406 Glossary
suspension of judgement (epoche): a mental state or act characterized by an
absence of commitment to or belief in dogmatic conclusions.
symmetry (summetria): balance and harmony; frequently used by Chrysippus
and other Stoics in an extended sense. sympathy (sumpnoia): in Stoic physics,
the state of sharing the same pneuma with something, being organically bound
up with it.
system (hairesis): also doctrine; a connected set of beliefs and theories; also,
the school defined by adherence to such a set of beliefs.
testify for/against (epimarturein, antimarturein): in Epicureanism, to provide
evidence for or against something which is not immediately evident. 'Testify' by
itself translates marturein.
thing said (lekton): the content of propositions and meaningful phrases mediat-
ing between the words used and the objects or states of affairs denoted by them.
unaffected, impassible (apathes): not subject to change or alteration.
uncongenial (allotrios): something which is incompatible with or opposes the
health, well-being or interests of an animal; opposite: congenial (oikeios).
uncontroverted (aperispastos): an Academic term for an impression against
which there is no counter-evidence.
undecidable (anepikritos): something which cannot be settled because of its
intrinsic obscurity or the equally balanced arguments for and against it.
undogmatically (adoxastos): free of opinions; without opinions or intellectual
commitments; Pyrrhonian sceptics use the term to indicate the manner in which
they give provisional approval to views without committing themselves to the
truth of claims about what is non-evident (q.v.).
unnatural things (ta para phusin): things which impede or oppose the basic
nature of an organism.
unqualified substance (apoios ousia): prime matter; the passive principle in
Stoic physics; material stuff with no qualities; unqualified substance must be
shaped by rational principles before it can have qualities; it is prior to the four
elements, which are modifications of it.
value (axia): in Stoicism, morally significant worth. There are two kinds of
value, moral value which is co-extensive with virtue and suffices to produce a
happy life, and so-called 'natural' value which contributes to a life according to
the specific nature of the species in question. Health has natural value but no
moral value.
vice (kakia): moral badness.
virtue (arete): excellence of soul, in particular moral excellence, but also includ-
ing intellectual and other excellences. In Stoicism, the only virtuous man (asteios,
spoudaios) is the wise man.
void (kenon): containing nothing; having nothing real corresponding to it. Also,
groundless. In Epicurean and Stoic physics, the void is incorporeal.
way of life (bios): a broad term for a pattern of activity over an entire life.
wish (boulesis): fully rational desire.
yielding (eixis): in Epicureanism, the property of the void by which it does
not resist an atom; in Stoicism, the concession of the mind [usually an animal's]
to some presentation, without rational assent.