The problem of the perverse

Chrysippus of Soli (left) in animated conversation with Marcus Tullius Cicero (right) about the problem of the perverse. This conversation, of course, never happened, given that the two were born 173 years part (Chrysippus first!). Image generated by DALL-E.

One of the most powerful ideas of Stoic philosophy is that we are naturally “virtuous,” by which the Stoics meant that Nature endows us with the ability to reason and an innate tendency to act prosocially. And virtue—according to Seneca—is no...