> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://wiki.stoicfellowship.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://wiki.stoicfellowship.com/wiki/exercises/roles-relationships-and-speech/role-review.md).

# Role Review

Identify the duties attached to your present roles and choose the appropriate action

> **Also known as:** Role Ethics; Know Your Roles

> **Practice basis:** Textually reconstructed practice

Name the role you occupy, the relationships it contains, and the duty the present situation requires.

## At a Glance

* **Use when:** Competing responsibilities or convenience make the appropriate action unclear.
* **Trains:** Role awareness, justice, and appropriate action.
* **Time:** One to ten minutes.
* **Timing:** Before or during the relevant situation.

## Purpose

Generic rules do not always settle what you owe this person now. Epictetus tells us to begin with the name of a relationship—brother, father, neighbor, citizen—and then examine the actions that follow from it (*Discourses* 2.10). Every particular role remains subordinate to the common role of a rational and social human being.

A role supplies reasons for action; it does not excuse injustice. Being a loyal employee, friend, or family member cannot require dishonesty or abuse.

**Core Stoic Skill:** Translating virtue into the duties of actual relationships.

## How to Practice

1. **Name the present role.** Identify the relationship in which you are acting now.
2. **Identify its duties.** Ask what this role normally requires under these circumstances.
3. **Check the human role.** Reject any interpretation that requires injustice or irrational conduct.
4. **Resolve competing claims.** Give priority to the duty with the strongest legitimate claim here.
5. **Act with a reserve.** Fulfill your part without demanding the response or outcome.

## Example: A Friend and a Supervisor

A friend you supervise asks you to overlook a serious error. Friendship calls for care; your supervisory role calls for fairness and protection of the team. Both remain under the human duty of justice. You address the error through the same fair process you would use for anyone else and support your friend without concealing it.

## Common Mistakes

* **Using a role to excuse injustice.** Every role remains subordinate to rational and social duty.
* **Accepting an abusive role definition.** No relationship requires tolerating abuse or surrendering moral agency.
* **Listing roles without choosing the present one.** The exercise must end in a duty and action.
* **Assuming duties are identical for everyone.** Capacity, relationship, and circumstance matter.
* **Trying to control how others perform their roles.** Begin with your own appropriate action.
* **Making approval the measure of success.** A well-performed role may still be misunderstood.

## In-the-Moment Phrases

* “What role am I in now?”
* “What does this relationship require?”
* “The human role comes first.”

## Optional Reflection

Use these questions for journaling or quiet contemplation. Writing is optional.

* Which role had the strongest legitimate claim?
* Did my interpretation of the role remain consistent with justice?

## Source Anchors

* Epictetus, *Discourses* 1.2, 2.10
* Marcus Aurelius, *Meditations* 5.1, 6.7
* Hierocles, fragments preserved by Stobaeus

## Related Exercises

* [Circles of Hierocles](/wiki/exercises/roles-relationships-and-speech/circles-of-hierocles.md)
* [Exercise of Social Goods](/wiki/exercises/roles-relationships-and-speech/exercise-of-social-goods.md)
* [Morning Orientation](/wiki/exercises/preparation-and-review/morning-orientation.md)


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