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    Enchiridion
    Enchiridion
    Enchiridion
    Ebook84 pages1 hour

    Enchiridion

    By Epictetus and Reading Time

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    Contains Active Table of Contents (HTML) and ​in the end of book include a bonus link to the free audiobook.
    Although he was born into slavery and endured a permanent physical disability, Epictetus (ca. 50–ca. 130 AD) maintained that all people are free to control their lives and to live in harmony with nature. We will always be happy, he argued, if we learn to desire that things should be exactly as they are. After attaining his freedom, Epictetus spent his entire career teaching philosophy and advising a daily regimen of self-examination. His pupil Arrianus later collected and published the master's lecture notes; the Enchiridion, or Manual, is a distillation of Epictetus' teachings and an instructional manual for a tranquil life. Full of practical advice, this work offers guidelines for those seeking contentment as well as for those who have already made some progress in that direction
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherReading Time
    Release dateJun 14, 2019
    ISBN9782380370294
    Enchiridion
    Author

    Epictetus

    Epictetus (circa 55-135 ce) taught in Rome until the year 94 ce, when Emperor Domitian banished philosophers from the city. In exile, he established a school of philosophy where his distinguished students included Marcus Aurelius, author of Meditations. Some 1,863 years after Epictetus's death, Tom Wolfe revived his philosophy in the bestselling novel A Man in Full.

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    • 3/5
      It is a nice complementary reading for people who study stoicism, nothing fancy.

    Book preview

    Enchiridion - Epictetus

    Table of Contents

    NOTE ON THE TEXT

    INTRODUCTION

    SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

    Epictetus: Life and Work

    Main Works on Stoicism and Related Problems

    Influence of Stoicism

    THE ENCHIRIDION

    I

    II

    III

    IV

    V

    VI

    VII

    VIII

    IX

    X

    XI

    XII

    XIII

    XIV

    XV

    XVI

    XVII

    XVIII

    XIX

    XX

    XXI

    XXII

    XXIII

    XXIV

    XXV

    XXVI

    XXVII

    XXVIII

    XXIX[2]

    XXX

    XXXI

    XXXII

    XXXIII

    XXXIV

    XXXV

    XXXVI

    XXXVII

    XXXVIII

    XXXIX

    XL

    XLI

    XLII

    XLIII

    XLIV

    XLV

    XLVI

    XLVII

    XLVIII

    XLIX

    L

    LI

    Footnotes

    The Library of Liberal Arts

    Transcriber’s Notes

    AudioBook

    NOTE ON THE TEXT

    The text of the second edition is a reprint of the first edition except for a few minor corrections in style, punctuation, and spelling, which have been revised to conform to current American usage.

    The editorial staff of the publishers has added a few explanatory notes which are set in brackets and marked Ed.

    O.P.

    INTRODUCTION

    The little book by Epictetus called Enchiridion or manual has played a disproportionately large role in the rise of modern attitudes and modern philosophy. As soon as it had been translated into the vernacular languages, it became a bestseller among independent intellectuals, among anti-Christian thinkers, and among philosophers of a subjective cast. Montaigne had a copy of the Enchiridion among his books. Pascal violently rejected the megalomaniac pride of the Stoic philosopher. Frederick the Great carried the book with him on all campaigns. It was a source of inspiration and encouragement to Anthony, Earl of Shaftesbury, in the serious illness which ended only in his death; many pages of his diaries contain passages copied from the Enchiridion. It has been studied and widely quoted by Scottish philosophers like Francis Hutcheson, Adam Smith, and Adam Ferguson who valued Stoic moral philosophy for its reconciliation of social dependency and personal independence.

    That there was a rebirth of Stoicism in the centuries of rebirth which marked the emergence of the modern age was not mere chance. Philosophical, moral, and social conditions of the time united to cause it. Roman Stoicism had been developed in times of despotism as a philosophy of lonely and courageous souls who had recognized the redeeming power of philosophical reason in all the moral and social purposes of life. Philosophy as a way of life makes men free. It is the last ditch stand of liberty in a world of servitude. Many elements in the new age led to thought which had structural affinity with Roman Stoicism. Modern times had created the independent thinker, the free intellectual in a secular civilization. Modern times had destroyed medieval liberties and had established the new despotism of the absolute state supported by ecclesiastical authority. Modern philosophies continued the basic trend in Stoicism in making the subjective consciousness the foundation of philosophy. The Stoic emphasis on moral problems was also appealing in an era of rapid transition when all the values which had previously been taken for granted were questioned and reconsidered.

    While it is interesting to observe how varied were the effects produced by this small volume, this epitome of the Stoic system of moral philosophy, these effects seem still more remarkable when we consider that it was not intended to be a philosophical treatise on Stoicism for students. It was, rather, to be a guide for the advanced student of Stoicism to show him the best roads toward

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