Synthesis: Phantasia, Dogma, and Sterling's Systematic Stoicism

Phantasia, Phainomenon and Dogma in Epictetus by Aldo Dinucci

Nine Excerpts and Full Texts Regarding Stoicism from Grant C. Sterling

Core Identity

The article and Sterling describe the same mechanism using different vocabularies:

Academic Article → Sterling's System

Phantasia → Impression

Dogma → Value belief/judgment

Axioma → Propositional content

Testing phantasia → Assent/refusal to impressions

Prohairesis → Will/inner self/soul

The Propositional Structure

Both emphasize that impressions are cognitive and propositional, not raw sensory data:

Article: "Rational phantasiai are articulated in propositional or linguistic form... associated with an axioma that describes and evaluates"

Sterling (#7): "Those impressions are cognitive, propositional--they are not uninterpreted raw data, but rather ideas that claim that the world is a certain way"

Both reject the notion that we experience uninterpreted sense data. Every impression already contains a claim about reality.

The Two-Sided Nature

Article: Phantasia has "two sides: on the one hand, it is a modification of the rational capacity; on the other hand, this modification is associated with an axioma"

Sterling: This maps onto the distinction between:

 1. The impression itself (not directly in our control)

 2. Our assent to it (in our control)

The Causal Mechanism

Article: "What in fact moves the mind is a certain dogma about the external object which is the cause of the perceptual content of the phantasia"

Sterling (#7): "If I assent to an impression with a value component, then a desire will result... If the impression says that this outcome has already occurred, then an emotion will result"1

Both identify the same causal chain:

 - Impression with evaluative content → Assent → Desire/Emotion → Action

Testing Equals Assent

Article: "Testing phantasiai in Epictetus means testing a dogma, a certain opinion or belief about what caused the perceptual content of a phantasia"

Sterling (#7): "Everything on the Stoic view comes down to assent to impressions. Choosing whether or not to assent to impressions is the only thing in our control"

The article's "testing" = Sterling's moment of "assent or refusal." Both recognize this as the sole locus of control.

The Dichotomy of Control Applied

Both texts make the Internal-External boundary definitive:

Article:

 - Bad dogma: "evaluate external things as good or bad"

 - Good dogma: "evaluate external things as indifferent and evaluate internal things as good or bad"

Sterling (#3, #9):

 - "Only virtue is good and only vice is evil"

 - "Things not in our control [externals] are never good or evil" (Th 12)

 - "All beliefs that externals have value are, hence, false" (#4e)

Prohairesis as Identity

Article: "Prohairesis is what we really are, and it is good only when it holds good dogmata"

Sterling (#5): "My identity is defined as the rational part of me, the part that chooses" (#3)

Both define human essence as the choosing faculty, not the body or external circumstances.

The Eudaimonia Connection

Article: "Attaining human good through the proper use of phantasiai, in turn, results in imperturbability, and the improper use of phantasiai results in mental turbulence"

Sterling (#9):

 - Section Two: Bad judgments → unhappiness

 - Section Three: True judgments → positive feelings

- "If we value only virtue, we will both judge truly and be immune to all unhappiness" (Th 14)

Character Formation

Article: Implied in the need to eliminate bad dogma and cultivate good

Sterling (#7): Explicit mechanism described:

 - "Our impressions are closely connected to our character"

 - "If you reject an impression, then it makes that same type of impression less common and weaker"

 - "The Sage is simply someone who has controlled their assents so carefully for such a long period of time that they no longer receive the false value impressions"

Sterling makes explicit the long-term developmental aspect that the article treats more briefly.

The Encheiridion 1 Rule

Article: "We must apply, first of all, the rule expressed in the first chapter of the Encheiridion. If it is about something external, we must understand that it is not up to us and, consequently, not a good or a bad thing"

Sterling: This rule appears throughout all nine excerpts as the foundational principle:

 - "Only internal things are in my control" (#2)

 - "Things not in our control [externals] are neither good nor evil" (#3, #8)

- Formalized in Section Two, Th 6, 10-12 (#9)

Practical Application

Both texts agree on how to practice:

Article's Method:

Scrutinize the dogma in harsh phantasia

Recognize it evaluates externals as good/bad

Eliminate that false evaluation

Replace with correct evaluation (external = indifferent)

Sterling's Method (#7): a) Don't assent to impressions depicting externals as good/evil b) Don't assent to subsequent immoral response impressions c) Consciously formulate true propositions about externals' lack of value d) Consciously formulate true action propositions e) Assent to having done good when you act correctly f) Character gradually transforms

The Key Synthesis Point

The article provides the technical vocabulary and theoretical framework of how Epictetus understood the psychology of impressions, while Sterling provides the systematic logical structure and practical methodology for the same teaching.

Both agree absolutely on:

 1. Impressions are propositional (not raw data)

 2. The evaluative content (dogma/value belief) is what matters

 3. Only internals have value; externals are indifferent

 4. Testing/assent is the sole point of control

 5. Emotions flow from false value judgments

 6. Eudaimonia = true judgments = virtue = imperturbability

Sterling's contribution is systematizing this into formal logical proofs and providing explicit step-by-step practice instructions that make Epictetus's technical theory actionable.