Glossary — Making Correct Use of Impressions

(Alphabetical, with definitions)

Making Correct Use of Impressions: A Formal Model of Stoic Cognition

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Act (of Assent / Refusal / Suspension)

The originating deed of prohairesis by which a claim is endorsed, rejected, or held open.

Act-Possibility

A genuinely available alternative at the moment of decision.

Adjudication

The function of prohairesis as judge of claims.

Affective Noise

Non-cognitive bodily reactions accompanying impressions.

Agency

The condition of being a locus of authorship under genuine alternatives.

Alignment

Assent matching reality.

Apparent Evil

What an impression presents as evil prior to examination.

Apparent Good

What an impression presents as good prior to examination.

Appearance

How an impression initially presents itself as reality.

Assertion-Form

The way impressions grammatically present claims as already true.

Assent (sunkatathesis)

Endorsement of a claim as true.

Authorship

Origination of an act within the agent.

Axioms (of Examination)

Foundational moral truths terminating justification.

Avoidance (apotropē)

Refusal to engage dispreferred indifferents.

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Belief

An assented claim stabilized over time.

Belief-Fixation

The settling of assent into standing judgment.

Boundary Condition

A structural limit on what is possible.

Brute Causation

Non-rational physical determination.

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Category Error

Misclassification of moral or ontological kind.

Causal Closure (Physical)

The thesis that only physical causes operate.

Claim

What an impression asserts.

Claim-Identity

The specific content of a claim.

Claim-Pressure

The felt pull of a claim toward assent.

Coherence

Consistency among beliefs.

Cognitive Authority (False)

The impression’s assumed self-validity.

Cognitive Grasp (katalepsis)

Secure recognition of correspondence.

Cognitive Impression (kataleptikē phantasia)

An impression that matches reality.

Collapse

Failure of a structural distinction.

Commitment

A standing assent structuring future judgments.

Constraint (of Truth)

The requirement that assent match reality.

Constraint-Satisfaction

Meeting all standards of correctness.

Content

What is represented by a claim.

Correspondence

Matching between claim and reality.

Counterfactual Freedom

The agent could have done otherwise.

Criterion

A standard for correctness.

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Deed

Decision as actualized commitment.

Decision

Resolution of whether to assent, refuse, or suspend.

Default Assent

Automatic endorsement without recognition.

Derivative Value

False value attributed to externals.

Determination

Absence of alternative possibilities.

Distortion

Systematic misrepresentation.

Divergence

Assent failing to match reality.

Domain

A kind of being.

Doxa (Opinion)

Unexamined assent.

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Epistemic Authority

Claimed right to be believed.

Epistemic Blindness

Inability to detect error.

Epistemic Humility

Recognition of undetermined status.

Epistemic Noise

Irrelevant interference in judgment.

Error (hamartia)

False assent.

Error-Tolerance

Freedom includes capacity for error.

Evaluative Content

Value-claim within an impression.

Evaluative Inflation

Overweighting externals.

Examination

Testing claims against reality and axioms.

External

What is not up to us.

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Fact-Value Fusion

Impression’s blending of description and evaluation.

Failure Mode

A systematic breakdown pattern.

False Fact

Descriptive mismatch.

False Value

Evaluative mismatch.

Formal Constraint

A structural rule.

Formal Freedom

Freedom defined structurally.

Frame

Background orientation of attention.

Freedom (Libertarian)

Genuine openness of future at decision.

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Ground

That in virtue of which something is.

Groundlessness

Absence of terminating standards.

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Hamartia (Error)

See Error.

Hegemonikon

Rejected Stoic ruling faculty.

Homologia

Agreement with reason.

Hormē (Impulse)

Action-tendency following assent.

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Immediate Apprehension

Non-inferential recognition.

Impression (phantasia)

Assertive representational mental event.

Impression-Drift

Movement of impressions toward assent.

Imputability

Condition of responsibility.

Independence (of Mind)

Non-identity of prohairesis with physical processes.

Indifferent (adiaphora)

What has no moral value.

Inferential Overreach

Treating foundations as conclusions.

Internal

What is up to us.

Internal Sovereignty

Exclusive authority over assent.

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Judgment

Assent as truth-commitment.

Jurisdiction

Authority of prohairesis over claims.

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Kathēkon

Appropriate action.

Katorthōma

Perfect action.

Katalepsis

See Cognitive Grasp.

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Logical Priority

What must exist for something else to exist.

Logical Space

Field where evaluation occurs.

Logos

Rational order of truth.

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Mere Appearance

Unrecognized impression.

Misalignment

Assent diverging from reality.

Modal Openness

Multiple futures possible.

Moral Kind

Virtue, vice, or indifferent.

Moral Realism

Moral facts are objective.

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Norm-Fact Distinction

Difference between is and ought.

Normative Fact

Fact about what ought to be.

Normative Load

Value-weight of a claim.

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Objectivity

Independence from preference.

Ontological Dependence

What requires something else to exist.

Ontological Openness

Future not fixed by past.

Opinion (doxa)

Unexamined belief.

Override

Refusal of a compelling false impression.

Ownership

Responsibility grounded in authorship.

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Pathē

Passions; false evaluative assents.

Pause

Suspension of assent.

Phenomenological Authority

How impressions appear self-validating.

Practical Error

False judgment enacted.

Practical Identity

Self constituted by its assents.

Presentational Force

Urgency with which claims present.

Priority Inversion

Letting externals govern internals.

Projection

Mistaking internal reaction for external property.

Proēgmena

Preferred indifferents.

Prohairesis

Rational faculty of authorship.

Propatheiai

Pre-passions; bodily reactions prior to assent.

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Rational Constraint

Freedom bound by truth.

Rational Posture

Holding claims open to testing.

Recognition

Reclassification of appearance as representation.

Recognition Failure

Collapse of subject–object distinction.

Refusal

Rejection of a claim.

Reification

Treating representations as things.

Representation

Claim understood as such.

Representational Status

Logical category of impressions.

Responsibility

Imputability for one’s assents.

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Self-Distinction

Differentiation of self from representations.

Semantic Collapse

Loss of truth/meaning distinction.

Semantic Force

Meaning-bearing power of claims.

Signal

Truth-relevant content.

Skopos

Aim of alignment.

Standing Judgment

Persisting belief.

Structural Condition

Precondition of possibility.

Structural Failure

Breakdown of necessary structure.

Substrate

That which underlies events.

Suspension

Withholding of assent.

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Telos

End: stable rational alignment.

Temporal Asymmetry

Past fixed, future open.

Testing

Comparing claim to reality.

Tracking

Belief follows reality.

Truth

Correspondence.

Truth-Aptness

Capacity for truth or falsity.

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Undetermined

Correspondence cannot be established.

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Value Projection

Mistaking reaction for value.

Vice (kakia)

False judgment.

Virtue (aretē)

Correct judgment.

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World

What is the case independently of representation.

World-Answerability

Claims answer to reality.

World-Disclosure

How reality becomes knowable.

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Zero-Point

Moment of suspension.

Zone of Responsibility

Domain of what is up to us.

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This is now the complete operational glossary of the system.