The class of indifferents that, all things being equal, should not be selected.
Examples include death, pain, poverty, and exile.
These were not thought to be bad, because only vice is bad.
What makes something bad is that it is never worth selection or choosing, and there are instances, the Stoics point out, when it may be worth choosing death, pain, poverty or other dispreferred indifferents.
For example, it may be better to select the pain of challenging exercise, or physical therapy, in pursuit of the goal of health, or to select death to save the life of another.
However, we should not choose these in a vacuum.
It is unnatural, the Stoics argue, to choose pain, or give up your possessions, or leave your social community for no reason.
The natural state of a human is to want to avoid these things, unless they have a good reason not to.
Greek: Apoproegmena
ἀποπροηγμένα.
Book: Essential Stoic Concepts
Subtitle: A Stoic glossary
Author: Stoa
Chapter: Dispreferred Indifferents (Chapter 11 of 32)
Sections in this chapter:
Section 2:
The class of indifferents that, all things being equal, should not be selected.
Examples include death, pain, poverty, and exile.
These were not thought to be bad, because only vice is bad.
What makes something bad is that it is never worth selection or choosing, and there are instances, the Stoics point out, when it may be worth choosing death, pain, poverty or other dispreferred indifferents.
For example, it may be better to select the pain of challenging exercise, or physical therapy, in pursuit of the goal of health, or to select death to save the life of another.
However, we should not choose these in a vacuum.
It is unnatural, the Stoics argue, to choose pain, or give up your possessions, or leave your social community for no reason.
The natural state of a human is to want to avoid these things, unless they have a good reason not to.
Greek: Apoproegmena
ἀποπροηγμένα.