Concepts

All concepts 17

• Assent (synkatathesis)

  Assent is the mind's power to say yes or no to an impression, and the Stoics treat training it as the whole work of philosophy.

• Cognitive theory of emotion: opinions as the cause of disturbance

  You will learn why the Stoics locate the cause of anger and grief not in other people's acts but in the judgments you add to them.

• Cosmopolitanism: citizen of the world

  You will learn why the Stoics held that your true city is not your nation but the whole rational cosmos, and what that claim demands of you.

• Desire and aversion (orexis and ekklisis)

  You will learn why Epictetus treats desire and aversion, not pleasure and pain, as the hinge on which a good life turns.

• Externals: what is not up to us

  A guide to the Stoic distinction between what belongs to us and what merely surrounds us, and why confusing the two is the source of all disturbance.

• Fate and providence

  You will learn why the Stoics thought willing acceptance of fate, not resignation, is the mark of a free mind.

• Impressions (phantasiai)

  You will learn why the Stoics thought the real battle happens before you react, in the instant something first strikes your mind.

• Indifferents: what is neither good nor bad

  Learn why the Stoics called wealth, health, and even death indifferent, and why that word does not mean unimportant.

• Involuntary wrongdoing

  You will learn why the Stoics held that no one does wrong on purpose, and how that claim is meant to change your anger, not your judgment.

• Judgements (opinions)

  You will learn why the Stoics held that external things cannot disturb you, only your judgements about them can, and how that changes what you can actually control.

• Justice: the Stoic virtue of giving each their due

  You will see why Marcus Aurelius calls injustice a form of impiety, and what that means for how you treat other people.

• Living according to nature

  You will learn what the Stoics meant by nature as a standard, and why it points to reason and community rather than to instinct or simplicity.

• Memento mori: keeping death in view

  You will learn why the Stoics practiced remembering death daily, and why this is a discipline of attention rather than a morbid fixation.

• Progress: the proficient (prokopton)

  Learn how the Stoics defined moral progress, not as knowledge or calm feelings but as a visible change in where you place blame and what you desire.

• Social duty: why the Stoics treat cooperation as a virtue

  You will learn why the Stoics thought rational beings are built for each other, and why acting for the common good is not self-sacrifice but self-interest correctly understood.

• The dichotomy of control

  You will learn why Epictetus draws a hard line between what is up to us and what is not, and why that line is about identity and value, not stress management.

• Tranquility (ataraxia): the good ordering of the mind

  You will learn why Stoic tranquility is not a feeling you chase but a state of mind you build by returning to a few fundamental judgments.