Head to head
Compare two worldviews
Stoicism
Agency +10
There are two kinds of things: those in your control (your thoughts, reactions, judgments) and those not (weather, illness, others' opinions). Put all your energy only into the first. 'Waste no more time talking about what a good man is like. Be one.'
Full entry →Ajivika
Agency -100
Absolute fatalism: everything is decided by niyati (fate), so karma, prayer and meditation are all pointless. Liberation arrives automatically after 8.4 million passes through wombs, regardless of anything you do.
Full entry →The scorecard · eight factors
Who holds the steering wheel — fate and God at −100, you at +100
Room to interpret vs. fixed dogma
Friction with the modern scientific worldview
How directly it converts into action
How easily a beginner starts today
Time and discipline demanded
A living community you can join in 2026
Research-backed psychological benefit
Who holds the wheel
Strong agency inside your sphere of control -- it is a root of modern Western law, individual rights and CBT. But Stoics treat emotions as passions to be managed; anger, fear, lust and even excessive joy are irrational disturbances, and discipline in theory becomes emotional suppression in practice, capping the score at +10.
Who holds the wheel
Zero agency, the -100 baseline of the entire spectrum. No human deed, power or courage can influence destiny; nothing at all is in your hands, which can also be a weird sort of comfort, since your failures were never your fault either.