Glossary
Prohairesis
προαίρεσις (prohairesis)
Prohairesis is Epictetus’s word for the faculty that chooses: the part of a person that assents or refuses, desires or avoids, and that no external force can compel. Translators have never agreed on an English equivalent. Elizabeth Carter, in 1758, writes “the Faculty of Choice”; George Long, in 1877, prefers “the will”; later versions offer “moral purpose” or “volition”. The Greek word, from haireō, to take, means a taking-before, a preferring, and in Aristotle it names deliberate choice; Epictetus narrows it to the seat of what is in our power.
Enchiridion IX, in Carter’s wording, gives the doctrine as a pair of examples: sickness is an impediment to the body but not to the faculty of choice, unless itself pleases; lameness is an impediment to the leg, not to the faculty of choice. The reader is to say the same of every thing that happens: it will impede something else, but not oneself. The self, on this account, is the prohairesis.
Chapter XXX applies it to duties. Faced with a bad father or an unjust brother, one considers not what the other does but what one must do to keep one’s own faculty of choice in a state conformable to nature. The term thus links the dichotomy of control to ethics: what is ours is not only a private domain to protect, it is the place where right action is decided, and where freedom from passion, apatheia, is won or lost.
In the texts
Epictetus · Enchiridion, IX
Sickness is an Impediment to the Body, but not to the Faculty of Choice, unless itself pleases.
Epictetus · Enchiridion, XXX
Consider not what he doth; but what you are to do, to keep your own Faculty of Choice in a State conformable to Nature.
What the term does not mean
- Not “free will” in the later metaphysical sense. Epictetus is not arguing about determinism; he is naming the faculty whose use is up to us.
- Not a synonym of “mind” or “soul”. The word names the choosing part specifically; Carter’s “Faculty of Choice” keeps that narrowness.
- Not a fixed translation. “Will”, “choice”, “moral purpose” and “volition” all render the same Greek word; a citation should say which edition it follows.
Related terms
- Dichotomy of control — τὰ ἐφ’ ἡμῖν / τὰ οὐκ ἐφ’ ἡμῖν (ta eph’ hēmin, ta ouk eph’ hēmin)
- Apatheia — ἀπάθεια (apatheia)
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