Place in the book. The famous passage of "the obstacle becomes the way" plus the "reserve-clause" (ὑπεξαίρεσις). The discipline of action at its height.

Man — both nearest and indifferent. Two "respects" (κατὰ λόγον). (1) By kinship (DOGMAοἰκειότατον): man is the thing nearest to us — "to do him good and to bear with him." (2) But insofar as someone obstructs my "proper works" (τὰ οἰκεῖα ἔργα), he becomes for me an TERMindifferent (ἀδιάφορον) — no less than the sun, the wind, or a beast: a natural obstacle, not an object of hatred.

Impedes activity, not impulse. Such obstacles may delay the outward activity (ἐνέργεια), but not the TERMimpulse (ὁρμή) or the disposition (διάθεσις) — thanks to the TERM"reserve-clause" (ὑπεξαίρεσις: "I will do it, fate permitting") and the "turning-about" (περιτροπή). DOGMAThe outward act can be checked; the inner will cannot.

The obstacle becomes the way. The mind "turns about" (περιτρέπει) every hindrance to activity into "what furthers" (τὸ προηγούμενον): what was an impediment to the act becomes a means to action; what stood in the road itself points the road. The obstacle is not merely endured — it is converted into material for virtue (the source of "the obstacle is the way"). Cf. Med. 4.1 (04-01): the mind, like a fire, turns what falls into it into fuel for its own flame.

The reserve-clause. ὑπεξαίρεσις — to act "with a reservation": I intend the outcome but hold it lightly ("unless fate prevents"), so that a thwarted outward act does not thwart the inner impulse, which aimed at the right and is achieved in any case.

Discipline and parallels. The principal discipline is action (the reserve-clause, the conversion of the obstacle); the secondary is desire (the external as an indifferent). Parallel: Med. 4.1 (04-01) — the reserve-clause and the fire that converts obstacles.