Virtue cannot achieve its highest goal in isolation
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"Nature created friendship as an aide to virtue, not a comrade in vice, because virtue cannot achieve its highest goal in isolation, but only when joined and linked with that of another."
- Cicero, Laelius de amicitia, 83
A Stoic would say that it doesn't make sense to say that a person who happens to be lonely is for that reason necessarily less likely to become wise - less likely to become a fully rounded human being. The idea is that if wisdom consists in dealing well with any event or condition life throws at us and we deal well with loneliness, then our wisdom is not impeded by that loneliness. But can a human being deal wisely with loneliness in the long run? As a Socratic, Cicero says no. We need to take part in loving human interaction to grow naturally as human beings.
Virtue cannot achieve its highest goal in isolation
Virtue cannot achieve its highest goal in isolation
Virtue cannot achieve its highest goal in isolation
"Nature created friendship as an aide to virtue, not a comrade in vice, because virtue cannot achieve its highest goal in isolation, but only when joined and linked with that of another."
- Cicero, Laelius de amicitia, 83
A Stoic would say that it doesn't make sense to say that a person who happens to be lonely is for that reason necessarily less likely to become wise - less likely to become a fully rounded human being. The idea is that if wisdom consists in dealing well with any event or condition life throws at us and we deal well with loneliness, then our wisdom is not impeded by that loneliness. But can a human being deal wisely with loneliness in the long run? As a Socratic, Cicero says no. We need to take part in loving human interaction to grow naturally as human beings.