Man's Soul and God's World: On the Doctrine of the "Proper Emotions" in the Teaching of Philo of Alexandria

The article deals with Philo's elaboration of the Stoic doctrine regarding the proper emotions (epsilon upsilon pi alpha theta epsilon iota alpha iota): joy (chi alpha rho alpha), caution or watchfulness (epsilon upsilon lambda alpha beta epsilon iota alpha), and wishing (beta omicron upsilon lambda eta sigma iota sigma) concerning the twofold state of the human mind: an individual (within the inner soul's structure) and the universal (relating to the world). In these two states of mind, one's disposition toward God's Logos is revealed. Philo puts the Stoic doctrine within the framework of Jewish theology, which considered man an essential link connecting created and uncreated nature. Philo avoids Stoics' monism and considers the problem of the self-determination of an individual mind in the light of the relationship between man's mind and God's Logos as two distinct essences. Philo finds the proper model of the inner man's world (microcosm) in the eupatheiai, which is perfectly correlated with the structure of the universe guided by God's Logos.