§ IDefinition
A Stoic technical term: ὁρμή is the movement of the soul toward action, the impulse. In the Stoic chain by which an act is generated: φαντασία (impression) → συγκατάθεσις (assent of the ruling part) → ὁρμή (impulse) → πρᾶξις (action). Impulse is therefore not a "blind passion" but a function of an evaluative judgment that has already been accepted; this is why responsibility for the act is located in the act of assent, not in the impulse itself.
§ IISource
SVF III 169–177 (the doctrine of ὁρμή as κίνησις ψυχῆς πρός τι, "a movement of the soul toward something"); DL VII 110–116; Stob. Ecl. II 86–87 W; LS 33, 53Q, 65. In Marcus: Med. 2.2; 3.1; 05-03; 05-14 (the impulses of reason issue from reason itself); 05-20 (when obstructed — impulse "with reservation"); 05-37 (good ὁρμαί — part of the good lot); 06-16; 06-27; 06-50; 07-04 (at every ὁρμή — track what is being done and to what aim); 07-62 (look into the πηγαί… ὁρμῆς of those whose praise you seek); 07-75 (the ἰδία ὁρμή of the cosmos's ruling part — in the book's closing disjunction); 08-01 (doctrines "from which the ὁρμαί and acts" flow); 08-07 (ὁρμαί directed only to κοινωνικὰ ἔργα; the rule τέλος ἐν ὁρμῇ τὸ κοινωνικόν, "the end in impulse is the common good"); 08-16 (the act is carried through κατὰ τὴν σὴν ὁρμήν — a change of mind is one's own too); 08-41 (ἐμποδισμὸς ὁρμῆς — an evil to the animal nature; the impulse "with reserve" is unharmed); 09-01 (ὁρμὴ ἀρχαία — the "original impulse" of providence by which all comes to be "in sequence"); 09-07 (στῆσαι ὁρμήν — "halt the impulse": the second member of the triad-by-negation); 09-21 (death is the παῦλα of ὁρμή, the "pause of impulse"; no evil); 09-28 (ἐφ’ ἕκαστον ὁρμᾷ ἡ τοῦ ὅλου διάνοια — "the mind of the Whole impels toward each thing"; accept its impulse); 09-31 (ὁρμὴ καὶ πρᾶξις terminating in κοινωνικῶς πρᾶξαι — impulse aimed at the social act); 9.6; 11.37.
§ IIINotes
In 02-02 ὁρμή is marked by the key predicate ἀκοινώνητος — "unsocial": the ruling part must not allow an antisocial impulse to jerk it about like a puppet on strings (see puppet). This is the locus of Marcus's discipline of action: the quality of an ὁρμή is determined by whether it is oriented toward the common good (TERMcooperation) or against it (antiprassein). Compare Med. 8.7 — the imperative to "direct every impulse to the common benefit" — and Epictetus' Ench. 2 — on "οἰκεία ὁρμή" ("one's own impulse," the only impulse that is up to us).