Skip to content
← Glossary
Kataphronesis

Kataphronesis

Contempt or deliberate devaluation of false beliefs and irrational judgments.

Kataphronesis denotes the Stoic attitude of active inner contempt toward harmful opinions and faulty judgments. It is not emotional disdain, but a rational distancing exercised by the discerning hegemonikon, which diminishes their psychological power. This is a central technique in the Praemeditatio Malorum, used to strip feared scenarios of their emotional charge.