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    The original impulse of ensouled creatures is toward what... — Carmelics
    Home/Virtue Ethics
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    The original impulse of ensouled creatures is toward what is appropriate for their self-preservation, not toward what is pleasurable.

    Virtue Ethics
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    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Newborn animals immediately seek nourishment and avoid threats before any hedonic experience could calibrate their responses, as Hierocles observed in his embryological arguments.
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    • 2.Pleasure arises only as a byproduct of securing what is appropriate (the oikeiôsis relation), making it causally posterior and therefore cannot be the original impulse.
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    • 3.A creature whose first impulse were toward pleasure would lack the prior self-model necessary to identify what pleasures are its own, making self-preservation explanatorily prior.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Chrysippus's argument that nature endears each creature to itself (oikeiôsis) entails that self-constitution, not hedonic tone, is the intentional object of first impulse.
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    • 2.Epicurean cradle arguments rely on infants recoiling from pain, but recoiling from damage to one's constitution is logically distinct from pursuing pleasure, confirming the Stoic analysis.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Impulse is a movement of the soul toward an object present in all animate things from birth.
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    • 2.The whole of the world is identical with the fully rational creature which is God.
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    • 3.Each part of the world is naturally constituted so that it seeks what is appropriate or suitable to it, just as body parts are constituted to preserve themselves and the whole.
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    Topics

    Virtue Ethics

    Connections

    3 topics

    Consciousness & Mind1 linkedNatural Theology1 linkedDivine Attributes1 linked

    Related

    A creature whose first impulse were toward pleasure would lack the prior self-mo...Chrysippus's argument that nature endears each creature to itself (oikeiôsis) en...Each part of the world is naturally constituted so that it seeks what is appropr...Epicurean cradle arguments rely on infants recoiling from pain, but recoiling fr...
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    Impulse is a movement of the soul toward an object present in all animate things...Newborn animals immediately seek nourishment and avoid threats before any hedoni...

    Similar

    Nothing seems more natural for humans than self-preservation77%The Epicureans contend that the original impulse is toward pleasure, b...77%Extreme self-sacrifice contradicts the instinct for self-preservation75%Each creature is naturally constituted to seek what is appropriate or ...74%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: stoicism
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    Impulse, as noted above, is a movement of the soul toward an object. Though these movements are subject to the capacity for assent in fully rational creatures, impulse is present in all animate (self-moving) things from the moment of birth. The Stoics argue that the original impulse of ensouled creatures is toward what is appropriate for them, or aids in their self-preservation, and not toward what is pleasurable, as the Epicureans contend. Because the whole of the world is identical with the fu
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Pleasure arises only as a byproduct of securing what is appropriate (the oikeiôs...
    The Epicureans contend that the original impulse is toward pleasure, but the Sto...
    The whole of the world is identical with the fully rational creature which is Go...
    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit