Dichotomy of Control

Maintaining our moral character is never an easy task. It takes discipline, knowledge, and willingness to sacrifice comfort. Epictetus knew that really well and his Enchiridion starts with a dichotomy of control: “Some things are in our control and some are not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our actions.”

As we know, the only truly good thing is a virtue. Being a virtuous person is under our control. But controlling someone else is not under our control. Upon realizing this simple formula, one is able to become free of anxiety and worry. There’s a story about Zeno of Citium and Antigonus. Antigonus liked to listen to Zeno’s lectures. But when meeting Zeno, he was anxious. Unlike Zeno, who was not. Antigonus wanted something outside his control. He wanted to impress Zeno, hence the anxiety. Epictetus also tells us about the lyre player. When alone, he is not anxious. But in public, he is because he gives up his power. He wants to impress the public, something which is not under his control. Epictetus then asks, what is the thing that the lyre player desires? For if he desired something inside his control, how could he have been anxious? Besides, these things are not really good, because truly good things can’t be stolen, killed, or be dependent on outer entities. Like fame, which is dependent on other people. We have seen this in the example of Stilpo. When a conqueror killed Stilpo’s family, Stilpo said, that everything good is with him. Seneca remarked that Stilpo was truly a good philosopher. For him only virtue was good, not his family, relatives, or something outside of his control. It is true that things like anxiety or other impressions can creep into anyone’s head. But as Epictetus points out in his fragments, there’s a difference between a fool and a wise man. The wise man, upon seeing impressions, knows that they are not real. A fool, however, thinks that they are. A Fool can, however, become wise if he works on his greatest faculty: reason. Reason is the guiding principle. It’s a tool using which we can differentiate between good and bad. It’s also under our control.

When we talk about things inside or outside of our control, we should remember, that even though health and income are partially under our control, they are still dependent on forces outside ourselves. For example, income may be dependent on the opinion of our boss or health on the vaccine, which may not yet even exist.

However, it is in our power to react to an event however we wish to: “People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them.” - Epictetus

It is up to us to decide whether we wish to be happy or not and in Stoic ethics, this is the ultimate goal. Epictetus points to Hercules and asks, who would have been Hercules if not his 12 labors? Even the name of Hercules is strange for laymen. It means admirer of Hera, which might have been hard to understand because it was Hera herself who imposed 12 labors on Hercules. Nevertheless, we should have the example of Hercules whenever our reasoning faculty is under attack or we are distressed and worry about things that are outside our control.