What Are Stoic Indifferents?

Question

What are the indifferents in Stoic philosophy, and how can a philosophy claim that health, wealth, and even life itself are "indifferent"? The doctrine sounds shocking, and its meaning is the key to the whole of Stoic ethics.

Quick Answer

The indifferents (adiaphora) are the things that are neither good nor evil in the Stoic system. The Stoics held that only virtue is good, only vice is evil, and everything else — health, wealth, reputation, pleasure, pain, life, death — is indifferent, because it does not belong to the soul and is not in our power. The doctrine does not mean that the indifferents do not matter or that we should not care about them: it means that they are not the ground of our happiness. The refinement of the doctrine is the distinction between preferred and dispreferred indifferents: health, wealth, and reputation are "preferred" — in accordance with nature, normally to be chosen; sickness, poverty, and disgrace are "dispreferred" — normally to be avoided. The preference is a matter of judgment, not of value: the preferred indifferent is chosen when nothing interferes with virtue, but it is not good, and its loss is not evil. The doctrine is the foundation of the Stoic freedom from fortune: the person who has understood that the indifferents are indifferent cannot be made unhappy by their loss.

Historical Wisdom

The doctrine of the indifferents is the most radical claim of Stoic ethics, and it descends from the Socratic and Cynic insistence that virtue is the only thing that matters. Zeno of Citium, the founder, established the doctrine: the good is virtue, the evil is vice, and everything else is between. The doctrine was refined by Chrysippus, who introduced the distinction between preferred and dispreferred indifferents, and it was defended against the critics who objected that the doctrine made health and wealth worthless. The Stoic answer was the distinction: the preferred indifferent has value in the sense of being worth choosing — it is "to be taken" (taking, haireton, in the sense of selection) — but it is not good in the strict sense, because it does not belong to the soul. The distinction allowed the Stoics to combine the radical doctrine with the practical life: the Stoic chooses health, works for wealth, and honors reputation — without being enslaved by any of them.

Philosophical Perspectives

The doctrine has three components. First, the definition: the good is what belongs to the soul — virtue, the perfection of reason; the evil is what belongs to the soul — vice, the corruption of reason; everything else is indifferent, because it belongs to neither. The criterion of the indifferent is the location in the soul: the things that are not in our power — health, wealth, reputation — are indifferents, because they can be taken from us and are not the expression of our character. Second, the refinement: the indifferents are divided into the preferred (in accordance with nature, to be chosen) and the dispreferred (contrary to nature, to be avoided). The division allows the Stoic to live the ordinary life — to prefer health to sickness, wealth to poverty — without valuing the preference as a good. Third, the practical meaning: the doctrine is the foundation of freedom. The person who has understood that the indifferents are indifferent is free of the two great enslavements — the fear of losing them and the craving to possess them. The Stoic cares for health, works for wealth, and honors reputation — but the happiness does not depend on them.

Lessons From Thinkers

From Zeno of Citium: the good is virtue, and everything else is between. From Chrysippus: the refinement — the preferred indifferent is chosen without being valued as good. From Epictetus: the practice — "some things are up to us and some are not," and the things that are not up to us are indifferents, to be accepted without disturbance. And from the tradition: the doctrine is not the contempt of the world but the freedom within it — the Stoic engages the world fully, without being enslaved by it.

Practical Application

The doctrine of the indifferents has direct practical application. In the pursuit of the goods of life — health, wealth, reputation — the Stoic distinction between choosing and valuing is the discipline: choose the preferred indifferent with full commitment, work for it with all your skill, and do not value it as the ground of your happiness. In the loss of the goods — sickness, poverty, disgrace — the distinction is the release: the loss is the loss of an indifferent, and the happiness is not destroyed with it. In the face of the ultimate indifferent — death — the doctrine is the freedom: death is the indifferent, and the person who has understood this is free of the fear of it. The practice is the daily examination of value: "Is this a good, or an indifferent? Is this in my power, or not?" — the questions that keep the doctrine alive.

Quotes

Zeno states the foundation: "The end is living in agreement with nature, which is the same as living virtuously." The tradition reports the doctrine: "The good is virtue; the evil is vice; and everything else is indifferent." And Epictetus states the practice: "Some things are up to us and some are not — and the things that are not up to us are indifferent, to be accepted without disturbance."

Related Questions

• What Is Stoicism? — the system of the doctrine.
• What Is the Stoic Dichotomy of Control? — the practical form of the doctrine.
• What Are the Stoic Virtues? — the goods the indifferents are contrasted with.
• What Is Apatheia? — the freedom the doctrine makes possible.