Year
2026
Season
Summer
Paper Type
Master's Thesis
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Degree Name
Master of Arts in International Affairs (MAIA)
Department
Philosophy and Religious Studies
Committee Chairperson
Dr. Hans-Herbert Koegler
Second Advisor
Dr. Gaylord Candler
Third Advisor
Dr. James Wetzel
Fourth Advisor
Dr. Paul Carelli
Abstract
This thesis examines a central yet easily misunderstood concept in Stoic philosophy: the distinction between which things are within a person’s control, referred to as internals, and things over which people have no control, called externals. The rarity of and discrepancies among surviving texts from the ancient Stoics serve to further this misunderstanding. This issue is attended to by working through the fragments and testimonia mostly in Inwood and Gerson’s The Stoics Reader (2008) in order to weigh and compare accounts from within the Stoic school against those of outsiders and later historians. The inquiry centers on how the distinction between internals and externals shapes Stoic definitions of virtue, passion, and appropriate action, as these are the concepts through which the distinction gains significance. This thesis will show that the category of internals, things of the soul, is entirely determined based on the capacity for moral, rational judgement. Externals, such as one’s body or position, on the other hand, belong to a completely separate category which is excluded from moral judgement which, lacking any inherent value, may at most be circumstantially preferred. A sense of Stoic autonomy is then described not as a freedom from physical or political encumbrances, but as a freedom from irrational judgements which grants the individual the ability for rational assent. This freedom, as will be shown, comes about only through great, concentrated effort and as such reveals a demanding account of autonomy grounded entirely in the individual’s own reasoning.
Suggested Citation
Conner, Jackson S., "Stoic autonomy: The distinction between internals and externals" (2026). UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 1467.
https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/1467
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