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Wellsprings
ethics

Indifferents & Preferred Indifferents

ἀδιάφορα / προηγμένα

Health, wealth, even life itself are neither good nor evil—yet a Stoic sage still reaches for them, all else being equal.

The Stoics held that the only true good is virtue and the only true evil is vice; everything else—health, money, reputation, even death—is strictly "indifferent" to happiness. But they refused to flatten all these into one heap. Among the indifferents, some accord with nature and are "preferred" (worth choosing when nothing nobler is at stake), while their opposites are "dispreferred." This subtle doctrine let the Stoics insist that virtue alone suffices for the good life, while still explaining why a wise person sensibly pursues health over sickness and wealth over poverty.

Where this idea shows up

13 Greek sources

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