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Welcome to The Stoa Letter, the newsletter on Stoic theory and practice. Today’s letter is from Stoa cofounder, Michael Tremblay.
🏛️ Theory
Epictetus once summarized Stoicism into just 3 steps:
This is the task of philosophy: to examine and establish standards [of judgement] and to make use of them when they are known.
Standards of judgement are what we use to evaluate the truth of an impression. It is a test. It’s like biting into a gold coin to check if it is real. The Stoics had several of these.
The Dichotomy of Control is a standard. Something is not good or bad for us, unless it is up to us.
So, Epictetus provided us with three steps to philosophy, and each of these is a different challenge.
First, we need to examine our own standards, and question them. Maybe we’ve called something good because it fed our ego. Is that the standard we want to apply to what we call good? Or is there a better one?
Second, we need to establish a correct standard of judgement for evaluating impressions. Something we believe in. This might be the dichotomy of control. It could be taking the view from above.
Third, we need to make use of our standards. Believing the dichotomy of control doesn’t help us unless we apply it. They need to be a part of our thinking. Then they will transform our lives.
Epictetus captures Stoic practice in just one sentence. To practice philosophy, we must examine, establish and apply correct standards of judgement.
🎯 Action
Pause throughout the day and examine whether you’re living consistently.
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