A Half-free will: Oenomaus on Chrysippus

by JLS
for the GC

hemidoulia
hemidoulos
hemieleutheria
hemieleutheros

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From
http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2001/2001-08-19.html

Brancacci contributes an interesting paper ("Libertà e fato in Enomao di Gadara") on Oenomaus of Gadara, the only Cynic philosopher of whom we can read an almost complete treatise (the "Γοήτων φώρα"). Branacci argues that Oenomaus is the first Cynic who not only writes on cynicism but also is willing to reform it (43-52). In its most philosophical part the paper concentrates on the criticism Oenomaus seems to have made against the Stoic notion of "fate".
Against it Oenomaus maintains that we are absolutely masters of the most necessary things (52-53).
Brancacci notices that the term used by Oenomaus to refer to human freedom is not the typical Cynic one ("ἐλευθερία"), but "ἐξουσία" (exousia), which expresses "the new concept of freedom in opposition to the already defunct and unhelpful "ἐλευθερία"" (55).
The term "exousia" means the ACT of wanting to do something and of being able to do something (55-56).
So, the notion of "ἐξουσία" looks quite different both from Aristotle's and Epicurus's "τὸ ἐφ' ἡμῖν" and "ἐλευθερία", and its term of opposition is not anymore, as in the classical cynicism, the inscrutable power of "τύχη", but necessity or rather fate (56).
Brancacci points out that Oenomaus' interest in recovering the theatre metaphor asserts "the effective and real possibility of man playing a role in the stage of life" (59).
This remark is, to some extent, unpersuasive since Chrysippus also thought of the agent as effectively playing a role on the stage of life.
Otherwise his compatibilist arguments would be absolutely pointless, but what they seem to prove is that Chrysippus was aware of the problem.
The paper closes with a useful appendix containing the main Testimonia of Oenomaos of Gadara.