The Stoic Path to Indifference

How to properly apply value-judgments

Mind Candy is a newsletter on practical philosophy and human flourishment—aka how to live “the good life.” Each month we tackle a new theme.

This month we’re exploring the theme of adversity.

One of the keys to overcoming any challenge we face is holding the proper judgment of the situation.

In Stoic philosophy the things outside of our control are known as externals and these externals are broken into three categories: good, bad, and indifferent.

In the Stoic tradition, the externals break down as follows:

• Good, the thing benefits the individual/self;

• Bad, the thing doesn’t benefit the individual/self;

• Indifferent, the thing may be good or it could be bad, it is dependent on several other circumstances.

When we encounter things outside of our control, we naturally apply a value-judgment to them. Everything we encounter holds one of these three judgements and it is up to us to properly apply them to the situation before us. Today, this is known as the Discipline of Assent.

The challenges of life require we properly understand our role within them. One of the most important things we can do, according to the Stoics, is ensure the things external to us are categorized correctly. When we cannot properly judge the role externals play, we become susceptible to the situations and open ourselves to allowing our emotions to make the judgments rather than our rational side.

The judgment of indifference is key to the Discipline of Assent as so many of life’s externals falls into this category. Indifference can be broken down further as some indifferences are preferred where others are dispreferred.

Good health would be an example of a preferred indifference, illness would be dispreferred. We don’t fully control the health we have but we’d prefer to live a healthier life rather than one of illness.

Likewise, having money is a preferred indifference, whereas poverty is a dispreferred. Having money helps make life easier and we can do more things with it, but it is not the whole of life and should not shift our internal state, hence it is preferred.

Indifferences play a huge role in how we live our individual lives. It’s not that these things somehow transform our soul in the eyes of the Stoics, rather, they help make life better but do not actually change our internal state (or shouldn’t).

“Adorn thyself with simplicity and with indifference towards the things which lie between virtue and vice,” writes Marcus Aurelius to himself.

If we do not know how to categorize our externals, we allow ourselves to more easily fall into the trap of vice, allowing for things such as money and fame to be our end-goal. The Stoics, however, viewed human flourishment as our end-goal. If, say, money and fame come with our pursuit of living a flourishing life, that’s okay, they’re a preferred indifference, but they shouldn’t be the aim of our existence.

To the Stoic, virtue is our aim.

With each scenario we encounter, we can learn to suspend judgment. We don’t have to have an opinion. We can look upon life with pure indifference and keep our ability to objectively review the problem before us.

“To determine what is reasonable or unreasonable, not only do we have to form a judgment about the value of external things,” Epictetus taught his students, “but we also have to judge how they stand in relation to our own specific character.”

If we allow our emotional side to become involved by the challenge we face, we risk losing control of the situation. If we encounter the challenge and we become upset for example, we must take a step back and question why we are upset. What is the judgment we’re applying to the situation? How is that bringing in our emotions?

The goal is not to erase our emotions, rather, it is to not allow them to cloud our judgment so that our rational faculty can thrive regardless of the situation at hand.

As Epictetus said, it is not things that disturb us but our opinion of them.

So when we feel the emotional side of us pulling us into the situation, we must take a moment to stop and examine the emotion that has arisen within us and ask, “why are you here? What within me do I need to examine to better understand why this emotion arose?”

A good series of questions when adversity strikes is:

• Is this within my control? (If it is, fix the situation.)

• If it is not, what is the value-judgment I am applying to the situation?

• What is the value-judgment I should be applying instead?

We’re only able to truly overcome the situations we encounter in life when we can properly judge the situation. By doing so, we provide ourselves freedom from emotion and irrational thought from clouding our mind. And if we can do this, then we’re clear-eyed and ready to take on the challenge before us with reason.

“Nothing is so conducive to spiritual growth as this capacity for logical and accurate analysis of everything that happens to us,” Marcus Aurelius reminded himself.

Proper judgment now and in every situation we encounter. This is the Stoic way.

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Until next time,

D.A. DiGerolamo

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