Discourses and Selected Writings (Penguin Classics)

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Epictetus was a slave who gained his freedom in Rome after Nero was assassinated , he opened a School of Philosophy in Nicopolos Greece. Don’t let the force of the impression when first it hits you knock you off your feet; just say to it, ‘Hold on a moment; let me see who you are and what you represent. Personally, I find the current state of things (which I dread to think of as a new normal) horrifying and depressing, as I discussed in this review.

In Epictetus and his crude dialectic thought that is ultimately dependent on his god, however, many of the issues I have against Stoic philosophy shine through. 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.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.

Arrian recorded and published Epictetus’ informal lectures and conversations on ethics, in eight books, of which four books and some fragments survive.Abusing a blind person just because they're blind is obviously terrible, and so is abusing an ignorant person because they're ignorant, or an immoral person because they're immoral. First we must be persistent in alleviating ourselves of feelings, or better yet, perceptions of jealousy, anxiety, anger, and fear. In the introduction that accompanies his lively new translation, Robert Dobbin discusses Epictetus' life, his place in the Stoic tradition, his influence on world philosophies and his relevance in the modern day. Again, Epictetus mentions his oil lamp being stolen, and pitying the thief who did this, since now he has forfeited his honesty as a person. Founded by Zeno of Citium, the Stoics competed with other Hellenistic schools such as the Epicurians and Cynics on the question what it is to live a good life.

And then, even so, in practice it is so often difficult to tell whether we are fulfilling our duties to the best of our abilities. 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. I found the whole book both thought-provoking and accessible, undoubtedly aided by the relative informality of the translation style.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. His animated discussions were celebrated for their rhetorical wizardry and were written down by Arrian, his most famous pupil.