From the book
Stobaeus, Volume II
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordTo be chosen expresses the prescribed activity rather than the choiceworthy good considered as possessed; the passage makes this grammatical difference carry a conceptual distinction.
- In StobaeusThinking wisely illustrates a benefit connected with having practical wisdom, allowing the account to distinguish choosing an activity from choosing a good considered in itself.
- In this editionPreserve the contrast with choiceworthy even where ordinary English would treat the terms as interchangeable; do not smooth away the passage’s deliberately surprising conclusion.
- A place to readChapter 7 · Excerpt 6f · Passage 1 Follow the example of thinking wisely and having practical wisdom before reading the final denial that the choiceworthy good itself is directly chosen.
- English renderings
- to be chosen; what one should choose
Meaning
Haireteon is the verbal adjective of requirement or prescription, distinguished here from haireton, choiceworthy. The distinction is grammatical and philosophical, not merely an alternative translation of the same word.
Use in the book
The Stoic passage calls every good choiceworthy but every benefit to be chosen. It illustrates the latter with thinking wisely, considered in connection with having practical wisdom. Its striking conclusion is that one does not choose the choiceworthy good directly; one chooses, if anything, to have it. This prepares the wider distinction between goods and benefits expressed as predicates. The lexicon follows the local analysis without substituting a more familiar general statement that all good things should be chosen.
The example turns on the relation between a possession and its exercise. Practical wisdom is considered as a good one has, whereas thinking wisely identifies a benefit associated with having it. The conclusion is carefully qualified: if anything is chosen in relation to the choiceworthy good, it is having that good. This does not turn goodness into something undesirable. It explains what the analysis treats as the object of choosing. The supplied good in the opening definition is visibly marked, while the activity-and-possession example provides the reader’s clearest route through the distinction.
“We do not choose what is choiceworthy; if anything, we choose to have it.” (Chapter 7 · Excerpt 6f · Passage 1).
Places to read
- Chapter 7 · Excerpt 6f · Passage 12The contrast is illustrated through practical wisdom and thinking wisely.
- Chapter 7 · Excerpt 11f · Passage 12Other verbal adjectives of choice, desire and wish are distinguished.
Translation in this edition
Keep “to be chosen” separate from “choiceworthy,” even when ordinary English might use either.
αἱρετέον
Attested. Chapter 7 · Excerpt 6f · Passage 1; Wachsmuth II, printed p. 78.
Διαφέρειν δὲ λέγουσι τὸ αἱρετὸν καὶ τὸ αἱρετέον. Αἱρετὸν μὲν εἶναι ⟨ἀγαθὸν⟩ πᾶν, αἱρετέον δὲ ὠφέλημα πᾶν, ὃ
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume II, printed pp. 78, 97. A grammatical article or infinitive can carry part of the distinction; it need not have a one-word English counterpart.