Enchiridion of Epictetus

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The Enchiridion, or Handbook of Epictetus, was written in c. 135 A.D.

The Handbook is a guide to daily life. Unlike some of his forefathers in Greek philosophy (i.e. Plato and the other metaphysicists), Epictetus focuses his attention on how to practically apply oneself on a philosophical level. The primary theme in this short work is that one should expect what will happen and wish it to happen so. The other motif that appears is Epictetus' opinion on the judgment of events:

What upsets people is not things themselves but their judgments about the things. For example, "death is nothing dreadful (or else it would have appeared dreadful to Socrates)..."
-- Chapter Five of the Handbook[1].

Underlying all of this, however, is the idea that "Some things are up to us and some are not up to us"[1] and we must react and interact with those things accordingly.


Also I would like to add to this that epictetus was a freed slave turned stoic philosopher. More too come soon

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Handbook of Epictetus, trans. Nicholas P. White, Hackett Publishing Company, 1983

[edit] External links

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