William Stephens Quote on the Dichotomy: The Modern Discipline

Quote

"The dichotomy of control is the foundation of the modern practice: the discipline that returns the attention to what is ours, and the freedom that comes from the release of what is not." — William O. Stephens, Stoic Ethics: Epictetus and Happiness as Freedom (2007)

Author

William O. Stephens is an American philosopher, a professor at Creighton University, and the author of Stoic Ethics: Epictetus and Happiness as Freedom (2007), a work that has shaped the modern understanding of the Stoic practice.

Source

The quotation is from Stoic Ethics: Epictetus and Happiness as Freedom (London: Continuum, 2007).

Context

The teaching belongs to the modern recovery of the Stoic discipline. The dichotomy of control — the distinction between what is up to us and what is not, stated by Epictetus at the opening of the Enchiridion — is the foundation of the Stoic ethics, and Stephens presents it as the foundation of the modern practice: the discipline that returns the attention to what is ours, and the freedom that comes from the release of what is not.

Meaning

The quotation states the modern account of the dichotomy with complete clarity. "The dichotomy of control is the foundation of the modern practice" — the foundation: the distinction between what is up to us and what is not is the first principle of the practice, and the whole of the discipline is built on it. "The discipline that returns the attention to what is ours" — the return: the discipline returns the attention to what is ours — the judgments, the choices, the conduct — the place where the action is possible. "The freedom that comes from the release of what is not" — the release: the freedom comes from the release of what is not ours — the outcomes, the opinions, the fortune — the release of the anxiety about what we cannot control. The quotation is the modern form of the ancient opening of Epictetus, and it grounds the Stoic wisdom tradition's account of the dichotomy in the language of the modern world.

Related Wisdom

The quotation belongs to the modern practice of the dichotomy of control and the Stoic account of freedom. Its presentation of the dichotomy as the foundation connects to Epictetus's ancient discipline and to the wider wisdom tradition's teaching on the freedom.