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.7.17.2

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Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.17.2

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Ancient Greek

p. 436

Μέρη ἐνεργείας καὶ τὰ ὧν οὐκ ἄνευ

II.7.17.2

Ἐπεὶ δ’ ὁ πράττων συγχρῆταί τισι πρὸς τὴν τελείωσιν τῆς προθέσεως, μέρη ταῦτα οὐ χρὴ νομίζειν τῆς ἐνεργείας, καίτοι γε ἐπιζητούσης ἑκατέρας τῶν εἰρημένων ⟨τεχνῶν⟩ ἑκάτερον, οὐ μὴν ὡς μέρος, ὡς δὲ ποιητικὸν τῆς τέχνης. Τὰ γὰρ ὧν ἄνευ πράττειν ὁτιοῦν ἀδύνατον, μέρη τῆς ἐνεργείας λέγειν οὐκ ὀρθόν. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ μέρος ἐπινοεῖσθαι κατὰ τὸ συμπληρωτικὸν εἶναι τοῦ ὅλου, τὰ δ’ ὧν οὐκ ἄνευ κατὰ τὸ ποιητικόν, τῷ φέρειν καὶ συνεργεῖν εἰς τὸ τέλος.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 437

Parts of Activity and Its Necessary Conditions

II.7.17.2

Since the agent also uses certain things to complete the intended aim, these should not be regarded as parts of the activity, although each of the two ⟨arts⟩ mentioned requires its corresponding means, as something productive for the art rather than as a part.⁵⁷⁸ For it is not correct to call the things without which any action is impossible parts of the activity. A part is conceived as a constituent of the whole; things without which it cannot be done are conceived as productive, because they promote and help achieve the end.⁵⁷⁹

578.Wachsmuth prints τελείωσιν, completion, as his correction of τελειότητα, completeness or perfection. The supplied τεχνῶν is preserved as the bracketed “arts.” The distributive ἑκατέρα and ἑκάτερον refer to the two arts already mentioned and their corresponding means. Ποιητικόν assigns the means a productive role for the art; it does not make them constituent parts of the activity.

579.The distinction is between what constitutes a whole, συμπληρωτικόν, and what contributes causally toward the end, ποιητικόν. “Things without which” preserves the source’s repeated formulation for necessary conditions. This continues the account at II.7.14.6–7 and II.7.16.2: dependence on other goods does not by itself make those goods parts of happiness. This completes section II.7.17. The next section divides the good into the noble, the beneficial, and the pleasant, then discusses the aim and definitions of happiness.

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.