From the book
Stobaeus, Volume II
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordTruthfulness concerns self-presentation between self-depreciation and boastfulness, while dissembling and mocking sarcasm receive a separate Stoic criticism; these social meanings differ from the logical truth of a proposition.
- In StobaeusThe two accounts examine how people present themselves to others, but one classifies a mean and the other excludes dissembling from the conduct of the free and virtuous person.
- In this editionDo not substitute logical truth for the ethical state of truthfulness, or flatten self-depreciation, dissembling and sarcasm into one English term without their local differences and qualifications.
- A place to readChapter 7 · Excerpt 11m · Passage 4 Read dissembling and sarcasm together, attending to the additional ridicule in the second; then compare the separate mean of truthfulness without assuming identical definitions across the two reports.
- English renderings
- truthfulness; self-depreciation; dissembling
Meaning
The eirōneia family can concern understating oneself or dissembling. It should not automatically receive the modern literary sense of irony.
Use in the book
The Peripatetic list makes truthfulness a mean between self-depreciation and boastfulness, concerning the presentation of one’s qualities. The Stoic exposition condemns dissembling as alien to a free virtuous person and defines sarcasm as dissembling with ridicule. These contexts are related through self-presentation without being identical. Different English words preserve their distinction. Moral truthfulness here must also be distinguished from the logical truth or falsity of a proposition; a taxonomy of social states is not a definition of truth as such.
The argument attaches dissembling to the base person by excluding it from the free and virtuous person. Sarcasm is not introduced as an unrelated vice: it is defined through dissembling plus a measure of ridicule. That added feature matters when translating apparently similar forms of misleading speech. The later mean of truthfulness concerns another arrangement, with self-depreciation and boastfulness as extremes. Neither passage is a general account of how propositions become true. Both instead concern a speaker’s conduct and presentation in relation to other people.
“sarcasm, which is dissembling accompanied by a measure of ridicule.” (Chapter 7 · Excerpt 11m · Passage 4).
Places to read
- Chapter 7 · Excerpt 25 · Passage 82Truthfulness is a mean in self-presentation.
- Chapter 7 · Excerpt 11m · Passage 42Dissembling and sarcasm are condemned.
Translation in this edition
“Self-depreciation” suits the deficient extreme; “dissembling” the condemned action.
ἀλήθειαν
Attested. Chapter 7 · Excerpt 25 · Passage 8; Wachsmuth II, printed p. 146.
φιλίαν δὲ μεσότητα κολακείας καὶ ἔχθρας· ἀλήθειαν δὲ μεσότητα εἰρωνείας καὶ ἀλαζονείας· δικαιοσύνην δὲ μεσότητα
εἰρωνείας
Attested. Chapter 7 · Excerpt 25 · Passage 8; Wachsmuth II, printed p. 146.
μεσότητα κολακείας καὶ ἔχθρας· ἀλήθειαν δὲ μεσότητα εἰρωνείας καὶ ἀλαζονείας· δικαιοσύνην δὲ μεσότητα ὑπεροχῆς καὶ ἐλλείψεως
εἰρωνεύεσθαι
Attested. Chapter 7 · Excerpt 11m · Passage 4; Wachsmuth II, printed p. 108.
Τὸ δ’ εἰρωνεύεσθαι φαύλων εἶναί φασιν, οὐδένα γὰρ ἐλεύθερον καὶ σπουδαῖον εἰρωνεύεσθαι·
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume II, printed pp. 108, 146. No particular Socratic or dramatic use of irony is inferred from these clauses.