What Is Up to Us
Some things are within our control — our judgments, impulses, desires, and aversions. Everything else is not truly ours.
Epictetus's foundational teaching divides reality into two realms: what is 'up to us' (eph' hēmin) and what is not. Our opinions, intentions, desires, and aversions are within our power. Our bodies, reputations, property, and outcomes are not. Freedom and flourishing come from focusing exclusively on the former.
Of things, some are in our power, and others are not.
This dichotomy is the conceptual foundation of the entire Stoic therapeutic system and its most enduring practical contribution.
Enchiridion
Written about in
- What Stoicism says about fear and anxiety
Epictetus divides everything into what is up to you — your judgements, intentions, wants and aversions — and what is not. Fear tends to live entirely on the far side of that line.
- What Stoicism says about starting again after a fall
Epictetus splits everything into what is up to us — judgment, impulse, desire, aversion — and what is not. Applied to a fall this is narrow and brutal: the damage done, the job lost, the other person's opinion of you are not yours to redo. Only the next judgment is.