Moral Progress (Prokopē)
Moral progress is a gradual journey toward wisdom; though perfection may be rare, continuous improvement is the Stoic practice.
Stoics distinguished between the sage (sophos) — a perfected moral exemplar — and the prokoptōn (one making progress). Most of us are in the latter category, continually working to align our judgments and actions with virtue. This makes Stoicism a practical daily discipline rather than an abstract ideal.
Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.
The concept of prokopē democratizes Stoic ethics, making it accessible to ordinary people as a path of incremental growth.
Enchiridion
Written about in
- What Stoicism says about starting again after a fall
Stoicism divides people into the sage, who never errs, and the prokoptōn, who is merely making progress — and it concedes that almost everyone is the second. A fall is not evidence that you were never serious about it; it is the ordinary condition of the only category you were ever in.