Type Nine and Stoicism

Type nine is described by Naranjo as the "most stoic of characters." Nines are amiable, pleasant, harmonious...as long as you don't bother them too much. They occupy a neutral place that avoids extremes. They're generally pleasant people, frequently friendly, but in a way that maintains a nice, comfortable middle ground. Where nines run into trouble is when a situation demands too much of them and thus disrupts their harmonious, neutral position and forces action. Stoicism and resignation, repressing emotional investment or higher expectations for the sake of comfort and routine, become a means of averting action.

My reading suggestion for Type Nine is "Hellenistic Philosophy: Introductory Readings" translated by Inwood and Gerson (Hackett, 2nd edition). Pay particularly close attention to the writings on fate on pages 179-190.

Cicero criticizes the "lazy argument." The lazy argument states that since something is fated, actions are meaningless: if you're sick, it doesn't matter if you call the doctor or not since your fate is already sealed. Cicero rightly points out that such an attitude would have the consequence of rendering all actions as meaningless.

This is especially poignant for nines since the nine's tendency to resign themselves to fate could have the inevitable consequence of reducing everything to insignificance until inertia occurs. However tempting this may be, one is wise to remember the concerns raised by Alexander of Aphrodisias: if everything is fated then nothing is praiseworthy or blameworthy as virtue and vice become mere matters of fate. "But it is absurd," he argues, "to say that the virtues and vices are not in our power, and that they are not objects of praise and blame." (II-88) Nines of a spiritual bent, especially nines with a one wing, may find it helpful to contemplate what virtuous action means to them, and how they actively contribute to their virtue.

I think it could be helpful for nines to look at these passages and contemplate how their peacefulness may be intertwined with some implicit, underlying fatalism. After doing that, consider Chrysippus' response to the doctor argument: he suggests that fate can be conjoined and co-fated. The argument that it does not matter if you call a doctor neglects the point that getting well may be fated, but so is calling the doctor, therefore it is not the case that action doesn't matter, but rather that both the action and the outcome are intermingled. So, accepting one's fate also means accepting one's involvement in the course of one's fate. This way, one may maintain an overall accepting attitude while finding small ways to take action.


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