Stobaeus, Volume II

Name: Stobaeus, Volume II
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.

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Stobaeus, Volume IIBook II Chapter 7 · II.7.13.3–II.7.13.4

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 196 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.13.3–II.7.13.4

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Ancient Greek

p. 388

Διαιρέσεις τῆς ψυχῆς

II.7.13.3

Τῆς γὰρ ψυχῆς τὸ μὲν εἶναι λογικόν, τὸ δ’ ἄλογον· λογικὸν μὲν τὸ κριτικόν, ἄλογον δὲ τὸ ὁρμητικόν. Τοῦ δὲ λογικοῦ τὸ μὲν περὶ τὰ ἀΐδια καὶ τὰ θεῖα θεωρητικὸν ἐπιστημονικὸν καλεῖσθαι· τὸ δὲ περὶ τὰ ἀνθρώπινα καὶ τὰ ⟨φθαρτὰ⟩ πρακτικὸν βουλευτικόν. Καὶ τοῦ ἀλόγου τὸ μὲν ὀρεκτικὸν τῶν ἐφ’ ἡμῖν ἐπιθυμητικόν· τὸ δὲ πρὸς τοὺς πλησίον οἷον ἀμυντικὸν θυμικόν.

Ἠθικὴ ἀρετὴ καὶ προαίρεσις

II.7.13.4

Ὥστε διττὸν εἶναι καὶ τῶν ἀρετῶν τὸ εἶδος, τὸ μὲν λογικόν, τὸ δ’ ἄλογον, ἐπειδὴ κατὰ ταῦτα πεφυκέναι θεωρίαν καὶ πρᾶξιν· ὅθεν καὶ τὴν ἠθικὴν ἀρετὴν οὐκ εἶναι μὲν ἐπιστήμην, προαιρετικὴν δὲ τῶν καλῶν ὑπάρχειν ⟨ἕξιν⟩.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 389

Divisions of the Soul

II.7.13.3

One part of the soul is rational and the other nonrational: the rational is the faculty of judgment, the nonrational the faculty of impulse. Of the rational part, what contemplates eternal and divine things is called scientific; what acts concerning human and ⟨perishable⟩ things is called deliberative.⁵¹⁸ Of the nonrational part, what desires things within our power is called appetitive; what acts toward others as a sort of defensive faculty is called spirited.⁵¹⁹

Moral Virtue and Choice

II.7.13.4

Thus the form of the virtues too is twofold, one rational and the other nonrational, since contemplation and action naturally fall along these divisions. Hence moral virtue is not knowledge, but a ⟨state⟩ disposed to choose noble things.⁵²⁰

518.The distinction within the rational part concerns contemplation of the eternal and divine, and practical deliberation about human and perishable things. “Perishable” renders the supplied φθαρτά. Compare Nicomachean Ethics VI.1, 1139a6–15, where the scientific and calculative parts are distinguished by their objects. “Scientific” here describes a kind of knowledge, not the methods of modern experimental science.

519.The source divides the nonrational part into appetitive and spirited functions. The qualifying οἷον, “a sort of,” remains in the description of defense, and τῶν ἐφ’ ἡμῖν remains “things within our power.” Wachsmuth notes that this division is Platonic and that ὁρμητικόν, “faculty of impulse,” is not Aristotle’s own terminology. The heading’s reference to the Peripatetics therefore does not warrant replacing these words with a different Aristotelian scheme.

520.The source prints λογικόν and ἄλογον, “rational” and “nonrational,” qualifying the twofold form of virtue. Wachsmuth expressly warns against changing them to genitives meaning virtues “of the rational” and “of the nonrational.” The connection of this distinction with contemplation and action is compressed; the English preserves it rather than silently reconstructing it. Wachsmuth supplies ἕξιν, “state.” The definition of moral virtue through choice differs from the preceding Stoic definitions of virtues as kinds of knowledge; compare Nicomachean Ethics II.6, 1106b36–1107a2.

About This Reading Edition

The complete surviving text of Stobaeus’s second book, through II.46.22, in Ancient Greek and English, with an introduction and 1,541 explanatory notes. All forty-six chapter headings remain, including the notices for chapters whose texts are missing.

Historical Text and Translation

Greek: Curt Wachsmuth, Ioannis Stobaei Anthologii libri duo priores, volumen II (Berlin: Weidmann, 1884), printed p. 1 and pp. 3–264. The supplied edition preserves consequential editorial signs, reconstructed joins, qualified attributions, and missing-text notices. English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes: Diotimos Editions, 2026.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

Stobaeus’s ancient Greek work and Wachsmuth’s 1884 edition are in the public domain. The supplied English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes are published with the site owner’s authorization.