It ain’t no fallacy: on living according to Nature

Epictetus explains exactly why the famous Stoic motto is not logically fallacious

The human heart typically operates “in accordance with Nature,” that is as Nature “intended.” Even though Nature doesn’t actually have intentions.

Sometimes I’m asked to provide a capsule version of Stoicism. Or a bumper sticker version. Or an elevator speech version. You know, the whole thing in a nutshell. The bottom line. It’s incredible how many phrases American English has for “simplify to the essence.” Except that sometimes things are just a bit too complicated to be written out on a bumper sticker or explained during an elevator ride.

“Live according to Nature” is one such thing. It is, Diogenes Laertius tells us, the standard motto of the Stoic school:

“Zeno … said that the goal is to live in harmony with Nature, which means to live according to virtue; for Nature leads us to virtue.” (Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, 7.87)

This, in my experience, is both one of the most powerful and most easily misunderstood concepts of Stoicism. Even many who practice Stoic philosophy don’t seem to quite get it. I’ve written about it in the past, but let me try again, from a different angle.

Specifically, people confuse living according to Nature with a common informal logical fallacy, the appeal to Nature. If the Stoics really meant that whatever is natural is ipso facto…