← Glossary
In Stoic psychology, Kenostasis describes the state in which the governing faculty (Hegemonikon) consciously remains in a condition of non-decision. Unlike Ataraxia (tranquility of soul as the fruit of virtue) or Apatheia (freedom from passions), Kenostasis is an active withholding of judgment — a kind of inner emptiness that can arise when one consciously neither assents to nor rejects a Phantasia. It is an intermediate state, a preparatory stance for the critical examination (Proskehe) of impressions, and is closer to the continuous suspension between impulses than to the attainment of Eudaimonia.