book
Epictetus
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Citations (69)
Lebell didn't "translate" Epictetus. She took an existing English translation (presumably Oldfather) and completely rewrote it. It's often completely unrecognisable compared to the original, and she…
When is emotional control actually suppression? — In reading Epictetus and Seneca, I’ve been reflecting on how Stoicism distinguishes between emotional mastery and mere suppression. the texts emphasize that destructive emotions, anger, fear, resentm…
The way as a slave — “The unrestricted person, who has in hand what they will in all events, is free. But anyone who can be restricted, coerced, or pushed into something against what they will is a slave.” —EPICTETUS, DIS…
Epictetus on character — I am fairly familiar with both Marcus Aurelius and Seneca by now. Just getting started with Epictetus and have been mulling this one over today: "Externals are the means by which our character finds …
I feel like I'm missing the point of Epictetus. — I'm currently reading Epictetus's Discourses and Selected Writings, and I'm having a really hard time. I feel like I'm missing the point half the time, and I'm Googling words or context in almost ever…
I wanted to discuss letters 3 to 5 of Moral Letters. — I just finished letters 3 to 5 of Letters From a Stoic by Seneca. I wanted to summarise what I got from them, and talk with y'all about the parts I didn’t fully understand. If I misrepresented or mis…
"Men Can't Be Men Anymore" — A week ago, I [posted about the Louis Theroux documentary on the “Manosphere,”](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stoicism/comments/1rtveyg/the_manosphere/) noting my surprise at the scale of the phenomenon, u…
Epictetus and Blame — I have been trying to work through past regrets and found this quote that I think might be help me out: > Uneducated people blame others when they are doing badly. Those whose education is underway b…
How to handle this stoically? — Hi everyone. I've been reading books about Stoicism for a couple of years now, plus, more importantly, I've read Marcus, Epictetus, and a decent chunk of Seneca. I feel like I've taken in a fair bit a…
Looking for an alternate translation or source for this quote: — "To live an extraordinary life means we must elevate our moral stature by cultivating our character. The untrained brood about the constituent elements of their lives. They waste precious time in re…
The fatalistic overcorrection of the dichotomy of control. — I wrote part of the body of this post as a comment in another thread, but I see these comments very often anyway so I thought (voluntarily) that I would give a general objection to them here. The g…
Epictetus. — I’ve been told Epictetus is harsh and uncompromising. Harsh is not the word that came to mind. Uncompromising, I think maybe. Early on in discourses he presents imagery of people accepting death w…
Welcome! Read Me First. — # Welcome to r/Stoicism. This community exists for serious discussion of Stoic philosophy. It is not a forum for general self-help, motivation, validation, or professional therapy. It is also not a p…
Overcorrections 2 Electric Boogaloo — This time I'm focusing on the way things are phrased in this subreddit's Read Me First. The problems I'm noticing can be either attributed to right understanding but wrong phrasing, or wrong understan…
Marcus Aurelius wrote "look inward" constantly. What's the thing about yourself you suspect you still can't see? — Something I keep coming back to in the Meditations is how often Marcus talks about self-examination. Not once as an exercise, but as a daily discipline. "Look within. Within is the fountain of good, a…
What term is used to describe the Animal Instincts of Man in ancient greece language? Im confused — Different sources give me different answers and they contradict each other, so I thoght I could find a precise answer in this sub. For example, there is terms like: "physis", "psyche", "alogon", "horm…
Very conflicted. — I’ll be brief here. I am highly conflicted on stoicism as a whole. Epictetus never did much for me. But when I read Seneca’s “On Anger”, for the first time in a long while I did not feel as though I…
accepting imperfect practice instead of demanding perfect discipline — I practice vipassana meditation (a Buddhist body scanning technique). the tradition prescribes two hours of daily sitting. for years I treated this as an absolute standard and repeatedly failed to mai…
Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue (Politics) — \> “Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue” What does this actually mean? La Rochefoucauld wrote this in the 1600s but the idea goes back to ancient Greece. Here’s how it works mechanically. …
A tool for "Digital Hypomnemata" I’ve been practicing Stoicism for a few years, but my biggest struggle has always been the gap between reading The Enchiridion in the morning and actually applying it…
This sub is Stoicism, a philosophy of life which tells us to mind what is ours and not to mind what is not ours. We are not in control of what others do, and worrying about what others might do is a …
We’ve lost the original texts of the founders of the school, so unlike Plato who survives complete or Aristotle who we have a decent chunk of, we have to rely on later Stoics, who are adapting the ear…
You can’t control your emotions. The Stoics were quite deterministic, and they argue that there’s only one thing in your power (notice how they wouldn’t use the word control), and that thing is your…
The divergence in perspectives on Stoicism is a result of a massive data gap between the original ancient hardware and the modern cultural software. The term has been hijacked by a contemporary "movie…
You've touched on something crucial here, and the tension you're feeling is actually a gift - it's showing you where to look within yourself. The feeling of being "cheated" isn't wrong - it's informa…
I have a few different things to say in response: First, I should answer your direct question: # What is Kindness I'd say that's just a semantic thing. The real question is what you think is the ri…
I am offering my thoughts in hopes that something somewhere might help you see things in a new light. This will be long and I will take no offense if you don't read it. >Unfortunately, I think for th…
I happened upon Massimo Pigliucci's *How To Be a Stoic* and was immediately enthralled! Next I read through Epictetus' *Discourses* and *Handbook*, and that really solidified by belief in Stoicism. …
You might find the book [Dare To Be Disliked](https://fourminutebooks.com/the-courage-to-be-disliked-summary/) helpful as a start. I've found Epictetus' Discourses to be key to my ability to change th…
I sort of stumbled across a primitive version of the dichotomy of volition on my own and went looking for related philosophies. Found a quote of Marcus Aurelius' summary of the Three Disciplines and r…
Seneca sometimes plays fast and loose with the orthodox Stoic distinction between *pathe* (passions) and *eupatheai* (rational emotions). For example, he sometimes seems to suggest that we should actu…
It's important to have a teacher of high moral standards. Someone you can measure yourself against. If you are lacking one right now you can choose Epictetus like Marcus Aurelius did, or Rufus like Ep…
The Stoics would actually say you don't need to get rid of nihilism so much as pass through it. There's this idea in Chrysippus about preferred indifferents, things that have practical value but aren'…
Acting with virtue is its own reward. Are you talking about this? "Take the case of one whose task it is to shoot a spear or arrow straight at some target. One’s ultimate aim is to do all in one’s…
Yep, he was certainly disagreeing with a prominent chunk of his peers. But note, he's not casting any shade on those who want to attract young men, just those that want to pretend that they are still …
This may be an intertextual reference to some common Stoic teaching which is now lost to us, because Seneca and Epictetus have similar lines about hair. And a tangential but meaningful note is Sextus…
I find Musonius rather prissy and a complete prig, and frankly I'm not a fan. There is an essay by Brad Inwood\* questioning whether he was a card-carrying Stoic and was in fact rather a generic mora…
Epictetus says the only area of life that is up to us - where we are free and cannot be obstructed or disturbed - is in our reasoning about what is true and false, good and bad. Everything else is ext…
The definition of slavery provided by Epictetus focuses on the location of your internal toggle switch rather than the external requirements of the simulation. Project Grounding Rod identifies your co…
Epictetus was an actual slave. Yet he thought you could be free by adopting the right mindset. If you "want" things to turn out the way they ended up turning out, then things will always go your way.…
For 10 years I told myself I chose my office job. Good pay, stable career, the responsible thing to do. It wasn't until much later I realized I never actually questioned it. I just absorbed what "choo…
> As society "developed" we lost our ability to live by ourselves - we are slaves of society as most of us can not break free from a cycle we didn't enter voluntary. I don't think "developed" societ…
A quote was found to be attributed to Epictetus in Discourses 1.2 (Oldfather) ^(1.2. How may a man preserve his proper character upon every occasion? ()[^(Oldfather)](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/E…
I think it’s an error to compare the two eras and assume that there is a difference in the level of character enslavement as Epictetus is warning about. Pick any time and any place and the warning i…
For Epictetus, to be a slave is to be chained to bad judgment. One can be chained to bad judgment while living by the land on their own, or living in a busy city of ten million people. The good news i…
A quote was found to be attributed to Epictetus in Discourses 4.1 (Hard) ^(4.1. On freedom ()[^(Hard)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources?isbn=978-0199595181)^) ^(4.1. About freedom …
What do you think that Hercules would have been if there had not been such a lion, and hydra, and stag, and boar, and certain unjust and bestial men, whom Hercules used to drive away and clear out? An…
A quote was found to be attributed to Epictetus in Discourses 1.6 (Long) ^(1.6. Of Providence ()[^(Long)](http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0236%3Atext%3Ddisc%3Abo…
You’ll probably recall Epictetus in Enchiridion 33, who says: > Avoid public and vulgar entertainments; but, if ever an occasion calls you to them, keep your attention upon the stretch, that you may …
Lots of that around online and, yes, definitely counter-productive. Not in OP's post, though. First step to figuring all this stuff out is ignoring the narcissists and histrionics, the grifters and sc…
I think it’s best to start with Epictetus. His Enchiridion is kind of like a Cliff Notes version Discourses. Read, reflect and read again. Take notes along the way. This material helps to change habit…
The clearest example for me was Covid, That's when I noticed the difference between observing and absorbing. The fear was everywhere and I was taking all of it in as if it was mine to carry. At some p…
The philosophy of Stoicism developed in times such as these. War was a constant threat, decisions from afar could result in your enslavement or conscription, writing was actually new technology that a…
Hi, I'm not sure how much you know about Stoicism, so I'll assume not a lot. There are a couple of ideas that jump out from your post. First is you assume you won't enjoy the event because your ex m…
A quote was found to be attributed to Epictetus in The Enchiridion 43 (Matheson) ^(()[^(Matheson)](https://enchiridion.tasuki.org/display:Code:pem/section:43)^) ^(()[^(Carter)](https://enchiridion.…
Generally speaking stoics were not warriors in the standard term. It was an analogy for choosing to do the moral thing even if it meant being in danger or being unpopular. In the stoic texts, warrio…
I wrote a fantasy novel that dramatizes Epictetus' concept of prohairesis — then wrote the academic thesis proving it I wrote a novel set in classical Sparta where a seven-year-old boy in the agoge m…
The Andrew Tate variety never read Epictetus Discourse 1.15 titled “what philosophy promises”. Or Musonius Rufus’ lecture 3 titled “that women too should study philosophy”. Those 2 pages worth of te…
The statement by Epictetus identifies the exact junction where the internal master signal meets the external environment. In the grounding rod framework, character is not a static quality but the spec…
I agree. I find Epictetus to offer the most direct advice and the easiest ideas to digest. He helps set you on the right path from the start.
A quote was found to be attributed to Epictetus in Discourses 1.1 (Higginson) ^(1.1. Of the things which are, and the things which are not in our own power ()[^(Higginson)](http://www.perseus.tufts.e…
I'm pretty confident Epictetus wouldn't tolerate this crap for a microsecond.
Don't go over internet advice or videos, just read books by Epictetus or Seneca, or by modern authors such as Massimo Pigliuuci.
That's not what Stoicism says, and that's not what I was saying. What constitutes a bad thing? This is something Epictetus talks about quite a lot, and is a useful thing to consider if you're intere…
“So what can we do? Make the best of what is up to us, and take the rest as it comes …” Good advice from Epictetus.
You to OP: “I feel for you.” Epictetus to OP: “Make the best of what is up to you, and take the rest as it comes.” Which do you think is ultimately more beneficial for them to hear?
A quote was found to be attributed to Epictetus in Discourses 1.1 (Higginson) ^(1.1. Of the things which are, and the things which are not in our own power ()[^(Higginson)](http://www.perseus.tufts.e…
How is the quote from Epictetus “constant tough cookies”? What is uncompassionate about it?
Have you read much of the classic Stoic literature? If not, it may be worth starting there - Epictetus certainly explains it better than I do :)