Podcast brief
Why the Trichotomy of Control Misreads Epictetus
Michael Tremblay and Caleb Ontiveros argue that William Irvine's popular "trichotomy of control" distorts Epictetus's dichotomy between what is up to us and what is not.
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The Trichotomy of Control Is a Mistake (Episode 236)
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The brief
Michael Tremblay argues that William Irvine's "trichotomy of control" is a mistake, both as a reading of Epictetus and as an update to his thought. Caleb Ontiveros joins him in working through why the dichotomy Epictetus actually states is worth keeping intact.
The starting point is Handbook 1, where Epictetus divides everything into two categories: what is up to us, meaning judgment, choice, desire and aversion, and what is not, meaning body, property, reputation and office. Irvine, writing in A Guide to the Good Life, found this split too coarse. Something like winning a tennis match is not fully up to us, but it is not like the sunrise either: we have partial influence over it. So Irvine proposed a third category sitting between full control and none.
Tremblay pushes back on two fronts. First, this is not a better translation of Epictetus's view but a departure from it. Epictetus knew perfectly well that our choices shape outcomes, and he drew the line where he did on purpose. Second, the trichotomy does real damage even considered as an improvement. Epictetus's dichotomy was never primarily about degrees of influence. It was a claim about value: only our judgments and choices can be called good or bad, never externals. Splitting off an "influenceable" middle category shifts the conversation toward how much control we have, and quietly lets what Tremblay calls the "intermediate Stoic" smuggle back permission to care about outcomes, because partial influence feels like grounds for investment. Ontiveros frames this as a metaphysical point: a tennis match has more in common with the sunrise than with your own choices, however much your choices shape it.
Neither speaker thinks the trichotomy's underlying intuition is worthless. We do make real choices about things we only partly influence, and that insight is worth keeping. But it does not require a third category. Influence just means making choices, which are up to you, about outcomes, which are not. That keeps the dichotomy clean.
The practical upshot: when you care about a result you only partly influence, locate the caring correctly. The outcome is not yours to own as good or bad. How you chose to pursue it is.
Strongest arguments
Epictetus states a strict dichotomy in Handbook 1
2:56The opening of the Handbook divides things into what is up to us (judgment, choice, desire, aversion) and what is not (body, property, reputation, office). What is up to us is free and unhindered, what is not is weak and servile, and nothing belongs to both categories.
The phrase originates with William Irvine, not Epictetus
5:55Epictetus never uses the word control. Tremblay traces the phrase "dichotomy of control" to William Irvine's 2009 book A Guide to the Good Life, one of the earliest modern popularizations of Stoicism, predating Ryan Holiday's The Obstacle Is the Way.
Irvine proposes a trichotomy to resolve an ambiguity
7:06Irvine argues that "not up to us" is ambiguous between having no control at all and having less than complete control. Using a tennis match as an example of partial influence, he splits the category into things with no influence, like the sunrise, and things we partly influence, like winning a match.
The trichotomy has intuitive, common-sense appeal
10:45Tremblay connects the trichotomy's popularity to everyday reasoning and to work by Massimo Pigliucci and Mel Robbins, all of which seem to answer the objection that the dichotomy oversimplifies by ignoring things we can partly influence.
The trichotomy is not what Epictetus intended
15:56Epictetus was fully aware that our choices influence outcomes, yet he deliberately chose two categories rather than three. Tremblay argues that any number of further divisions could be invented, but the dichotomy was Epictetus's considered choice, not an oversight.
The trichotomy obscures Epictetus's real point about value
17:04The dichotomy's core lesson, according to Tremblay, is about where value lives: only our judgments and choices can be called good or bad, never externals. A third category of "influenceable" things redirects attention to degrees of influence and buries this more radical claim.
Intermediate Stoics use the trichotomy to resolve discomfort
19:28Tremblay suggests that readers new to Stoicism still care deeply about outcomes like winning a match, and the trichotomy lets them smuggle back permission to care because they have some influence, rather than sitting with Epictetus's harder claim that the outcome does not matter. Ontiveros reframes this metaphysically: the match has more in common with the sunrise than with one's own choices.
The genuine insight survives without a third category
30:04Both speakers agree that the valuable part of the trichotomy, that we still make meaningful choices about things we only influence, can be kept. Influence just means making choices, which are up to us, about outcomes, which are not, so the dichotomy stays clean.
Concepts discussed
- Dichotomy of control Some things are up to us, namely our own judgments and actions, and everything else is not, and only the first kind is truly free and our own.
- Externals Body, property, reputation, office and other people's opinions and actions, which do not belong to us and should not be pursued as if they were good or bad.
Philosophers and works discussed
Questions this episode answers
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What is the difference between the dichotomy and trichotomy of control in Stoicism?
7:06The dichotomy, from Epictetus, splits everything into what is up to us (judgments, choices) and what is not. William Irvine's trichotomy further splits the 'not up to us' category into things with no influence at all and things we partly influence, like a tennis match.
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Who coined the phrase dichotomy of control?
5:55Epictetus never used the word control. The phrase 'dichotomy of control' was coined by William Irvine in his 2009 book A Guide to the Good Life, one of the earliest modern popularizations of Stoicism.
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Why does Michael Tremblay think the trichotomy of control is a mistake?
15:56Tremblay argues Epictetus deliberately excluded a middle category of 'influence' because his real point concerns value, not degrees of control. Adding a third category obscures the claim that only our judgments and choices can be good or bad, and makes it easier to smuggle back concern for outcomes like winning a match.
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What does Epictetus mean by things up to us in the Handbook?
2:56In the opening of the Handbook, Epictetus says judgment, choice, desire, and aversion are up to us, while body, property, reputation, and office are not. The things up to us are free and unhindered, and the things not up to us are weak and subject to hindrance.
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How should a Stoic think about winning a tennis match?
24:05Winning the match is not up to you and has more in common metaphysically with the sunrise than with your own character, so it should not be considered good or bad. What matters is how you think, choose, and desire during the match, which remains fully up to you.
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Can you keep the insight of the trichotomy of control without abandoning the dichotomy?
30:04Yes. The useful part of the trichotomy, that we make real choices about things we only partly influence, survives if you recognize that influencing something just means making choices (up to us) about outcomes (not up to us), which restores a clean two-category division.
Related primary passages
Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions.
Epictetus, Handbook 1 Read in context
This is the founding statement of the dichotomy of control, the axis the rest of Epictetus's teaching turns on.
this body is not yours, but it is clay finely tempered.
Epictetus, Discourses I 1 Read in context
Zeus's words, as Epictetus imagines them, push the doctrine past property into the body itself.
Related pages
Sources
- Epictetus, Discourses I Primary text, Stoa library
- Epictetus, Handbook Primary text, Stoa library
- Stoa Conversations, The Trichotomy of Control Is a Mistake (Episode 236) Podcast episode, original episode