From the book
Stobaeus, Volume II
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe expression names an initial natural orientation toward moral goodness, pictured as a seed of virtue. It is a beginning rather than completed excellence.
- In StobaeusMusonius explains favorable moral self-descriptions through this natural beginning, then distinguishes people deceived about their goodness from those ashamed to acknowledge its absence.
- In this editionPredisposition preserves the developmental claim. Avoid treating natural potential, the wish to be good or the shame of failure as proof that virtue is already achieved.
- A place to readChapter 9 · Excerpt 8 · Passage 5 Read the seed of virtue together with the two explanations of mistaken self-description, where deception and shame show why the claimed achievement cannot simply be assumed.
- English renderings
- predisposition; natural beginning or impulse
Meaning
Hupobolē can denote a beginning or contribution toward something. Musonius’s expression here is a natural predisposition toward moral goodness, not possession of the completed excellence toward which it points.
Use in the book
The discussion argues from familiar expectations about conduct. People are held responsible for wrongdoing in life even when they have not studied a specialized moral art, and they commonly claim to be good without identifying a teacher. Musonius interprets this as evidence of a natural starting point and a seed of virtue in each person. He immediately distinguishes that endowment from the truth of a person’s claim: some are deceived about their own goodness, while others are ashamed to admit its absence. The disposition therefore explains a capacity and expectation, not universal achieved virtue.
The paragraph separates what is present by nature from what people claim to have accomplished. Calling the natural beginning a seed allows for growth without making the mature result inevitable. The subsequent distinction between deception and shame also explains two different relations to the same moral demand. Some people mistake themselves for good; others recognize the difficulty of acknowledging that they are not. Neither response removes the obligation to become good. The developmental image therefore remains compatible with a serious gap between a natural starting point and a person’s conduct.
Places to read
- Chapter 9 · Excerpt 8 · Passage 52A natural predisposition and seed of virtue are inferred from moral self-assessment.
- Chapter 9 · Excerpt 8 · Passage 62The comparison with learned arts ends in an explicit textual gap.
Translation in this edition
Predisposition keeps the forward direction of the expression. Instinct may suggest a more automatic or determinate response than the argument establishes.
ὑποβολὴν
Attested. Chapter 9 · Excerpt 8 · Passage 5; Wachsmuth II, printed p. 184.
φυσικὴν εἶναι ὑποβολὴν τῇ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ψυχῇ πρὸς καλοκἀγαθίαν
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume II, printed p. 184. The ending of Chapter 9 · Excerpt 8 · Passage 6 is incomplete. Its unfinished predispositions clause must not be completed by importing a preferred conclusion from another text or a general account of innate knowledge.