The Complete Oak Lawn Stoic System

*A comprehensive philosophical framework synthesized from Grant Sterling's Core Stoicism and "I Receive Impressions"*

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## I. STERLING'S THEORETICAL FOUNDATION

### Section One: The Fundamental Problem

**Th 1)** Everyone wants happiness.

**Th 2)** If you want happiness, it would be irrational to accept incomplete or imperfect happiness if you could get complete [continual, uninterrupted] happiness.

**2*)** Complete happiness is possible. [To be proven below.]

**Th 3)** All human unhappiness is caused by having a desire or emotional commitment to some outcome, and then that outcome does not result.

**4)** Ergo, if you desire something which is out of your control, you will be subject to possible unhappiness. If you desire many things out of your control, the possibility of complete happiness approaches zero.

**5)** By 4, 2*, and Th2, desiring things out of your control is irrational [if it is possible to control your desires].

### Section Two: The Mechanism of Control

**Th 6)** The only things in our control are our beliefs, judgments, and will, and anything entailed by our beliefs, judgments, and will.

**Th 7)** Desires are caused by beliefs (judgments) about good and evil. [You desire what you judge to be good, and desire to avoid what you judge to be evil.]

**8)** Ergo, desires are in our control.

**Th 9)** All beliefs and judgments result from assent to impressions.

**10)** Ergo, assent to impressions is the fundamental act of control.

**Th 11)** Impressions constantly arise claiming that various propositions are true, including value propositions about externals being good, bad, or necessary for happiness.

**12)** Ergo, happiness depends entirely on giving assent only to true impressions and refusing assent to false impressions, particularly false value impressions about externals.

### Section Three: Value Categories

**Th 13)** The only thing actually good is virtue, the only thing actually evil is vice.

**14)** Ergo, since virtue and vice are types of acts of will, they are in our control.

**15)** Ergo, things that are not in our control [externals] are never good or evil.

**16)** Ergo, if we value only virtue, we will both judge truly and be immune to all unhappiness.

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## II. STERLING'S PRACTICAL METHOD

### The Nature of Impressions

I receive impressions. These impressions are cognitive, propositional—they are not uninterpreted raw data, but rather ideas that claim that the world is a certain way. Some impressions are value-neutral, but others have a value component claiming that externals are good, bad, or necessary for happiness.

What is in my control is how I react to impressions. I can assent, or not assent. If I refuse to assent to an impression, nothing happens. No emotion, no action, nothing. If I assent to an impression with a false value component about externals, then unhappiness will eventually result.

### Sterling's Six-Step Method

What I should be striving for is:

**(a)** Don't assent to impressions that depict externals as either good, bad, or necessary for my happiness.

**(b)** If I fail 'a', don't assent to subsequent impressions that depict inappropriate responses to the supposed good or bad thing as being appropriate.

**(c)** Consciously formulate true propositions regarding the lack of value of external things. As far as possible, do this in advance.

**(d)** Consciously formulate true action propositions. By paying attention to preferred and dispreferred indifferents, and to the duties connected with my various roles in life, I can recognize what it would actually be correct for me to do in each situation.

**(e)** When I do act correctly, assent to the proposition that I have done a good thing—then I will experience appropriate positive feelings.

**(f)** Over time, my character will change such that I no longer have the false value impressions in 'a' and 'b', and 'c' and 'd' and 'e' become routine. This is the path toward eudaimonia.

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## III. OAK LAWN SYNTHESIS INNOVATIONS

### The Core Diagnostic Question

**"Is this impression making externals seem good, bad, or necessary for my happiness?"**

- YES → Target spotted → REFUSE assent

- NO → Safe → ASSENT if otherwise true

### The Waiting Stance

**Adopt the attitude described in Epictetus Encheiridion 48:** "He keeps guard against himself as though he were his own enemy lying in wait."

**This means:**

- Position yourself with the predatory alertness of an enemy waiting to catch someone making a mistake

- Apply this vigilant attention to catching your own moments of potential false assent

- Maintain alert but relaxed readiness for the next impression requiring evaluation

- Never abandon this stance, even during external activities

### The Integration Method

**Three components working together:**

1. **Sterling's Logical Foundation** (why impression management must work)

2. **Sterling's Six-Step Method** (how to manage impressions)

3. **Oak Lawn Waiting Stance** (the attitude that makes continuous practice possible)

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## IV. PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS

### Sterling's Six General Commitments

1. **Substance Dualism** - Mind distinct from body, enabling genuine mental control

2. **Metaphysical Libertarian Free Will** - Genuine agency in assent choices

3. **Ethical Intuitionism** - Moral truths directly apprehensible by reason

4. **Foundationalism** - Basic principles as self-evident starting points

5. **Correspondence Theory of Truth** - Judgments can genuinely match or fail to match reality

6. **Moral Realism** - Virtue objectively good, vice objectively evil

### Computational Framework

**Good/Bad/Indifferent Categorization:**

- **Good** = Virtue (rational choices aligned with nature)

- **Evil** = Vice (choices based on false value impressions about externals)

- **Indifferent** = All externals (not dependent on rational faculty)

**Control Categorization:**

- **Up to Us** = Beliefs, judgments, will, assent choices

- **Not Up to Us** = Everything else

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## V. DAILY PRACTICE STRUCTURE

### Morning Preparation

- Set waiting stance for the day

- Review likely false impressions you'll encounter

- Consciously formulate true propositions about externals you'll face

- Commit to maintaining the core diagnostic question

### Real-Time Application

**Continuous cycle:** Ready → Impression arises → Apply core question → Choose assent/refusal → Act if appropriate → Return to ready stance

**Background monitoring** maintained during all activities - like background music, always present but not intrusive

### Evening Review

- Examine impression management successes and failures

- Note character development progress

- Prepare for tomorrow's likely challenges

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## VI. ADVANCED APPLICATIONS

### "Not Having a Life" as Foundational Practice

**Recognition:** Conventional "having a life" involves making happiness dependent on externals, which directly contradicts Oak Lawn principles.

**Strategic approach:** Deliberately withdraw psychological investment from external pursuits while maintaining appropriate external actions as preferred indifferents.

**Result:** Simplified attention structure that enables continuous impression management.

### Marcus Aurelius Integration

The Oak Lawn core question can be applied through Marcus's specific techniques:

- **6.32:** Focus only on present rational activity

- **8.36:** Contain troubles to present manageable reality

- **11.2:** Decompose overwhelming impressions into ordinary parts

- **12.1:** Collapse temporal dependencies into present virtue opportunities

- **12.3:** Separate intelligence from body/circumstances/externals

- **6.7:** Find satisfaction in simple present social acts

- **2.5:** Concentrate exclusively on present virtue demonstration

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## VII. EMERGENCY PROTOCOLS

### When Overwhelmed

1. **Stop** - Recognize you've lost the waiting stance

2. **Breathe** - Return to present moment awareness

3. **Evaluate** - What false impression captured you?

4. **Refuse** - Apply core diagnostic question

5. **Formulate** - Create true alternative impression

6. **Return** - Resume waiting stance

### When Reactive

- Identify what false value impression about externals triggered the reaction

- Refuse assent to that impression

- Formulate true proposition about the external's indifferent status

- Return to alert readiness for next impression

### When Losing Motivation

- Remember: This is not optional self-improvement but logical necessity

- Review Sterling's theorems 1-16 showing why happiness must depend on internals

- Apply core question to the impression that external motivation is needed

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## VIII. CORE RECOGNITION

**The heart of the system:** You are always choosing (assent or refuse impressions). Every moment presents this choice. Impressions claiming externals are good, bad, or necessary for happiness are false. You don't need externals to cooperate for happiness - you need only to choose correctly when impressions arise.

**The waiting stance makes this possible:** By positioning yourself like an enemy lying in wait to catch false assent, you can maintain the continuous vigilance required for impression management.

**The character development result:** Through repeated correct choices, you gradually have fewer false impressions and more automatic virtue responses, approaching the sage ideal of complete happiness through complete rational control.

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## IX. SYSTEM VALIDATION

**Logical Necessity:** Sterling's theorems prove this system must work if happiness is possible at all.

**Practical Effectiveness:** Every correct application of the core diagnostic question immediately improves your situation.

**Philosophical Coherence:** The six general commitments provide robust metaphysical foundations for the practical techniques.

**Historical Authority:** Based on Epictetus's authentic teachings about impression management and the absolute dichotomy of control.

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**This represents the complete Oak Lawn Stoic system: logically necessary, practically applicable, philosophically grounded, and designed for continuous daily implementation through the waiting stance and core diagnostic question.**