Trichotomy of Control

I'm not saying this is the start of something. I'd like to think^[1] that this will become a series of related articles, but it could end as well as begin today.

I've been reading through Irvine's A Guide to the Good Life in an attempt to find a comfortable ingress point to developing a Stoic philosophy of life. It was recommended in Robertson's Stoicism and the Art of Happiness and for me, has provided a chink in the seemingly impenetrable wall of names, dates and general 'where to begin-ness' of the subject.

I started to read about the sensible first step of using negative visualisation as a technique to improve appreciation of my lot, and the chapter about Epictetus' Dichotomy of Control followed soon after. Irvine (as I'm sure many others have) discussed splitting the second part about developing indifference to things outside our control into two parts again, such that the original premise:

• Some things are up to us, and some things are not up to us.

becomes, initially;

• Some things are completely up to us, and some things are not completely up to us.

and then:

1. Some things are completely up to us,
2. Some things are not completely up to us:
   2.1. Some things we have some degree of control over,
   2.2. Some things we have no control over.

Parts 1 and 2.2 are clear cut; the former we should approach with virtue and try to do the best we can with it, the latter we can (should) be indifferent to, as there's no point in trying to manipulate Fate. To illustrate the first, we have complete control over whether we choose to put our hand on a glowing ember. For the second, we can only watch as the Sun rises tomorrow, nothing more.

Part 2.1 is the new spur that doesn't fit neatly into the other two situations, but we have some degree of control. Irvine uses the scenario of winning a game of tennis or not. We can train and practice diligently, but that doesn't offer any guarantee that we'll win the game. In this new category, we can try to weight the probability in our favour, but it's wise to 'internalise' our goal, and not over-reach into setting ourselves up for disappointment. Using Irvine's example tennis match, resolving to play our best game is absolutely achievable, and we can be pleased with our performance and the effort we applied regardless of the outcome. If we're not victorious, we have still 'won' the goal that we set ourselves.

Thus, the Dichotomy of Control becomes a Trichotomy for beginning students like myself and makes the premise both more understandable, and far easier to start putting into practice in daily life.