Contempt for Praise and Blame
This week you're learning about "Contempt for Praise and Blame," the Stoic practice of refusing to let reputation, approval, or insult determine your inner state. The idea rests on a distinction the Stoics called the "three classes of things": some things are genuinely good (virtue and everything that flows from it), some are genuinely bad (vice), and everything else, including reputation, praise, and the sting of blame, is "indifferent" (in Greek, adiaphora, meaning things that do not, by themselves, make you better or worse as a person). Once you see clearly that praise and blame belong to that third, indifferent category, the power of both compliments and insults begins to dissolve, and you are left standing on steadier ground.
Passage
Other things are goods according to opinion, and though they are called by the same name as the true goods, the essence of goodness is not in them. Let us therefore call them “advantages,” and, to use our technical term, “preferred” things. Let us, however, recognize that they are our chattels, not parts of ourselves; and let us have them in our possession, but take heed to remember that they are outside ourselves. Even though they are in our possession, they are to be reckoned as things subordinate and poor, the possession of which gives no man a right to plume himself. For what is more foolish than being self-complacent about something which one has not accomplished by one’s own efforts?
— Seneca, Letters 74.17
Reflection
Seneca adds something precise and practical to the framework today. He agrees that reputation is not a true good, but he does not want you to dismiss it entirely. He suggests calling things like praise, status, and good standing 'advantages' or 'preferred indifferents' (the Latin term is 'praeferenda,' meaning things worth choosing when the choice is easy, but not worth your integrity). The key line is this: they are your chattels, not parts of yourself. A chattel is something you own and can lose; it is not your character. Being praised is a pleasant possession. Being insulted is an unpleasant one. Neither one defines what you actually are. This week's practice of contempt for praise and blame does not ask you to pretend reputation is worthless; it asks you to hold it lightly, like something borrowed.
Go deeper
Where in your daily life do you treat a 'preferred indifferent,' such as your professional reputation or the approval of someone close to you, as if it were actually part of who you are rather than something you happen to carry right now?
Practice
Owned but Not You
Choose one thing about your reputation or how others see you that you value, your competence at work, your reliability among friends, your appearance. Write one sentence describing it as a possession you currently hold, not as a fact about your character. For example: 'Right now I happen to carry the reputation of being dependable.' Read it back slowly. Notice any resistance.