The Stoic discipline of judgement is about mastering our perception of the world. It is about seeking true and objective beliefs, devoid of unnecessary value judgements.
As an example of an unnecessary value judgement, consider the words from Marcus Aurelius that we introduced earlier:
Don’t tell yourself anything more than what your primary representations tell you. If you’ve been told, “so-and-so has been talking behind your back”, then this is what you’ve been told. You have not however been told that “Somebody has done a wrong to you”.
Often, if we have been told a piece of gossip we rush to create a narrative. This narrative may carry with it emotions that may be painful: “so-and-so has been talking behind your back and it is bad.” How should we approach this?
There are two kinds of mental tools we can bring to bear to this: cognitive and non-cognitive. Cognitive tools, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, have to do with concepts and explicit reason. Non-cognitive practices are intuitive and non-conceptual, such as forms of mindfulness meditation practice. Think of this as the reason vs intuition “divide.”
As an example of cognitive practices, consider the simple ABC model from cognitive behavioral therapy: adversity, belief, consequences. In Marcus Aurelius’s example, the adversity is hearing that someone has been talking behind your back. The belief is how we represent and/or explain that event. In this case, we may believe that we are unlikable or that someone is disloyal. The consequences are the behavior or feelings that arecaused by the belief, perhaps we feel sadness or anger.
At each step, we can reason carefully and explicitly. When it comes to adversity, it helps to think of the event objectively. What happened? Try to do this without adding judgement. When it comes to beliefs, it helps to record what we were thinking when the event occurred. Often we have hidden beliefs or assumptions that could use light. When it comes to consequences, it helps to record how we felt or what we did.
To apply the discipline of judgement, inquire whether your beliefs are justified. Suppose that after being told about the gossip, you had the thought that you are unlikable. Is the fact that people gossip about you really strong evidence that you are unlikable? Unlikely. There are likable people and you can be sure that people talk about them behind their back. If you’re curious about this approach, follow this space, we’ll cover it in more detail here. Or check out Feeling Good.
As an example of non-cognitive practice, consider mindfulness meditation. In meditation, you pay attention to your thoughts, merely noting them as they come and go. You can gain the insight that you are not your thoughts. You can note just how different the beliefs and associated feelings of “someone is talking behind my back” is from “someone is talking behind my back and it is bad”. It’s one thing to believe these things, it’s another to build a strong intuition for it.
Both the cognitive and non-cognitive practices feed off of each other. The cognitive approaches demand careful attention and awareness of our thoughts and feelings. This can be strengthened by non-cognitive practices. The non-cognitive practices need to be rooted in clear thinking and reason, this is provided by cognitive exercises.
If you’re curious about both of these practices, allowing people to build the skill to apply the discipline of judgement with cognitive and non-cognitive practices is one of the primary goals of Stoa. It’s available for both android and apple devices for free.
