Epictetus Essays

The Enchiridion is a practical philosophical aid teaching the reader the best way to live. Philosophy, Epictetus taught, is a way of life and not just a theoretical discipline. One is urged to revel in in the habits of control, humility, and different nuances of wisdom. To Epictetus, all external events are determined by fate, and are thus beyond our control; we should accept whatever happens calmly and objectively. However, individuals are responsible for their own actions, which they can examine

In the Story of the great Julius Caesar by Shakespeare there are two philosophies which include Stoicism and Epicureanism. Two characters that clearly stand by their beliefs are Brutus and Cassius. However before being explained, what is Stoicism and Epicureanism anyways? First off, what is Stoicism? Stoicism is a school that was founded in medieval times, it is a way of life for Brutus. The school taught that virtue, the highest good, is based on knowledge, and that the wise live in harmony with

believed he was doing fine and was able to make it out of Vietnam completely sane due to his beliefs. “Epictetus once gave a lecture to his faculty complaining about the common tendency of new teachers to slight the stark realism of Stoicism 's challenges in favor of giving the students an uplifting, rosy picture of how they could meet the harsh requirements of the good life painlessly. Epictetus said: "Men, the lecture-room of the philosophers is a hospital; students ought not to walk out of it in

Victoria Fiore Professor Mink English EN102 24 November 2014 “The Judge’s Wife” In, “The Judge’s Wife,” included in chapter eight of Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama and Writing, the author, Isabel Allende creates a story entangling drama, romance and destiny. In the first part of the story we meet Nicolas Vidal. He was born a bastard to a prostitute, Juana the Forlorn, and was foretold at birth, by the midwife that he would lose his

The reason behind chosen Seligman’s positive psychology is that in dealing with cancer patients, in the real life, the patients usually have the concept of depression as a side-effect of dying, they decide to stay away from any kind of socializing or making new relationships, all the above are the opposite of positive psychology that looks at the things from a positive angle, which suggests the good life they have in dealing with

“Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurtson exemplifies the amount of disrespect and domestic abuse a woman can handle. It also demonstrated how some males view women in a distasteful and unsatisfied way. Gender and sexuality can initiate most of the specific tactics of domestic violence that can dehumanize an individual, especially women. Zora Neale Hurtson’s character, Delia Jones, demonstrates how women can transition from being inferior to becoming superior in a domestic relationship. The story opened with

In the post of World War II, Jean-Paul Sartre – philosopher and novelist – became one of the most influential men of the 1900’s. His novel, Being and Nothingness, written in 1943, provides an analysis of his internal views of philosophy, and initially helped in sparking one of the most influential philosophical movements. Within the text, Sartre examines and presents many concepts of existentialism. Those concepts included, but are not limited to, freedom, responsibility, and relationships with others

In the play, “The Death of a Salesman” the concept of happiness is briefly looked into, in this essay, we will be analyzing the idea of happiness as it was presented in the play. In layman's terms the idea of happiness is the idea of having emotions that involve such things as joy, excitement, and having a interesting life. What happiness also relates to is the act of having a fulfilling life, achieving your goals, but at the end of the day happiness is being able to handle positive emotions in a

offers advice in which the subject simply “deals” with disappointment, or rather, doesn’t expect something out of the scopes of reason and logic, so that, figuratively, when occurrences don’t go their way, they aren’t disappointed. This is because to Epictetus, all external events in life are pre-determined by fate, so it’s already out of our hands from the beginning. With a calm dispassion, or indifference, we approach our fate and accept it. This is shown in his rules in The Handbook,

1. I think the point Epictetus is making, is that the action the person is doing isn’t irritating, but the way you, yourself interprets/perceives the action is what irritates you. For example, my cousin told me a joke and we both were laughing. I shoved her shoulder because I agreed that the joke was funny. She got annoyed because I shoved her. It wasn’t the action of me shoving her that irritated her, but the way she interpreted the shove annoyed her because she thought of it as an aggressive shove

Consequently from the world’s enigma, there’s an abundant amount of these philosophies, and one of them, relating to the endurance of unruly struggles, is called Stoicism. Stoicism was advanced from multiple philosophers but more specifically Epictetus. Epictetus counseled that Stoicism was a philosophy about enduring one’s uncontrolled conditions with disregard to factors that are negatively affecting you, for those factors are out of your hands. Instead of dwelling on them, you should either blame

Stoic writings like Epictetus’ Enchiridion or The Handbook, show that he believes that to live the best life possible, that person needs to not put any value into emotions. In Epictetus’ writing, he writes about how he believes a stoic should live. Epictetus believes that a person should not let the death of someone they loved make them emotional, that the judgment of death is what makes a person unhappy, that a person should prepare themselves for an event that is going to happen, so they will not

Self Control by Epictetus and Eros by Plato are philosophical pieces that teach of various subjects, but most notably the path to happiness. While Epictetus primarily concerns himself with advising on what to avoid to ensure one is not unhappy, Plato offers advice on what to seek out in order to attain true happiness. According to Self Control and Eros, one must find beauty in the otherworldly in order to be happy because worldly possessions and people have an expiration date, but deeper forms of

Question number 3 In Epictetus The Handbook, Epictetus version of free will is when people are responsible for their own actions, and they can control what they do through self discipline. Epictetus believed that we should accept whatever happens and approach it calmly. Like he explained in the book “Do not seek to have events happen as you want them to, but instead want them to happen as they do happen, and your life will go well.” (Handbook of epictetus,pg 13) he’s basically stating that overall

What does it mean to be a stoic? One philosopher answers this question. In the “Enchiridion,” we encounter Epictetus writing a law of sorts that dictates what is considered ethical stoic behavior. Stoicism in Epictetus view is simply being able to control our actions, but relinquishing the want or need to control what isn’t a product of our own actions. For Epictetus, some of the things that are in our control are our likes, opinions, and pursuits. While, the things out of our control is the body

October 2014 Epictetus: A Man of Stoicism During the Hellenistic Period Stoicism was introduced (Graver). Today Stoicism is defined as disregard to certain emotions (Graver). Yet the definition that we are given does not completely define the Stoic beliefs as practiced by the Stoics. Instead we are given a muddy summary of their theories because scholars do not have any complete doctrines written by the founders of this certain philosophy. Yet from what they have gained Epictetus stands out in

Epictetus was a philosopher known for Stoicism. Stoicism is a Greek philosophy that teaches people to develop self-control and fortitude as to not have bad emotions. Many believe Epictetus was born in the 50s C.E., approximately in 55 C.E., in Hierapolis in Phrygia (modern day Turkey) and died approximately in 135 C.E. There have been no sources or records of his real name. Epictetus was born to a slave mother and therefore became a slave himself to his master Epaphroditus. There are no records of

Epictetus I really feel that quote is deep I will explain on that topic later on in the paper. He was really ahead of his time. I chose Epictetus because he stated facts in my opinion, also he was a slave, and he stands on what he believes. I feel like as a result of his stoic philosophy teaching that his thoughts live on even in today era. Let me elaborate with the slave accusations. He’s been through the struggle probably most things he didn’t want to do he had to do which was out of his control

Epictetus, Stoic Philosopher, became well known because of his great impacts on Roman understanding. “Stoicism is the belief that the individual is wholly responsible for his or her interpretations of circumstance and that all of life is natural and normal in spite of one's impressions” (Mark). With his teaching methods and loyal followers, his knowledge continued through years and years after his death. Even to today, Epictetus has made a mark on the people's self-understanding. Like many others

The chief end of Epictetus’ moral philosophy seems to be an individual 's happiness. In his Handbook he offers a way to achieve a maximum level of happiness. An ethical life is being aware of things which are in one’s control and out of one’s control. There is the internal human nature (i.e., things in our control) and the external events of nature (i.e., things not in our control). “Our opinions are up to us, and our impulses, desires, aversions,” are things within our power to influence. “Our bodies