How To Be A Stoic When You Don't Know How: A 10-Week Training Program by Chakrapani Chuck

Author:Chakrapani, Chuck [Chakrapani, Chuck]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Stoic Gym
Published: 2019-10-05T00:00:00+00:00

The discipline of assent : The first window

In Stoicism, there are three disciplines: the discipline of assent, the discipline of action, and the discipline of desire. We practice the discipline of assent when we consider something and conclude whether it is true, false, or undecided.

In Epic Exam (this week’s exercise), you examine whether something is under your control or not and, on that basis, you take your next action. This is an important part of practical wisdom. In applying Stoic wisdom, you give your assent to what is true, withhold your assent to what is not true, and suspend your judgment when you don’t know if something is true or not.

This is an interesting point in Stoicism. As we saw at the very beginning of this course, Stoicism stresses the rational aspect of the human being. We can give assent to action that is in line with reality.

Stoicism does not deny our emotional nature. It simply says that we don’t have to act as though we are helplessly held hostage by our emotions or irrationality. We feel the emotion like everyone else. But, as we experience our emotions, we realize that we have a choice to make. We can be carried away by our emotions and give assent to something irrational or we can choose to give assent to only what it true—things that will help us to flourish. Even if we do something that is contrary to reason at an emotional moment, we can still re-evaluate it and withdraw our assent to what is untrue.

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