← Glossary

Diairesis (in the Stoic Context of Judgment Examination)

The critical distinction and demarcation between involuntary impression (phantasia) and conscious judgment (doxa), practiced as an inner judicial process.

In the context of prosexis, diairesis denotes the active capacity to separate the raw impression (what actually occurred) from the interpretive evaluation (what I add to that event). It is not merely theoretical distinction but practical disentanglement — like Epictetus's judge separating the witness from the accusation. This distinction prevents the mind from automatically accepting involuntary impressions as facts.