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What Is Epictetus Ability To Achieve Happiness?

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Epictetus was in 55 C.E. at Hierapolis in Phrygia, which is modern Pamukkale, Southwestern Turkey and dies in 135 C.E. (New World Encyclopedia). He was born a slave of Epaphroditus, but then eventually went to Nicopolis, a city in Greece, and he acquired freedom. He studied and taught stoicism. He believed that in order to achieve happiness, a person will need to understand what is in their control and what is not. This is true because a person does not have the ability to be happy when they are worried and stressed over things that is out of their control and do not have the ability to change. Epictetus says, “Some things are up to us, some things are not up to us” (Vaughn, page 170). This is part of his two types of circumstances; …show more content…

When a person has the ability to ignore what people say about them, they are a lot happier because they are not stressing over making others happy. Their main concern is how to make themselves happy, not if what they are doing is correct for another person. They do not worry about their hair. If they decide to color their hair a drastic color, it should be about if they want that color and if it will make themselves happy. They should not worry about pleasing others because they cannot make everyone happy. There may be some people who support and agree with the decision, but not everyone will agree with it. The person with the color change has to live with it, not the other people. As long as a person is content with their decision, it should not matter is opposed to what they decided. Another example are bullies. If someone calls another person horrible names, it is up to the other person to either attack back or rise above it. There are situations where a person cannot change what a person says about them, but they do have the option to ignore it and live their life. It will hurt and sometimes it can be difficult to ignore, however there is nothing anyone can do change their minds on how they view them. Authors are types of people who have to ignore what people say about them because opinions cannot be changed. When an author publishes a novel, they

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