The Askesis Glossary

Virtue or excellence; the condition of the soul that constitutes the only genuine good and the sole sufficient condition for human flourishing.

Indifferents; things that are neither genuinely good nor genuinely bad — including health, wealth, reputation, pleasure, and all external circumstances.

Tranquillity; freedom from mental disturbance or anxiety; the condition of the mind that is undisturbed by passion, fear, or desire.

Freedom from passion; the condition of the Stoic sage who is free from the distorted, irrational emotional responses (*pathē*) that arise from false judgments.

Love of fate; the Stoic (and Nietzschean) attitude of not merely accepting but actively embracing everything that happens, including adversity and suffering.

Practice or training; the deliberate exercise of philosophical disciplines — both mental and physical — that develop virtue and strengthen the rational faculty.

Courage; the cardinal virtue of facing difficulty, danger, and fear with rational steadiness — not the absence of fear, but the correct response to it.

Necessity; the inexorable order of cause and effect that governs all events — what the Stoics called fate (*heimarmenē*), understood as the rational necessity of the Logos.

Self-sufficiency; the condition of needing nothing external for one's wellbeing — the philosophical independence that the Stoics identified as a consequence of genuine virtue.

World citizenship; the Stoic doctrine that all human beings, as rational beings sharing in the Logos, are citizens of a single world community with obligations to one another.

Justice; the cardinal virtue of giving to each what they are owed — in one's dealings with others, in one's civic life, and in one's treatment of all rational beings.

Inner spirit or divine element; the rational part of the soul that connects the individual to the universal Logos — the source of moral guidance and philosophical aspiration.

Happiness or flourishing; the condition of living well — which the Stoics identified exclusively with virtue, not with external goods or pleasant feelings.

Good emotions; the rational, proportionate emotional responses of the Stoic sage — joy, caution, and wishing — as opposed to the distorted *pathē*.

Conflagration; the Stoic cosmological doctrine that the universe periodically dissolves into fire and is then reconstituted — the cosmic cycle of creation and destruction.

Suspension of judgment; the practice of withholding assent from an impression when its accuracy is uncertain — a key element of the Stoic discipline of assent.

Self-mastery or self-control; the capacity to govern one's desires, impulses, and passions through the exercise of reason.

The ruling or governing part of the soul; the rational faculty that receives impressions, gives assent, forms judgments, and directs action.

A stable disposition or state; the condition of a thing that holds it together and gives it its characteristic qualities — in ethics, the stable character traits that constitute virtue.

The right or correct ruling faculty; the hegemonikon operating as it should — giving assent only to accurate impressions and directing action in accordance with virtue.

Fate or destiny; the Stoic doctrine that all events are determined by the rational order of the Logos — not as blind necessity but as providential, rational unfolding.

Impulse or drive toward action; the motivational force that arises from an impression and moves a rational being toward or away from something.

Appropriate action; the action that is fitting or suitable for a rational being in a given situation — what we are obligated to do, given our nature and circumstances.

Cognitive grasp or apprehension; the condition of having a firm, accurate grip on reality — the foundation of Stoic knowledge.

Perfect appropriate action or right action (*katorthōma*); the action of the Stoic sage, performed from complete virtue and perfect rational understanding.

Community or fellowship; the natural bond that unites all rational beings and grounds the Stoic account of our obligations to one another.

The right or opportune moment; the appropriate time for action — the Stoic recognition that wisdom includes knowing not only what to do but when to do it.

The rational principle that governs and pervades the universe; divine reason; the active, intelligent force that structures all of reality.

What is said or expressed; the incorporeal content of a proposition — the meaning of a statement, as distinct from the physical sounds or marks that express it.

Seminal reason or seed-logos; the rational principles embedded in matter that determine the development and character of individual things.

Remember that you will die; the Stoic practice of keeping mortality in mind as a way of clarifying priorities, deepening gratitude, and living with greater intentionality.

Meditation or practice; the deliberate, repeated rehearsal of philosophical principles and responses — the Stoic equivalent of mental training.

Appropriation or affiliation; the natural orientation of living beings toward themselves and, in rational beings, toward others — the foundation of Stoic social ethics.

Breath; the vital spirit or tension that pervades all things and gives them their specific character and cohesion.

Moral purpose; the faculty of rational choice; the capacity to choose one's own judgments, desires, and responses — the only thing that is truly "up to us".

An impression or appearance; the way something presents itself to the mind, whether from sense perception or from thought.

The premeditation of evils; the Stoic practice of deliberately imagining future difficulties, losses, and adversities in order to prepare for them and reduce their psychological impact.

Attention or watchfulness; the continuous, active monitoring of one's own mental states — impressions, judgments, desires, and responses — that is the foundation of Stoic practice.

Practical wisdom; the cardinal virtue of knowing what is genuinely good and bad, and how to act accordingly in any given situation.

Progress or advancement; the condition of the person who is making genuine philosophical progress toward virtue, without yet having achieved the complete wisdom of the sage.

Preferred indifferents; things that are neither genuinely good nor genuinely bad but are nonetheless reasonable to prefer — health, wealth, reputation, and similar external goods.

Friendship or affection; the natural bond of care and goodwill that the Stoics believed should extend from intimate friendship to all of humanity.

Promoted or preferred things; the Stoic term for things that have positive value without being genuine goods — the preferred indifferents.

Passion or distorted emotion; an irrational, excessive emotional response that arises from false judgments about what is genuinely good or bad.

Assent; the act of the ruling faculty accepting or rejecting an impression as accurate; the cognitive act that transforms an impression into a belief or judgment.

Temperance or self-control; the cardinal virtue of appropriate moderation in desires and pleasures — not abstinence, but the rational governance of appetite.

Cosmic sympathy; the Stoic doctrine that all parts of the universe are interconnected and mutually responsive, forming a single rational whole.

End or goal; the ultimate aim of human life — which the Stoics identified as living in accordance with nature and virtue.

Tension or tension-strength; the degree of tension in the pneuma that determines the strength and coherence of a thing — including the strength of a person's rational faculty.

Contemplation or theoretical understanding; the philosophical activity of understanding the nature of things — which the Stoics valued as a component of the good life but subordinated to practical virtue.