On Stoic Self-Contradictions: ἀδικεῖν vs. βλάπτειν in Chrysippus (SVF III, 289)
On Stoic Self-Contradictions: ἀδικεῖν vs. βλάπτειν in Chrysippus (SVF III, 289)

Summary/Abstract: In this article, I offer an analysis of Chrysippus’ treatment of “injustice” (ἀδικία) in SVF III, 289. First, I show that he espouses two theses: I) Every injustice is an act of harming those who suffer it; II) One who does injustice to others thereby does it to one-self. Then I discuss the two most plausible interpretations of II): a) One who does “conventional” injustice to others, i.e. causes them non-moral harm, thereby does “moralistic” injustice to oneself, i.e. makes oneself morally worse; b) One who does “moralistic” injus-tice to others thereby does it to oneself. I show that a) is untenable because the Stoics reject the very notion of non-moral harm, and b) fails because they believe that moral harm is basically self-regarding.

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