Note 44 — Chapter X · ETHICS. THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF THE STOIC ETHICS. ABSTRACT THEORY OF MORALITY.

(5) The highest good as law. The Good, in as far as it is based on the general arrangement of the world, to which the individual is subordinate, appears to man in the character of Law. Law being, however, the law of man’s own nature, the Good becomes the natural object of man’s desire, and meets his natural impulse. The conception of the Good as law was a view never unfamiliar to moral philosophy, but it was cultivated by the Stoics with peculiar zeal;44 and forms one of the points on which Stoicism subsequently came into contact, partly with Roman jurisprudence, partly with the ethics of the Jews and Christians. Moreover, as the Stoics considered that the Reason which governs the world is the general Law of all beings,45 so they recognised in the moral demands of reason the positive and negative aspects of the Law of God.46 Human law comes into existence when man becomes aware of the divine law, and recognises its claims on him.47 Civil and moral law are, therefore, commands absolutely imperative on every rational being.48 No man can feel himself to be a rational being without at the same time feeling himself pledged to be moral.49 Obedience to this law is imposed upon man, not only by external authority, but by virtue of his own nature. The good is for him that which deserves to be pursued—the natural object of man’s will; on the other hand, evil is that against which his will revolts.50 The former arouses his desire (ὁρμή), the latter his aversion (ἀφορμή):51 and thus the demands of morality are called forth by the natural impulse of a reasonable being, and are, at the same time, also the object towards which that impulse is naturally directed.52