On Constancy 8

. . . "But suppose that he who has the power has declared, 'I judge you to be impious and profane.' What has happened to you? 'I have been judged to be impious and profane?' Nothing else? 'Nothing else.'

"But if the same person had passed judgment on an hypothetical syllogism, and had made a declaration, 'the conclusion that, if it is day, it is light, I declare to be false,' what has happened to the hypothetical syllogism? who is judged in this case? who has been condemned? the hypothetical syllogism, or the man who has been deceived by it?

Does he, then, who has the power of making any declaration about you know what is pious or impious? Has he studied it, and has he learned it? Where? From whom?

"Then is it the fact that a musician pays no regard to him who declares that the lowest chord in the lyre is the highest; nor yet a geometrician, if he declares that the lines from the center of a circle to the circumference are not equal; and shall he who is really instructed pay any regard to the uninstructed man when he pronounces judgment on what is pious and what is impious, on what is just and unjust? Oh, the signal wrong done by the instructed. Did they learn this here?" . . .

--Epictetus, Discourses 1.29 (tr Long)

My mother, who should probably know best, has always said that I have a sensitive soul, so it comes as no surprise that I am easily moved by the judgments of others.  I remember being deeply hurt when a person I considered my closest friend described me, thinking I was out of earshot, as "someone we all know will never amount to anything." That rubbed me the wrong way for years and years.

A part of learning to practice constancy is not to let ourselves be so easily swayed by the judgments of others. This does not mean that we don't listen to others, or have no concern for their thinking, but rather that we do not allow ourselves to be determined and ruled by their thinking.

Epictetus is of great assistance here, because he reminds us that we should consider not only the judgment itself, but the wisdom and merit of the one doing the judging. I would hardly listen to someone ignorant of medicine about my health, or someone who can't balance a checkbook on my finances.

Accordingly, I should pay little mind when the irreverent man says I am impious or profane, and the reverent or respectful man, for that matter, would hardly speak in such a manner to begin with.

I am right to consider then, with no malice or resentment, that a person who considers success to the accumulation of wealth and honors can hardly be a good judge of my own success.  Look not only at what has been said, but at the merit and authority of the source.

I might pursue such thinking one step further. Is it not right for me consider a poor judgment from an ignorant and spiteful man to be more of a compliment than an insult? And in reverse, as a warning to myself, might not praise from such a man be a warning that I'm getting something awfully wrong?

I should be careful who I listen to, and why I listen to them. 

Written in 4/1999

Image: Cesare Dandini, Personification of Constancy, c. 1634