Adiaphora — Indifferents
This week you are learning about adiaphora (pronounced ah-dee-AH-for-ah), the Greek word the Stoics used for "indifferents": things that are neither good nor bad in themselves, such as money, health, and reputation. The Stoics did not mean these things are worthless or that you should ignore them; they meant that your character is the only thing that can never be taken from you, and everything else sits in a different category entirely. Understanding exactly where reputation lives in that category is what will free you from one of the most persistent sources of anxiety in everyday life.
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 a helpful layer of nuance here. He acknowledges that things like a good reputation are not nothing; he is willing to call them 'advantages' or 'preferred things' (the Latin technical term is praeferenda, meaning things worth choosing when you have the option). But he draws a sharp line: preferred things are your chattels, not parts of yourself. A chattel is something you possess, like furniture; it is not something you are. The mistake people make, Seneca says, is preening over something they did not produce by their own effort. Your reputation is largely what others have decided to think; your character is what you have actually built.
Go deeper
Where in your life are you treating a preferred thing, something outside yourself, as though it were a part of your identity that must be defended?
Practice
Chattel or Character?
Choose one thing you take pride in that depends heavily on others' perception of you (a title, a social standing, a track record of praise). Write two sentences: first, describe it as a chattel you happen to hold right now. Second, describe the character quality underneath it that is actually yours. Sit with the difference for a few minutes.