A New Stoicism, by Lawrence C. Becker  Princeton University Press 1998,  216 ps.

In this increasingly postmodern world where pluralisms of all kinds abound and contribute to a maddeningly foggy ethical landscape, we may find ourselves seeking with Charlie Croker, the protagonist of Tom Wolfe's A Man in Full, a versatile and compelling single ethical system—one that in our case speaks to the ethical dimension of the psychoanalytic enterprise. Following Wolfe's lead, we discover the possibility of such a system in Lawrence C. Becker's superb, scholarly volume.

Becker, a professor of philosophy at the College of William and Mary, seeks to sever quaint naturalist assumptions from the ethical propositions at the heart of the stoic philosophy. The ancient stoics were persuaded that each person should live in contentment whatever their circumstances because in doing so each contributes to nature's unknowable purpose. In repudiating the grounding of stoic ethics on this metaphysical assumption that nowadays is embarrassed by the nonteleogical findings of modern science, Becker asks how else the elements of its ethical propositions may be legitimated. By way of partial answer, he holds that it is in this same modern science that an endorsement for the exercise of virtue is to be found. He finds persuasive support for stoic ethics in contemporary psychological and neurophysiologie