Target

Use in the book

The chapter compares a target to a shield set before archers, while the end is attainment of what is set before them. The Stoic account later makes happiness a target and being happy an end. Panaetius uses several archers with a common target to explain how virtues share an end while differing in the concerns through which they achieve it. The Peripatetic account also distinguishes the target from the activity that realizes it. These passages need their own formulations; “aim” must not erase the relation between an object and an agent’s success.

The opening literary references are part of the conceptual sorting. Homer supplies an end shared by a gathering, whereas Plato is credited with identifying an end particular to an individual life. Only then does the shield comparison separate what stands before the archer from the archer’s attainment. Its concluding appeal to our activity explains why the distinction is philosophically useful: naming the object does not yet describe success. The two marked supplements in the translation remain editorial assistance rather than evidence that every word of the explanation survives intact.

“they require an activity of ours in relation to the end” (Chapter 7 · Excerpt 3c · Passage 1).

Places to read

1. Chapter 7 · Excerpt 3c · Passage 12345678Shield, target and attainment are explicitly distinguished.
2. Chapter 7 · Excerpt 5b5 · Passage 32Panaetius compares the virtues with archers aiming at a shared target.

Translation in this edition

“Target” keeps the archery comparison legible; “aim” suits less concrete contexts.

σκοπὸς

Attested. Chapter 7 · Excerpt 3c · Passage 1; Wachsmuth II, printed p. 47.

τὴν τοῦ σκοποῦ διαφορὰν πρὸς τὸ τέλος. Καὶ ἔστι σκοπὸς μὲν τὸ προκείμενον εἰς τὸ τυχεῖν, οἷον ἀσπὶς τοξόταις· τέλος