2026 Theses Doctoral

The World as It Is and as It Commands: The Structures of Reality in Stoicism

Hejduk, Anthony D.

While the Stoics are most famous today for their ethical teachings, these are supported by an intricate metaphysical system. In this system are lekta (sayables), incorporeal entities that give meaning to speech and thought. Much scholarly focus is on truth-apt “assertibles,” lekta that give meaning to declarative sentences and have much in common with modern theories of propositions.

My dissertation argues that certain non-truth-apt lekta, specifically the imperatival lekta that give meaning to commands, underlie and explain many of these more famous ethical teachings. Both assertibles and imperatives form part of the structure of reality, and when human beings have perfect reason, they gain the ability to follow these imperatives in the form of natural law.

I begin by developing a structural account of lekta, drawing on accounts of structure from philosophy of mathematics. This structural account explains both how lekta can play roles in language, psychology, and physics and how lekta are related to divine reason. I then turn this general structural account to imperatival lekta specifically, using contemporary work in imperative semantics alongside our surviving sources to reconstruct and categorize a Stoic theory of imperatives.

Finally, I show how this structural account of imperatives clarifies important aspects of Stoic ethics and theology. Because the wise are receptive to the imperatival structures that originate from divine reason, they are able to follow the commands of the law and act rightly.