνδρείαν καὶ πᾶν ὅ ἐστιν ἀρετὴ ἢ μετέχον ἀρετῆς· κακὰ δὲ τὰ τοιαῦτα· ἀφροσύνην, ἀκολασίαν, ἀδικίαν, δειλίαν καὶ πᾶν ὅ ἐστι κακία ἢ μετέχον κακίας· ἀδιάφορα δὲ τὰ τοιαῦτα· ζωὴν θάνατον, δόξαν ἀδοξίαν, πόνον ἡδονήν, πλοῦτον πενίαν, νόσον ὑγίειαν, καὶ τὰ τούτοις ὅμοια.

StoicOs Translation

Zeno says that those things exist which partake of substance; and of the things that are, some are good, some bad, and some indifferent. Good are such things as these: practical wisdom, temperance, justice, courage, and everything that is virtue or partakes of virtue. Bad are such as these: folly, intemperance, injustice, cowardice, and everything that is vice or partakes of vice. Indifferent are such as these: life and death, reputation and ill repute, pain and pleasure, wealth and poverty, sickness and health, and the like.

Context

The systematic ethical doxography excerpted by Stobaeus opens its account of goods and evils with this division, expressly in Zeno's name (“Zeno says”).

Source notes:Text verified against von Arnim, SVF I (1903), no. 190, p. 47 (OCR of the scanned edition; opening lines verified verbatim, the continuation of the standard lists follows Wachsmuth's text of Stobaeus). The report opens the ethical doxography usually ascribed to Arius Didymus and names Zeno explicitly.

What the source actually tells us

An explicitly attributed testimonium, in the doxographer's wording. It secures the foundational tripartition — good, bad, indifferent — with the four cardinal virtues heading the goods and even life and death filed among the indifferents.

Philosophical meaning

Here the whole of Stoic ethics stands in one paragraph: only virtue is good, only vice is evil, and everything people usually live and die for — wealth, health, reputation, life itself — is materially indifferent to happiness. SVF I.185 and I.195 show the same doctrine applied to pain and pleasure.

Scholarly uncertainty

The opening lines are verified verbatim against the von Arnim scan; the continuation of the standard example-lists follows Wachsmuth's established text of Stobaeus. The formulation is the doxographer's summary, not a quotation of Zeno's own words.

Go deeper

• Read SVF I.185 — nothing is evil but vice →
• Study goods and indifferents in Stoic Ethics →