Discourses and Selected Writings (Penguin Classics)

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Getting an education, therefore, is “learning to apply natural preconceptions to particular cases as nature prescribes, and distinguishing what is in our power from what is not” (I.

And as opposed to many of the then current ethics (like Aristotelean, Skeptic and Epicurean ethics), and in line with Socratic conceptions of virtue as knowledge, the Stoic ethics consists in practice, not theory. We think they do, but this is a mistake, which can only be detected through the use of a well-trained reasonable mind. There is an overwhelming faith here in the abilities of the mind not to eliminate but to stand above and resist to the waves of misery inevitably found in human life. The Stoic social ethos begins with the recognition of each man as “your own brother, who has Zeus as his ancestor and is a son born of the same seed as yourself, with the same high lineage. That also brings me to another part of Epictetus' philosophy that I love--that we should treat moral deficiency and ignorance the way we treat physical disability.Surely it is more accurate to think of a scale, or a gradation, of things more or less within our power. The conclusion is certainly true, but Epictetus committed the fallacy of the undistributed middle premise.

Maybe your protest will be an event in the history of Rome and change the practice of banishment forever? If you consider yourself as a human being and as a part of some whole, it may be in the interest of the whole that you should now fall ill, now embark on a voyage and be exposed to danger, now suffer poverty, and perhaps even die before your time. By the gods, I want to be and pray to be, but I’m not yet able to look my masters in the face, I still attach value to my poor body, and take care to keep it whole and sound, despite the fact that it isn’t so.You are in control of/responsible for your judgement, impulse, desire, aversion and mental faculties. And one would think that, in our age of anxiety and mental health crises, Stoicism is more relevant than ever.

Stoicism thus refutes passivity, as it makes clear that the good citizen should be prepared to stand up for what is good and right, if necessary dying for it. Any Buddhist/Mindfulness book puts this into much better words, gives a much more actionable framework and even leaves out the stupid gods. Also, you perform your social roles like a robot, not considering the emotional attachments of you to others. These are just two examples of the many conceptual and idiomatic parallels between the Stoic (and Cynic) writings of the first and second centuries and their Jewish and Christian counterparts.Epictetus, a Greek Stoic and freed slave, ran a thriving philosophy school in Nicopolis in the early second century AD. When Epictetus uses the term “God,” he can mean the gods, Jupiter, and/or a guardian spirit within us. But if not, the reader should realize that, when Epictetus spoke them, his audience could not help but experience just what he intended them to feel. Faithful to the teachings of stoicism since Zeno of Citium, Epictetus places a huge emphasis on the free will of the individual, and the correct use of impressions.

If we had sense, there is nothing better we could do with our time than praise God and proclaim his good works, whether in public or private. Looking at the continuous stream and wide variety of Stoic (inspired) material, I assume I am not the only one trying to live my life a bit more like a Stoic. Seneca’s thought is also (on the surface) less deistic, and more amor fati which given my agnostic biases, appeals to me. I did enjoy the “sphere of choice” exercise: think whether all judgments you pass are within the sphere of choice or not; whether you can actually do anything about your complaints or about anything you hear.but you know, even if that's true, it's better to act like it's not true, in much the same way that the best outcomes come from assuming one's own life is totally under control but other people's lives are buffeted by the whims of chance, thus producing both compassion and personal dynamism.