Stoicism PDF EPUB

The Discourses of Epictetus

by Epictetus

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Pages: 147

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About this book

Epictetus was born a slave in Phrygia, went lame young, and ended up teaching philosophy at Nicopolis to well-born Romans. He wrote nothing down. What survives was recorded by his student Arrian, which is why these pages read like a teacher actually talking: blunt, often funny, impatient with students who wanted clever arguments instead of a changed life. The whole of it turns on one division. Some things are up to us, meaning our judgments and our choices, and everything else, including the body, reputation, and property, is not. Peace comes from knowing which is which. The Encheiridion boils the same teaching down to a short handbook, and that handbook is how most readers have met him ever since. Free to read in PDF and EPUB.

About the author

Epictetus

Was born into slavery in Phrygia, worked in Rome for a secretary of Nero, was lamed for life, and was eventually freed and exiled along with every other philosopher when Domitian expelled them. He wrote nothing. The Discourses and the shorter Enchiridion were taken down by his student Arrian, which is the same route by which Socrates survives.