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    The Stoic claim that wisdom alone suffices for happiness ... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→Wisdom is necessary and sufficient for happiness.

    The Stoic claim that wisdom alone suffices for happiness entails that the sage on the rack is happy, which conflicts with deeply held and revisable moral intuitions.

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    1 reason for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Moral intuitions about happiness often conflate it with pleasure or comfort, which Stoics deliberately reject as philosophically confused.
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    • 2.If wisdom consists in perfect rational understanding of virtue's value, physical torment cannot rationally diminish the sage's grasp of what truly matters.
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    • 3.Revisability of intuitions suggests they warrant skepticism; perhaps our discomfort with 'happy sage on rack' reveals intuitions need correction, not the theory.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Happiness as a concept has historically tracked subjective well-being; redefining it to exclude suffering strains the term beyond linguistic recognition.
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    • 2.If Stoicism must dismiss nearly universal human judgments about suffering as confused to preserve its thesis, this suggests the theory conflicts with bedrock reality.
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    • 3.The sage's rational acceptance of torture doesn't entail torture causes no harm; endorsing a harmful thing rationally doesn't negate its harms.
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    Connections

    2 topics

    Consequentialism1 linkedVirtue Ethics1 linked

    Related

    Happiness as a concept has historically tracked subjective well-being; redefinin...If Stoicism must dismiss nearly universal human judgments about suffering as con...If wisdom consists in perfect rational understanding of virtue's value, physical...Moral intuitions about happiness often conflate it with pleasure or comfort, whi...
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    Revisability of intuitions suggests they warrant skepticism; perhaps our discomf...The sage's rational acceptance of torture doesn't entail torture causes no harm;...Wisdom is necessary and sufficient for happiness.

    Details

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    claim
    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit