This chapter examines two models of how Stoics decide what to do: the Salva Virtute deliberation and Indifferents-Only deliberation. The Indifferents-Only model is superior to the Salva Virtute model for deliberating on an actual situation. The Salva Virtute model is unable to provide any content to the notion of doing the ‘virtuous thing’ beyond saying that the virtuous action is whatever the Sage will actually do. The Indifferents-Only model proposes that virtue is not mentioned among the inputs to deliberation. The deliberation will eventuate in the specification of a virtuous action, but will start by describing the various courses of action purely in terms of how various indifferents — promoted and demoted — are distributed.
Keywords: befitting, action, virtue, deliberation, Salva Virtute model, Indifferents-Only model, Stoics, philosophy