In Stobaeus (Ecl. 2.83.10-84.3, cf. DL 7.105) we find a curious classification of the ways in which some Stoics conceived of the “value” (axia) of the so-called indifferents. According to this classification, Diogenes of Babylon conceived of this value as consisting, at least in part, in some kind of exchange value, i.e. the sort of value at which a commodity can be fairly exchanged for other commodities in a trade. In the first century CE, Epictetus appeals to what seems to be a similar exchange value of the indifferents in his account of deliberation. In my paper I aim to reconstruct Epictetus’ account of deliberation against the background of Diogenes’ conception of the value of the indifferents as exchange value. My paper will have two parts. In the first part, I will examine the classification of the senses of “value” reported by Stobaeus, and I will try to spell out the role of the exchange value of the indifferents in Diogenes’ account of deliberation. In the second part, I will focus on one text, Ep. Diss. 1.2, and try to show how Epictetus developed his own understanding of the exchange value of the indifferents and, with it, his own account of deliberation.
