MAKING CORRECT USE OF IMPRESSIONS: A FORMAL MODEL OF STOIC COGNITION
MAKING CORRECT USE OF IMPRESSIONS: A FORMAL MODEL OF STOIC COGNITION
An outline account
IMPRESSION
"The impression arrives pre-packaged with its own correspondence claim. It doesn't wait for you to apply correspondence theory. It already embodies it. It says: "I am true because I match what is"" (CORRESPONDENCE THEORY).
"These impressions don't report your feelings about events. They report the moral properties of events. They claim to track objective value in the world" (MORAL REALISM).
RECOGNITION
"This separation is not psychological but metaphysical. It presupposes that the mind is not identical with its representations, and that representations are not identical with the world. Prohairesis is not a function of the impression and not a product of the event. It is a distinct locus of judgment" (SUBSTANCE DUALISM)..
"Once the impression is seen as a representation rather than as reality itself, correspondence becomes applicable. The impression may match reality or it may not. It may be true or false. It may succeed or fail both factually and normatively" (CORRESPONDENCE THEORY)..
PAUSE
"The pause does not occur in the body. The body reacts according to physical law. The heart rate increases. The muscles tense. Neural firings propagate.
"The pause does not occur there.
"The pause occurs in prohairesis — the rational faculty of judgment.
"It is not a physical event but a rational one. It is not a neural configuration but a stance
toward a representation. It is not a brain state but a suspension of endorsement.
"If the pause were a brain state, it would be governed by physical causation and therefore determined. It would be one more link in a chain, not a break in it.
"The pause exists because prohairesis is not governed by physical law in the way the body is. It operates in a domain where stimulus does not necessitate response" (SUBSTANCE DUALISM).
EXAMINATION
"The standards used in examination are not derived from other beliefs. They terminate justification. They are the bedrock against which all claims are tested.
"Virtue is the only good."
"Vice is the only evil."
"Everything else is indifferent."
"Only what is up to us has moral status."
"These are not hypotheses. They are not conclusions. They are the conditions under which moral reasoning is possible at all.
"They function as axioms. They are the ruler, not what is measured.
"Without such foundations, no impression could be tested — only compared (FOUNDATIONALISM."
"This recognition is not sensory and not emotional. It is rational and immediate. It is the direct apprehension of category membership: virtue, vice, or indifferent" (ETHICAL INTUITIONISM).
"This recognition is not private. It is not subjective. It is not conventional.
"The categories are not preferences. They are not feelings. They are not cultural agreements.
"They are objective features of moral reality.
"The impression either corresponds to them or it does not. Either the object falls into the category it claims to occupy, or it does not" (MORAL REALISM).
DECISION
"At the point of decision, more than one outcome is genuinely possible. The impression does not necessitate assent. The past does not necessitate assent. The psychological state does not necessitate assent."
"Three alternatives are open:
'Assent.
Refusal.
Suspension.'"
"None is forced. None is excluded by prior conditions. None is illusory.
"The choice is not produced by the world. It is introduced into the world.
"Freedom does not operate in a vacuum. It is constrained by reality.
"The criterion governing decision is correspondence.
"If the impression matches reality, assent is appropriate.
"If the impression fails to match reality, refusal is appropriate.
"If the match cannot be determined, suspension is appropriate.
"This rule is not pragmatic, emotional, or cultural. It is not about benefit, comfort, or approval. It is about alignment.
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