Appropriate Beliefs or Surrogate Satisfaction? Ancient Greek and Roman Perspectives on Imagining Future Evils

In this paper, I argue that the Cyrenaics, the Stoic Posidonius, and perhaps also Chrysippus noticed that imagining future evils often prevents distress. For this reason, they recommended the practice of imaginative pre-rehearsal of future evils ( praemeditatio futurorum malorum ). Considering their different moral psychology, I show that there are at least two ways in which this practice might work according to these thinkers: either by structuring our beliefs or by offering us a peculiar sort of surrogate satisfaction. The former explanation is endorsed by the Cyrenaics and, perhaps, by Chrysippus. The latter explanation is endorsed by Posidonius and it has wider implications than the mere prevention of future distress.