Thursday, September 24, 2015

Sellars on the Definition of Virtue

I'm working my way through John Sellars' book "Stoicism" as part of my studies for the College of Stoic Philosophers SES course. His book is excellent so I decided to search Youtube to see if he has any lectures posted.

He does. 

In his talk he gives some definitions which stand out to me and which I'd like to record (I use this blog as a sort of commonplace book):

"Bad" Passions: unpleasant emotional experiences based on mistaken value judgements

"Good" Passions: positive emotional responses that are based on correct value judgements

Good: something that always and necessarily benefits us

Virtue: the only good... an excellent, healthy state of mind

Joy: the good passion produced by virtue