How to be a Stoic capitalist: conclusion

How can us mere mortals, living in a ruthless, dog-eat-dog capitalist system, ever hope to obtain the sagacity and wisdom of a Stoic sage? Is it even possible to become wealthy or to better one’s condition in a way that is both logically andmorally consistent with the main precepts of Stoic ethics? These questions are no minor intellectually masturbatory quibble. To the extent most people live in a “commercial society,” i.e. a society in which “Every man … lives by exchanging, or becomes in some measure a merchant ….” (Wealth of Nations, I.iv.1, p. 37), the Stoic-capitalist dilemma should be of interest to all. My contribution to these questions is to propose a Smithian solution to the Stoic-capitalist dilemma by imagining Adam Smith’s “impartial spectator” device as a Stoic sage–our inner Marcus Aurelius. (See my previous post.) But at the same time, my Stoic portrait of Smith’s impartial spectator poses several deep questions that deserve further study. For starters, if a Stoic…