Discourses and Selected Writings (Penguin Classics)

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Despite his titular enslavement, Epictetus was given leave to study under the most prominent Stoic philosopher of the day: Musonius Rufus. As part of the universal city that is the universe, human beings have a duty of care to all fellow humans. Nu depind de noi trupul, averea, părerile pe care le au alții despre noi, funcțiile publice și, într-un cuvânt, toate câte nu reprezintă propriile noastre fapte. However, individuals are responsible for their own actions, which they can examine and control through rigorous self-discipline.

Supported by various podcasts and further readings, I have been trying to apply Epictetus’ teachings ever since.If scrutinized enough, a lot of what we hold as fundamental to human happiness may show us a different side. 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. There are things that are under our control and things that are not - focusing on the former is the key to freedom, virtue and happiness. That's a problem for the Discourses, because the moral basis for enduring the difficulties of life is that life is how the gods want it to be, and the gods are good, therefore control what you can and endure all else and bow to the will of the gods. If we are a part of nature, and bound by her laws, how can any of our actions be out of sync with nature?

Yet all our fears are nothing but 'hobgoblins', masks we wear that enslave us, with our own selves acting as slavemaster. So in life our first job is to divide and distinguish things into two categories: externals I cannot control, and the choices I make with regard to them I do control.We have a father and this social role, like all the social roles we perform, comes with a particular sets of duties - we should listen to him, honour him and not badmouth him to others. If I had to recommend one of the classic Stoic authors to someone new to the subject, it would be Epictetus.

You carry the living God inside you and are blind to the fact that you desecrate him with your dirty words and dirty thoughts – none of which you would dare repeat if there were even a mere statue of a god near by. He especially praises the philosophies and philosophers, Socrates and Diogenes, but criticizes and mocks Epicurus.To Epictetus, all external events are determined by fate, and are thus beyond our control; we should accept whatever happens calmly and dispassionately. For example, his proof that the gods exist is that the seasons change and flowers bloom and so on, except that we obviously have other explanations for all of those. 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. Yet serving this master at the court of Nero gave Epictetus a window into the personal lives of men who occupied the highest echelons of Roman power; and the young slave seems to have wondered whether their respective stations in life were not the opposite of what they appeared to be. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.