Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: The only person who possesses knowledge and virtue, and whose every action is always morally right, is the Sage, the ideal person used by the Stoics as a paradigm in arguing for the possibility of achieving epistemic and moral perfection.1 The foundation for the Sage' s epistemic perfection was the so-called "apprehensive impression" (phantasia kataleptike), the only type of impression whose propositional content is such that it could not turn out false and which, because of this, unmistakably represents the thing that caused the impression.2Our sources have preserved relatively elaborate accounts of how the Stoics thought apprehensive impressions could lead to knowledge about nonmoral situations.However, our sources are less explicit about the following two questions.First, did the Stoics think that there are moral apprehensive impressions?Second, if they did, then are there any similarities and differences between them and nonmoral apprehensive impressions?Finally, how is the moral apprehensive impression supposed to contribute to the moral and practical perfection of the Sage?In this essay, I will argue that there is textual evidence in Epictetus that suggests that the answer to the first question is positive.In answer to the second question, I will try to offer a possible reconstruction of how Epictetus and his Stoic predecessors might have understood moral apprehensive impressions and their relationship to nonmoral apprehensive impressions.Finally, I will attempt to explain how moral apprehensive impressions might provide a foundation for morally perfect action. I.The core elements of the Stoic account of the apprehensive impression have been preserved by our sources at some length.According to one of the most common formulations of the Stoic definition reported by Sextus, the apprehensive impression: is the one that is from something existent [apo huparchon] and is stamped and impressed in accordance with that Cf.Sextus Empiricus (SE) M 7. 151-152 = LS 41C1-5; Anon.Here.pap.
Author: Pavle Stojanović
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2900994474