Making Correct Use of Appearances

 What should the Stoic desire? to make correct use of appearances.

"[S]ince the correct use of appearances is a logical function of man, the whole of ethics is a function of logic." So Phillip de Lacy (p. 114) interprets Epictetus' _Discourses_1.1.

"The axiological function of the logical faculty is called the 'use of appearances.' The exact meaning of this phrase will become clearer as the work progresses. The term 'appearance' (_phantasia_) does not refer here to sense perceptions but refers rather to opinions of value that are expressed in such statements as 'That object seems to be bad.' The use (_chresis_) of appearances does not refer to any overt act of ours in manipulating external objects but rather to the way we receive appearances, test their validity, and relate to them our desires and impulses. The correct use of appearances comprehends the whole of ethics for Epictetus. As he says in the first discourse, it is the _kratiston_apanton and the _kurieuon_["the best faculty of all, the one that rules over all the others," 1.1.7; Hard], the one thing which the gods have put in our power. We may then state the doctrine expressed in the first discourse as follows: Since things beyond our control are not pertinent to our moral conduct, the whole of ethics is limited to the use of appearances, which alone is in our power; and, since the correct use of appearances is a logical function of man, the whole of ethics is a function of logic."

The Logical Structure of the Ethics of Epictetus