Genre and place in the book. A programmatic formula of the disciplines of action and assent: two "readinesses" (ἑτοιμότητες) to be kept always EXERCISEat hand. After the series on the wrongdoer and judgement (04-11), here is the make-up of a rightly working ruling part: how to act and how to revise.

The first readiness — action for the common good. To do only what the "kingly and legislative TERMreason" (ὁ βασιλικὸς καὶ νομοθετικὸς λόγος) suggests — that is, the ruling part described as king (self-governing) and lawgiver (giving itself its law) — and to do it ἐπ' ὠφελείᾳ ἀνθρώπων, for the benefit of human beings. This is the discipline of action rooted in DOGMAthe social nature: every act is referred to the common good (cf. the single σκοπός — the common benefit).

The second readiness — openness to correction. To be ready to change one's mind (μεταθέσθαι) if someone is at hand to correct it and move one away from a "conceit" (οἴησις). This is the famous Stoic intellectual humility; the verbatim twin is Med. 6.21: "if anyone can show me that I think or act wrongly, I will gladly change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever harmed." Not obstinacy, but fidelity to the truth.

The criterion of revision. The subtlety lies in the ground: to change one's view only on the "persuasion" (πιθανότης) of the just (δίκαιον) or the common-beneficial (κοινωφελές) — not because a thing is pleasant (ἡδύ) or glorious (ἔνδοξον). Revision is subordinate to the good, not to pleasure and reputation — the latter being indifferents (cf. DOGMAvirtue-is-sufficient). Note the use of προηγμένα: here it is not strictly "preferred indifferents" (health, wealth — see axia), but "what is worth preferring" in a choice — and the criterion of preference is again the good, not pleasantness. (There is no separate term-card for προηγμένα; the concept lives in adiaphora/axia.)

The disciplines. The principal one is action (the first readiness: to act for the common good). The secondary is assent (the second readiness: to revise a judgement on the right ground).

Parallels. Gladly changing one's mind when shown to be wrong — Med. 6.21; 8.16. Acting for the common benefit by reason — Med. 8.7; 02-01; 02-16. Choosing by the just / common-good, not the pleasant / glorious — 03-06; cf. DOGMAvirtue-is-sufficient. The doctrine of προηγμένα — DL 7.105–107 (see axia).