A Stoic and Socratic Theory of Motivation

Stoic moral psychology—dominant for several centuries within the Greek and Roman philosophical tradition—centrally includes a phenomenon designated by the Greek term hormê, which translators have variously rendered as appetitio, 'conation,' 'impulse,' 'desire,' Trieb, tendance, and (more recently) 'effort.' Hormai, of which the pathê or emotions are central instances, are characterized in the Greek sources both as representations with proposition-like content and as motions in some way directed towards an intentional object. Accordingly, they puzzlingly appear to have, and perhaps even to integrate, both belief- and desire-like features. I consider this element of Stoic theory against both its Socratic background and contemporary accounts of motivation.