Epistemic Projection Error

The Stoic critique of the human tendency to interpret one's own impressions and expectations as objective truth, rather than perceiving things as they actually are.

Xenophanes observed that humans project their own characteristics onto what they do not understand — the Greeks gave their gods human forms, the Egyptians black gods, the Thracians red-haired ones. The Stoics adopted this critique as a central epistemic problem: humans confuse their phantasiai (inner impressions shaped by desires, fears, and expectations) with objective knowledge. This is the root of false judgements (doxa hamartanē) and leads to the passions (pathē).