kathêkon

The ancient Stoics were among the most interesting of all philosophical schools. Concentrating primarily on the relationship between humans, nature and the divine, their numbers included the famous astrologer-poet Manilius, and such notables as Zeno, Epictetus, and Seneca. As far back as 2000 years ago, they considered many ethical issues that we find ourselves revisiting today.

It is generally accepted that the movement began with Zeno, who, entranced with the Athenian schools of philosophy that flourished in his time, left home and went there, and was accepted as a student by the famous Cynic Crates and his philosopher-wife Hipparcha. After some time, core ideas shifted somewhat, influenced by various other schools, and by the time neo-platonism was well developed, many generations later, Stoicism had become a fully fleshed-out school of philosophical thought, encompassing science, logic, and all other aspects of philosophy studied in those times. Despite the drawbacks of the rigid framing of ideas common to classical philosophers, these thinkers produced many timeless and valuable insights that can be applied tp our post-modern problems.

Epictetus was a Roman-era Stoic famous for his writings on morality and ethics. He once wrote: "Whenever someone treats you badly, or speaks badly of you, remember that he did or said it because he believed this was the kathêkon thing for him. It isn't possible for him to follow how things appear to you, only how they appear to him."

This word kathêkon, like many Greek philosophical terms, has many meanings, including appropriate, reasonable, and advantageous. In modern times, a very accurate translation would be self-interest, and as most of philosophy has been reduced to ideas that serve the kathêkon of the ruling class, we find that individual self-interest has been re-framed to mean personal financial interest, including aspirations to social status.

People vote what they believe to be their kathêkon, not on facts about the political issues that affect their lives, and not on their values - and that is understandable from the standpoint of both linguistics and neuroscience. It makes sense that people who are bombarded with easy to understand slogans, catch phrases and "sound bytes" created in think-tanks designed for that purpose would wire together some neuronal associations that make some of these ideas seem "natural" or "good" or kathêkon.

A serious problem arises though. Since the rise of capitalism, business owners concerned about what their processes and products do to both the environment and people, worked with politicians to give their corporations rights, like human beings, so that these "entities" could bear the burden of responsibility, and they could remain untouched by the lawsuits, insurance costs and other coffer-draining annoyances.

This problem is compounded by the fact that in modern industrial republics, government serves the kathêkon of corporations, and constantly re-invents the laws that are supposed to protect citizens from exploitation into new laws that protect the corporations from public accountability.

Also, thanks to corporate-owned mass media, many people have come to believe that corporate kathêkon is their kathêkon. This state of mind usually exists in direct proportion to the amount and value of one's possessions, and is responsible for most of the bad decisions made by political bodies throughout the world.

When you walk down the street, or for that matter, walk into your closet, how many corporate logos, symbols and signs do you see? Companies are paying billions for ads on TV, on billboards and in print, yet people are paying a premium for the logos or other recognizable signs of the companies that they believe to reflect their kathêkon. The truth is that those companies are charging people to accept a scientifically designed marketing plan as an expression of their own souls: people have been taught to accept sales gimmicks as their own kathêkon.