epictetus stoicism book

Epictetus studied with him for a number of years, and eventually started teaching on his own.

I can understand why this is a useful philosophy to hold in adversity because it could give you a focus and a strength to discount external obstacles, but in ordinary life do we really need it? One of the things that I do, the reason Im here in Rome, other than that my family is here and its a nice place to visit, is because I wanted to be in a place that would inspire meIm literally next door to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. I think what youre getting at there is this separation between academic philosophy and practical philosophy. We know what these people did, and how they practised their philosophies. How did I come to it? You can only try to be healthy, and wealthy, and educated, and have a good life in the sense of externalities, but, you know, shit happens, so to speakthats not a direct quoteand Stoicism in the great part, especially Epictetus Stoicism, is about how to deal with situation where shit does actually happen. And speaking of Epictetus, my newest book is coming out in the UK on 9/17, with the title The Stoic Guide to a Happy Life (American title: A Field Guide to a Happy Life), and it is a complete rewrite of one of ancient Stoicisms most important texts, Epictetuss Enchiridion (or Manual). As I said before, I came to philosophy late in life, other than my early bout in high school, and I love the field. Id never seen the Domus Aurea because when I was living in Rome, it was underground. The way that Bill responded was straight out of Epictetus: he almost quoted Epictetus verbatim. This is referred to as the ancient philosophy diaspora: the philosophers from different schools went out into different places. You can see that from the fact that they spent a certain amount of timenot a lot, but a certain amount of timearguing against other schools. Every year, the Walter Scott Prize highlights the best new historical novels. The very first book that I read after this renewed interest in Stoicism was The Discourses of Epictetus. As he quipped to a friend, I dont care about the author if the line is good. That is the ethos of practical philosophyit doesnt matter from whom or when it came from, what matters if it helps you in your life, if only for a second. A lot of people who surrounded the emperor would have wanted favours, and many were treacherous; but he says: Remember, they do this because they dont know better. absurd being summaries meditations Im talking to you from Rome where Im on my sabbatical, and Im writing a book on how to be a Stoic, which willbe published next year by Basic Books. It is the most accessible editioncompletely devoid of any thous and shalls. Well get back to the theorist part because Im definitely not an ancient philosophy scholar, so Im not a theorist in that sense, but Im interested in Stoicism as both theory and practice for todays world. I read an article about it. No other philosophic writing is more accessible. When something happens that is not according to your plans, like, you know, being stuck for months in your house because of a pandemic, reformulate the situation in your mind as a challenge issued to you by the universe. Hadrian was impressed by Epictetus and went to visit him, and they met a few times and became friends. The philosophers left. You can see Epictetuss influence in the Meditations. Broadly speaking the Discourses are about how to live your life: they present the basic principles of Stoicism over and over, from different angles and exploring the consequences in different contexts. One of my favourite exercises which does come straight out of Senecas writing and the ancient Roman tradition is this idea of taking a hot shower and then during the last few seconds turning it completely cold. So he says we do certain things, or this is something that happened to us. Theres nothing like self-flagellation in Stoicism. Yes. But what you should do, if it is at all possible, is examine them, step back for a second and say: Why am I afraid? These novels, he notesas with many others from West and Central Africaare united by a common search for identity in post-colonial Africa. 28 Books On Stoicism: The (Hopefully) Ultimate Reading List. It strikes me that there was this big movement in philosophy to reinstate virtue ethics, starting in the 1950s with Elizabeth Anscombe and various others saying that weve been caught up in an impoverished view of what ethics is, so lets go back to the ancient Greeks, and particularly to Aristotle. If you are the interviewee and would like to update your choice of books (or even just what you say about them) please email us at editor@fivebooks.com. Of those eight books, unfortunately only four remain. Arrian was probably about 23 or so when he did this. The obvious example of a destructive emotion, particularly in Senecas writing, was anger. Epictetus wasa slave who became aprominent philosopher and teacher, andbecame a friend ofemperors, Epictetus was an interesting life: a slave who turns prominent philosopher and teacher, who becomes friends with emperors and is kicked out by other emperors: its fascinating. There is a particular collection of epistles, normally referred to as either The Moral Epistles or the Letters to Lucilius. He lived in Nicopolis to a ripe age of 80, which for the time was remarkable. For some people, though, these sorts of enforced deprivation have been quite psychologically damaging. Yes, I think we do. Youve also published a couple of books that deal with Stoic themes. So you think its lucky to experience that? There, I think, a good comparison can be made between Stoicism and Christianity. As he quipped to a friend, I dont care about the author if the line is good. That is the ethos of practical philosophyit doesnt matter from whom or when it came from, what matters if it helps you in your life, if only for a second. The Meditations initially did not have a title at all and it was known during the Middle Ages by the title To Myself because this was the Roman emperors personal diary. One of the things that I learned very early on, both from reading the ancient Stoics and also from modern Stoics, is that Stoicism is not supposed to be something that you impose on other people. I find that sort of study very disturbing. Now, Epictetus didnt necessarily reject this, he just said there were many different alternatives, many different ways of doing or understanding physics and understanding logic that would support the same way of living your life. One slightly odd feature of the book is that when he writes about Stoics, he writes in the first person plural. What they called physics is what today we would describe as a combination of metaphysics and natural science. If you read them through you will see that theres a lot of redundancy there. Of course I also went back and read the Platonic dialogues to look at the source of all of this. Stoicism is no difference. Seneca was a stoic as well, but like Marcus, he was practical and borrowed liberally from other schools. One of the things I find interesting about the modern Stoic authors is that those people really do try to live their life that way. Both the Discourses and the Handbook were put together by one of Epictetus most brilliant students, Arrian. Later on he was recalled to Rome, but refused to leave. img_border: true, img_border_color: '#ECECEC',},}}; Then Chrysippus, a charismatic figure, took over, and students returned. Im very happy that I switched and Im very interested in what Im doing, but it is disturbing when you hear things like that, especially the rationalisation. Did they go as prisoners? Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. Trained in stoic philosophy, Marcus stopped almost every night to practice. Funny you should say so. Think about it this way. I began reading more broadly, andcoming to philosophy in the second half of my lifeI had a lot to catch up with. In fact Epictetus says just this in several places in the Discourses. Five Books participates in the Amazon Associate program and earns money from qualifying purchases. Its an exercise in gratitude which is a basic Stoic practice: you have to remind yourself of the people you are grateful to because they are important in your life. Now, the reason Im bringing this up, in answer to your question, is because there is a good, interesting distinction between Christianity and the Stoic approach. Why is it so interesting? If this is the first time you are coming across this philosophy, you might be worried this would be dry and academic and youd need to spend countless hours to untangle sentences. Yes, Ive been rather active myself.

I remembered reading about the ancient Greeks and Romans, and had vague recollections that these people had a very different conception of ethics. What are they, and how would you describe your books? What they did counsel was apatheia. This is probably the most famous book written by a Stoic. William Irvines book is part of the recent resurrection of Stoicism. They were personal correspondence, but when scholars look at the way the text is structured, they are convinced they were meant for publication. This cold shock has a number of effects. No. The first group organizes the annual Stoic Week and Stoicon events, and has been fostering a number of local, smaller Stoicon-X gatherings; the second one has the goal of helping people create local Stoas, connecting in person, as much as it is currently possible because of Covid, of course. The early Stoics thought that there were three areas of philosophical inquiry. Your first impression, your first reaction might be one of fear, and the Stoics said theres nothing you can do about that. Seneca was a stoic as well, but like Marcus, he was practical and borrowed liberally from other schools. So the idea was that you achieved tranquillity in life, you achieved what the Epicureans, who were rivals of the Stoics, called ataraxia or tranquility of mind, if you developed a magnanimous attitude towards the world. So yes, Stoicism is getting more popular, and it seems to be here to stay. The two books we have by Epictetus are called the Discourses, and the Enchiridionenchiridion means handbook.. Externalities, practical goods and things like that, are OK. But it strikes me that the virtue ethicists, although theyve theorised virtue, arent necessarily striving to be more virtuous. The Stoics believed that good character is made of the practice of four fundamental virtues, we call them the cardinal virtues. Epictetus, famously, was a slave in his early life, wasnt he? Thats the sort of project Becker is engaged in. Just in passing, that strategy of turning insults into humour could result in a broken nose in certain contexts. Second, Stoicism originated and became popular back during the Hellenistic period at a time of turmoil, where society was changing in dramatic ways, and people felt they had no control over what was happening. Meditations is perhaps the only document of its kind ever made. Its difficult, but not impossible to emulate the sage. In fact, I grew up with that tradition because Stoicism was the dominant philosophy in ancient Rome, and I studied Roman history at school. But most of our lives do present us with challenges, even minor challenges, for which I think Stoicism is perfectly appropriate. This was Neros huge villa that he had built, as it turns out not for himself but mostly for public gatherings and diplomatic purposes. For many centuries there was no school of Stoicism, no practice, there was no theory going on. There are people interested in that stuff and theyll figure it out, but really when you have to deal with your daily life and the challenges that it brings, thats not going to be particularly helpful. Irani Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the City College of New York. I cant handle Nero, I cant do any more good. Then there is an essay on old age, for instance, on how to age gracefully and deal with it if youre lucky enough to live to experience that. It was the kind of life where you are on your deathbed, you look back and you say: Yes, that was worth it: there is not much that Im ashamed of, that was a life well-lived, not just in the sense that I thrived in terms of material possessions, but mostly I was a good person.. Yes. First of all, this is all very debatable, since we dont really have a lot of independent historical evidence on his life; and secondly, its a very recent development in the way we look at Seneca. Keep track of how well you respond to the challenge, even using a self-scoring rubric, and when you judge the challenge to be over give yourself a thorough evaluation. They feel as if they were written two weeks ago, not two millennia ago. And is there a core of Stoic belief, Stoic teaching, that can flourish today? He wasnt interested in metaphysics. Ethics, for them, was the study of how to live a good life. I think the Romans would definitely not go that far. As a result of that the Roman general Sulla marched on Athens and laid siege to the city, destroying both Mithridates and many of the Greeks. Thats like a kind of martial art: if you imagine in judo, somebody moving in a certain direction, well you help them carry on a bit and trip them up in the process. The impediment to action advances action. That was the view of early Stoics. The ancients had a much broader conception of ethics. But, one can make an argument, as Seneca himself does, that too much wealth becomes obscene because you become focused on the externalities at the expense of virtue. The basic idea is this: yes, Stoics do have that reputation, but if you look at what they wrote and the way they actually behaved in life, they were far from emotionless. You cannot read this book and not come away with a phrase or a line that will be helpful to you next time you are in trouble. We now have sophisticated cognitive sciences, logic, and so on, and he wants to explore how much Stoicism can be updated to be compatible with modern science, with modern philosophy, and still be called Stoicism. So, let me give you just one example to give you a flavour: remember we started out this conversation by talking about Epictetus dichotomy of controlsome things are up to me; some things are not up to me. If you react just on the basis of anger, youre very likely going to make wrong decisions or act rashly; but on the other hand there are situations where you do want to cultivate a sense of indignation, a sense of justice being violated, and you do want to do something about it, and thats a positive emotionthats something that the Stoics would definitely say you should do. There was even a medieval forgery of an alleged correspondence between Seneca and Paul. He also adds, which is crucial I think to understanding the whole thing, that it is that fact that the door is open that gives meaning to what you do. It is right in front of the Colosseum, but its several metres below ground. You shouldnt go around with either a metaphorical or an actual stick beating people and saying, youre not virtuous enough.. This book consists of more than a hundred letters. For the Stoics, in contrast, they have a similar figure, a role model to whom they aspire and they call him the sage. I think the ancient Stoics believed it was the only way. Should I even pay attention to an insult to begin with? He makes mistakes, hes a human figure, hes somebody you can relate to but who constantly strives to do better: he constantly strives to do the right thing. A few years ago I went through a midlife crisis and switched from my first academic career as an evolutionary biologist to become a philosopher. Stoicism is no difference.

Ellis and Frankl both read the Stoics, and used their ideas as a starting point. Its not that you cant influence the things not under your control, of course you can.

Its not something that everybody can dothe fact that he as a man achieved enlightenment, however, shows that it is achievable. There is very good empirical evidence that this actually helps significantly. Bill Irvine has become an expert, a virtuoso I would say, in dealing with insults, which is one thing that Stoics receive a lot. Did the Stoics believe it was just one route to a good life, or was it the only way to achieve that? He told me: It used to be that I got irritated, it used to be that I started my day miserably because of somebody doing something obnoxious on the subway, but once I started practising these things and sort of readjusting my mental expectations, I just saw these things as the kind of behaviour that really cannot touch me.. When I met him I did a long interview with him which is available on my website, and we discussed his experience in life and how it related to his Stoicism. If youre just going off splitting hairs in logic, then youre doing something different thats not particularly interesting or particularly relevant to living your life. Obviously thats not a compliment. Thats a good point. I started reading about ethics. This struck me as really profound. Is it really philosophy any more at that point? What they did, and they were very explicit about this, was recognise that there are different types of human emotions. Exactly. That was the end of all Hellenistic philosophy, not just Stoicism. They went to the thermal baths, starting with a hot sauna; then they went into hot water, what they called a calidarium; and then they jumped into what they called the frigidarium, which was this pool of really, really cold water. The response by many academic philosophers has been: What did you expect? But thats like a mathematician, lets say, or an economist, whos caught badly managing his bank account and his personal finances, and who responds when challenged about this incompetence: Im interested in the theory here, not the practice. It later became known as the Meditations, but it really was his personal philosophical diary. Obviously the Romans didnt know that. Epictetus referred to suicide as the open door. A hot shower is a luxury. That is what really appealed to me. Thats an interesting point about Stoicism: is it an impossible ideal? Massimo Pigliucci is K.D. For Christians, if you think about it, they have their role modelJesuswho is, by definition, an impossible role model to emulate: hes a god. img_width: 120, img_height: 120, title: true, price: false, facebook: false, free_clicks: false, }, In contrast, in the Letters to Lucilius, Seneca recognised that good ideas for living can come from diverse sources. var scr = d.getElementsByTagName(t)[0], par = scr.parentNode; par.insertBefore(s, scr); It is the private thoughts of the worlds, giving advice to himself on how to make good on the responsibilities and obligations of his positions. Of course he didnt know he was about to die prematurely, but he was an old man already, he was in his sixties, and he knew he wouldnt live that much longer and was frank about it. Are there any new books about Stoicism that stand out for you as particularly interesting? Thats right, it depends on how you look at it, on your attitude. We know that Seneca wrote them late in life, during the last two or three years before he was invited to commit suicide by Nero after he had fallen out of favour with the emperor. Let me give you an example: one day he was in his department and he met a colleague who said Oh Bill, hi, I was thinking of citing one of your papers in my book, and Bill was thinking, Oh, thats interestingIm glad that one of my colleagues thinks my work is worth citing. In fact one of the four Stoic virtues is temperanceself-control, so that you do everything in moderation, including, of course, these Stoic exercises of self-deprivation. I read Kant and Mill, and looked at modern ethics in terms of deontology and utilitarianism in all their forms. Epictetus was focused on ethics, which is the third Stoic concern. Make sure you pick up the Gregory Hays translation from Modern Library. The Enchiridion, the Handbook, is the short version that Arrian put together by picking the best bits from the Discourses. She said that if you examine the historical records, Seneca did a good job in the first five years of Neros reign. If you read this the first time, you dont really expect it. Marcus Aurelius had studied philosophy when he was young and in particular Stoicism. Presumably Nero could have just taken the property if hed wanted it anyway. The award-winning Cameroonian novelist Mutt-Lon selects five of the best recent novels from Francophone Africa, including Mohamed Mbougar Sarr's Prix Goncourt-winning La plus secrte mmoire des hommes. This shocks your system. rational Becker had a dedication to his students and to his career and didnt allow his physical problems to stand in his way. Am I being insulted? What is this person who is insulting me trying to tell me? Yes, the past few years have seem quite a number of new entries! But theres more to be said. Even if you have anger and indignation at injustice? The second book that I recommend, William Irvines A Guide to the Good Life, deals with this in some detail. Read it, it is practical philosophy embodied. The major Stoic interest group on Facebook now has over 82,000 members, and a number of other such groups have sprung up either for people interested in practising Stoicism locally (Italy, France, Portugal, Brazil, India, etc. My guess is that it has to do with a combination of factors.

Yes. The insult itself is not, but how you react to it is up to you. We were interviewing him about the best books to read to get a better idea of what Stoicism is all about and why some people find the ancient philosophy, famously practised by the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, comforting today. For instance, he saysthis is one of my favourite quotations from the Meditations, from book two, chapter one: They retained this fundamental idea that its about practising virtue, its about having the good moral life, but they also added what they call apatheia, which of course is the Greek root for the English word apathy, and yet has nothing to do with it. There was a series of studies a few years ago showing that academic moral philosophers are actually no more moral than the average academic. On top of that he was immensely wealthy. Back in Athens, Cleanthes (the second head of the Stoa) was apparently a good philosopher, but not a particularly engaging teacher and by the end of his career the number of students dropped off significantly. Now, after that event, we are talking about 1st century BCE here, there was no relevant school of philosophy left in Athens. Yes. I may be doing virtue theory an injustice here, but I havent been aware of an increase in the number of virtuous people as a result of this philosophical study, but there are definitely people behaving stoically now. Before I met him, I thought of him as just the author of an academic book on Stoicism. Theres not much point in ethics after that, just to take one example. Stoicism as a philosophy kept on in the Roman Empire for a little longer, but then eventually, the Byzantine emperor Justinian closed down the last philosophical school and basically imposed Christianity on everybody. The sage is a human being. It was a practical decision, but on behalf of others. wisdom stoics pdf henry hazlitt You would hope that somebody would think its time to do something about this. The psychological effect of these exercises in self-deprivation is that when you come out of them you enjoy what you have much more. That doesnt mean he isnt brilliant. The other four got lost somewhere during the Middle Ages. The first stop there was obviously Aristotle. Many of the Stoics referred to Socrates as a sage. What is an insult? He says so explicitly. So where should someone start with Stoicism? You can visit now, but you have to make an appointment, and there is a nice guide from the Ministry of Cultural Goods, who walks you through for an hour or so. If you read Cicero, and if you read Epictetus himself, it becomes clear that many Stoics did believe that they had the best way, if not the only way, certainly the best way of achieving eudaimonia. After reading Aristotle, I moved on to explore other post-Socratic philosophers. s.onload = s.onreadystatechange = function() { Finally, there has been the deliberate, concerted effort of a relatively small number of people, largely coalescing around two organizations: Modern Stoicism and the Stoic Fellowship. Really, so you shouldnt proselytise for Stoicism? He is not telling other people heres what you should do and should not do; hes telling himself, hes reproaching himself.

So if, in order to acquire or attain health, or wealth, or education, you did something that was morally questionable, morally wrong, then you would be doing the wrong thing from a Stoic perspective. This is an interesting aspect of Stoicism because some people think that many elements of the British public school system, the private school system, were modelled on Stoicism: that a certain amount of deprivation, quite a few cold showers, cold baths, early morning runs and so on, built character. The point is to ignore the insult, not the criticism. Reading Seneca will do that. So Id rather retire outside of Rome in my own villa. He used some of his great wealth to try to bribe Nero to let him retire, offering two thirds of his lands to the emperor. Could you say a little bit about how you came to Stoicism? He went to North West Greece to a place called Nicopolis and he established his new school there. Well, now we have this book. Ive read an account by James Stockdale who survived torture and solitary confinement during the Vietnam War after his plane was shot down without breaking down through Stoic techniques, based on his memories of having studied Epictetus.

Thats why I gave you the example of the way Bill Irvine responds to insults. But what about this caricature of Stoicism that the way you achieve independence from the contingencies of life is by somehow extirpating your emotions? We decided to put together a short list with three books that will help you both understand Stoicism but also teach you valuable lessons for life. He presents Stoicism in good light. So I did this, and the woman that was leading the excursion of course talked a lot about Nero, and she also talked a lot about Seneca. ancient stoic guide readers wisdom modern kinokuniya Arrian was very well known in the ancient world. After my first book, How to Be a Stoic, I co-wrote with Gregory Lopez A Handbook for New Stoics (UK title: Live Like a Stoic), which is a rather unique entry in the modern canon. Exactly, and in fact that is the title of one of the two recent biographies I mentioned of Seneca: Dying Every Day. So these are psychological tricks arent they?

Just like it did back in Athens around 300 BCE, when Zeno of Citium got things started. It is not so great to read through from beginning to end for this reason. When I read that I started laughing. They didnt counsel apathy. The Penguin translation is fantastic, both for this collection of letters (which are more like essays than true correspondence) and for his collection of essays, On the Shortness of Life. You cannot read this book and not come away with a phrase or a line that will be helpful to you next time you are in trouble. A number of philosophers were put to death and a number exiled.

The dichotomy of control is crucial in Stoicism, particularly to Epictetus philosophy. It was really amazing. Thats right. In fact his foot writing was much neater than my friends handwriting, apparently. Its your own discipline. Im so glad you brought that up because indignation at injustice, a sense of injustice, those are positive emotions.

Epictetus referred to it as the open door. He says to his students several times not to take it lightly: suicide for the Stoics was a serious business and he was not saying jump out of the window at the first problem; but, he says, if you do get yourself into a situation where there really is no way out and life really does become insufferable, or so painful, or you realise that you cannot contribute any longer to society in any meaningful way, then the door is open, you can leave of your own accord.

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