Indifferents, Preferred and Dispreferred

Another crucial Stoic idea, and a corollary of the centrality of virtue in one’s life, is the distinction between preferred and dispreferred “indifferents”: wealth, health, and other goods are indifferent in the sense that they do not affect one’s moral worth (i.e., one can be a moral person regardless of whether one is sick or healthy, poor or rich). But some are helpful in pursuing our goals, and are therefore preferred, while others are an hindrance, and are therefore dispreferred. This makes Stoic doctrine a little less stern than it is usually thought to be (though certainly more so than Epicureanism, or Aristotelian virtue ethics).

p54 "... the category "indifferent" pretty much encompasses everything outside of an individual's excellence of character, or virtue..."

p64 "... the Stoics made a eudaimonic life a reachable goal for everyone, regardless of social status, financial resources, physical health, or degree of attractiveness. Although all of these qualities are indifferent to your ability to pursue a virtuous life - to become a morally worthy person, - they are still preferred (just as any normal human being would readily tell you) so long as they don't get in the way of your practice of the virtues. Here is how Seneca aptly summarized the idea in the case of a particularly common contrast between preferred and dispreferred experiences: "There is a great difference between joy and pain; if I am asked to choose, I shall seek the former and avoid the latter. The former is according to nature, the latter contrary to it. So long as they are treated by this standard, there is a great gulf between; but when it comes to a question of the virtue involved, the virtue in each case is the same, whether it comes though joy or through sorrow." In other words, by all means go ahead and avoid pain and experience joy in your life - but not when doing so imperils your integrity. Better to endure pain in an honorable manner than to seek joy in a shameful one.