OS ESTOICOS E A ARTE DA VIDA

This paper explores the stoic position that practical wisdom is a kind of skill applied to our life as a whole. First we argue that the affinity between the virtues and the technai was a well-established tendency in the ancient world, but the stoics radicalize this position. We discuss which conceptual innovations were necessary to implement such project, and we show how this is related to the thesis that virtue is sufficient to happiness. We conclude by remarking that the techné toû bíou is a way to defend a conception of the good life in which the central component is freedom.