what is happiness? Unlike the Epicureans, peers and rivals of the Stoic adherents, pleasure was not seen as the fastest way to happiness or the goal of life(Stanford). As having what is really good in one's life defines happiness, the question of what good is comes to light. The Stoic view of good, then, defines what they saw as the path to happiness. Stoics taught that there is only one good. That is Virtue. There are many virtues, of which there are four cardinal, or chief virtues. From this spring the four Cardinal Virtues: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance(Stoic). Only through living a virtuous life, then, can happiness be attained. Likewise, there is but one evil, that being Vice. However, not all things are virtues or vices. All other things were considered indifferent by the Stoics(White). This stance was, though, altered slightly. How can all else be indifferent? Herein lies, at best, a paradox. For example, the Stoic would say that both poverty and wealth are indifferent. Is not plenty better than destitution(White)? This is explained by the idea that, although wealth is not good and poverty bad, wealth does have some value that makes it preferable to poverty. This value does not deal with its goodness, however. Thus, there are positive, negative, and truly indifferent indifferents. Positive indifferents are positive because they are fitting or suitable to us. Plenty is more suitable to us than poverty. Health is more suitable than sickness. Pain is less suitable than the absence of it. So, although some indifferents are preferable to others, it is only the virtues that make one's life good.Stoics believe that a life in harmony with nature requires these virtues. Their view that the universe is driven in a fixed cycle by the creative fire-reason-God leads them to a logical outcome that the things that happen to them are predetermined and unavoidable(Fieser). Thus, it makes little sense to tr...
