Stoic Impressions and Assent, Explained Simply
Suppose someone has not answered your message.
You notice the silence. Almost immediately, it seems to mean something: they are annoyed, they have lost interest, or they think you are unimportant.
An impression is how something presents itself to the mind. It can include a judgment about what an event means or whether it is good or bad. Assent is accepting what the impression presents as true.
The distinction matters because an impression can be persuasive before you have examined it.
Epictetus does not ask you to believe whichever account feels better. He observes that we assent to what appears true; we cannot sincerely accept something while it appears false to us. Education therefore involves examining and correcting what seems true. Discourses 1.28
In the example, several questions have become tangled together.
Has the person replied? What evidence is there about their reason? And what would their disapproval actually establish about you?
You may know the answer to the first question and have little evidence about the second. The third requires a further examination of what you are treating as good or bad.
If the person does disapprove of you, perhaps their criticism is justified. You should consider it. Perhaps it is mistaken. You should consider that too. Neither conclusion follows merely from the strength of your reaction.
In Discourses 2.18, Epictetus instructs the student to interrupt the rush of an impression and put it to examination. He also warns against allowing it to carry the mind into an imagined sequence of what happens next. Discourses 2.18.24–26
A practical beginning is to write the claim you are accepting:
“They have not replied, so I must have embarrassed myself.”
Then examine each part. What is observed? What is inferred? What would count as evidence? What judgment about your worth has been added?
The purpose is to judge more accurately. Reassurance that ignores the facts would leave the same problem in place.