Kathēkon ( el, καθῆκον) (plural: ''kathēkonta'' el, καθήκοντα) is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

concept, forged by the founder of

Stoicism Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century BCE. It is a philosophy of personal virtue ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world, asserting tha ...

Zeno of Citium Zeno of Citium (; grc-x-koine, Ζήνων ὁ Κιτιεύς, ; c. 334 – c. 262 BC) was a Hellenistic philosopher from Citium (, ), Cyprus. Zeno was the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy, which he taught in Athens from about 300 B ...

. It may be translated as "appropriate behaviour", "befitting actions", or "convenient action for nature",Nova Roma
interview of A. Poliseno, "Stoicism in Ancient Rome", or also "proper function". ''Kathekon'' was translated in Latin by

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...

as '' officium'', and by Seneca as ''convenentia''. ''Kathēkonta'' are contrasted, in Stoic ethics, with '' katorthōma'' (κατόρθωμα; plural: ''katorthōmata''), roughly "perfect action". According to Stoic philosophy, humans (and all living beings) must act in accordance with Nature, which is the primary sense of ''kathēkon''.

Kathēkonta and katorthōmata

According to Stoic philosophy, each being, whether animate or inanimate (plant, animal or human), carries on fitting actions corresponding to its own nature. They distinguished between "kathēkonta" and "katorthōmata," a perfect action derived from the "orthos

logos ''Logos'' (, ; grc, λόγος, lógos, lit=word, discourse, or reason) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric and refers to the appeal to reason that relies on logic or reason, inductive and deductive reasoning. Aris ...

" (reason) (also "''teleion kathēkon''": a perfect, achieved ''kathēkon''). They said that the wise person, or sage, necessarily carried out ''katorthōmata'', that is, virtuous ''kathēkon'', and that what distinguished both was not the nature of the act, but the way it was done. Thus, in exceptional circumstances, a sage (a state of being which in Stoic philosophy is nearly impossible to achieve) could carry out a katorthōma which, according to ordinary standards, would be deemed monstruous (for example, having sexual intercourse with one's daughter, if the destiny of humanity is at stake, or mutilating oneself.) Stoic morality is complex, and has various hierarchical levels. On the first, layman level, one must carry out the action corresponding to one's own nature. But, according to the Stoic strict moral ideas, the acts of a layperson are always misguided (ἁμαρτήματα ''hamartēmata'' "mistakes," or ''peccata''), while the acts of the rare sage are always ''katorthōmata'', perfect actions. The sage acts in view of the good, while the ordinary being (layperson, animal or plant) acts only in view of its survival. However, both act according to their own nature.

Indifferent things

Stoic philosophers distinguished another, intermediary level between ''kathēkonta'' and ''katorthōmata'': ''mesa kathēkonta'', or indifferent actions (which are neither appropriate, nor good). A list of ''kathēkonta'' would include: to stay in good health, to respect one's parents, etc. ''Para to kathēkon'', or actions contrary to befitting actions, would be the reverse of this type of actions (to insult one's parents, etc.) Intermediary actions refers to "indifferent things" (ἀδιάφορα – ''

adiaphora Adiaphoron (; plural: adiaphora; from the Greek (pl. ), meaning "not different or differentiable") is the negation of ''diaphora'', "difference". In Cynicism, adiaphora represents indifference to the s of life. In Pyrrhonism, it indicates thin ...

''), which are in themselves neither good nor bad, but may be used in a convenient way or not. Such "indifferent things" include wealth, health, etc. These are not excluded from the domain of morality as one might expect: Cicero thus underlined, in ''

De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum ''De finibus bonorum et malorum'' ("On the ends of good and evil") is a Socratic dialogue by the Roman orator, politician, and Academic Skeptic philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero. It consists of three dialogues, over five books, in which Cicero ...

'' (About the Ends of Goods and Evils, III, 58–59), that when the wise person acts in the sphere of "indifferent things," he still acts conveniently, according to his own nature.

Intentionality and perfection

Intentionality ''Intentionality'' is the power of minds to be about something: to represent or to stand for things, properties and states of affairs. Intentionality is primarily ascribed to mental states, like perceptions, beliefs or desires, which is why it ha ...

is crucial in Stoic ethics: the morality of the act resides not in the act itself, but in the intentionality and the way in which it is realized, in other words, in the moral agent itself.

Stobaeus Joannes Stobaeus (; grc-gre, Ἰωάννης ὁ Στοβαῖος; fl. 5th-century AD), from Stobi in Macedonia, was the compiler of a valuable series of extracts from Greek authors. The work was originally divided into two volumes containin ...

defined ''kathēkonta'' as probable actions (''probabilis ratio'' in Latin), or everything done for one reason (''eulogos apologia'' in Greek). Cicero wrote: "''quod autem ratione est, id officium appellamus; est igitur officium eius generis, quod nec in bonis ponatur nec in contrariis'', in ''

'', III, 58. Another distinction between ''kathēkon'' and ''katorthōmata'' has been to say that ''katorthōmata'' were ''kathēkonta'' which "possessed all the numbers" (''pantas apechon tous arithmous''), a Stoic expression meaning perfection. Such a ''katorthōmata'' is done in harmony with all virtues, while the layperson may only act in accordance with one virtue, but not all of them. Stoics believe that all virtues are intertwined and that the perfect act encompasses all of them.

Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...

, ''On Stoic Self-Contradictions'', in ''

Moralia The ''Moralia'' ( grc, Ἠθικά ''Ethika''; loosely translated as "Morals" or "Matters relating to customs and mores") is a group of manuscripts dating from the 10th–13th centuries, traditionally ascribed to the 1st-century Greek scholar Pl ...

'', 1046 E–F (SVF III, 299, 243 – see Long & Sedley, 1987, 61F)

References

Bibliography

* Long, A. A.; Sedley, D. N. (1987).'' The Hellenistic Philosophers: vol. 1. translations of the principal sources with philosophical commentary'' {{Stoicism Concepts in ancient Greek epistemology Concepts in ancient Greek ethics Concepts in ancient Greek metaphysics Concepts in ancient Greek philosophy of mind Concepts in logic Concepts in metaphilosophy Stoicism Theories in ancient Greek philosophy