• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Philosophy Professor logo

PhilosophyProfessor.com

  • Philosophers
  • Philosophies

Epictetus

EpictetusEpictetus (50-125).

Table of Contents

  • 1 Major Ideas
  • 2 Biography
  • 3 Major Works of Epictetus
    • 3.1 Related:
  • 4 Videos
  • 5 Related Products
    • 5.1 Discourses and Selected Writings (Penguin Classics)
    • 5.2 Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness
    • 5.3 The Complete Works of Epictetus
    • 5.4 Discourses, Fragments, Handbook (Oxford Worlds Classics)
    • 5.5 Enchiridion (Dover Thrift Editions)
    • 5.6 Maximum Achievement: The Brian Tracy Story
    • 5.7 Epictetus: Discourses, Books 1-2 (Loeb Classical Library)
    • 5.8 How to Be Free: An Ancient Guide to the Stoic Life (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers)
    • 5.9 Epictetus: Discourses, Books 3-4. The Encheiridion. (Loeb Classical Library No. 218)
    • 5.10 A Manual for Living (Little Book of Wisdom (Harper San Francisco))

Major Ideas

– Only bodies exist, but bodies are combinations of two fundamental principles, logos, a rational principle, and physis, a creative principle.

– God is nature: Logos, the rational principle, accounts for the order and unity of the universe; nature is thus intelligent and intelligible.

– Because God is nature, the universe as a whole is the best possible.

– Human beings, as opposed to plants and animals. have logos as their individual governing principle.

– Logos also defines the goal of life as virtue; the life of virtue is a life lived according to reason: It is the life of a philosopher.

– Reason distinguishes between things that are and things that are not under one’s control; externals, like reputation, wealth, and power are not under one’s control; desire, aversion, and opinion are.

– The virtuous individual finds freedom in limiting his or her desires to those things under one’s control and accepting all other externals as indifferent.

Biography

Epictetus was born a Roman slave in Hieropolis, in Asia Minor (the peninsula comprising most of modern Turkey). While still a slave, he began studying with the Stoic Musonius Rufus.

Shortly after his master freed him, Epictetus founded his own school in Nicopolis, Epirus.

Like Socrates, Epictetus wrote nothing. His teaching, based on early, rather than late Stoic doctrines has been preserved by one of his students, Arrian (known also for writing the history of Alexander the Great), in The Enchiridion, or Manual, and The Discourses, which are transcriptions of Epictetus’s lectures.

Epictetus developed a large following, even among early Christians, and in 90, the Emperor Domitian expelled him from Rome along with many other philosophers whose teachings he saw as dangerous to his tyranny.

Major Works of Epictetus

– Discourses
– Enchiridion

Related:

  • Marcus Aurelius
  • Galileo Galilei
  • objectivism (2) (Ayn Rand)
  • sufficient reason principle
  • Arnold Geulincx

  • Videos

  • Related Products

     
    Discourses and Selected Writings (Penguin Classics)

    Discourses and Selected Writings (Penguin Classics)

    • Penguin Classics
    • Epictetus (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 304 Pages - 11/25/2008 (Publication Date) - Penguin Classics (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
     
    Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness

    Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness

    • Paperback, small, easy to store
    • Epictetus (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 144 Pages - 06/26/2007 (Publication Date) - HarperOne (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
     
    The Complete Works of Epictetus

    The Complete Works of Epictetus

    • Amazon Kindle Edition
    • Epictetus (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 462 Pages - 07/09/2017 (Publication Date) - Lazy Raven Publishing (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
     
    Discourses, Fragments, Handbook (Oxford Worlds Classics)

    Discourses, Fragments, Handbook (Oxford Worlds Classics)

    • Oxford University Press USA
    • Epictetus (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 400 Pages - 03/01/2014 (Publication Date) - Oxford University Press (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
     
    Enchiridion (Dover Thrift Editions)

    Enchiridion (Dover Thrift Editions)

    • Dover Publications
    • Epictetus (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 64 Pages - 01/15/2004 (Publication Date) - Dover Publications (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
     
    Maximum Achievement: The Brian Tracy Story
    19 Reviews

    Maximum Achievement: The Brian Tracy Story

    • Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
    • Brian Tracy (Actor)
    • Nick Nanton (Director) - Emily Hache (Writer) - Alan Bonner (Producer)
    • English (Playback Language)
    • English (Subtitle)
    Check Price on Amazon
     
    Epictetus: Discourses, Books 1-2 (Loeb Classical Library)

    Epictetus: Discourses, Books 1-2 (Loeb Classical Library)

    • Used Book in Good Condition
    • Hardcover Book
    • Epictetus (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 480 Pages - 01/01/1925 (Publication Date) - Harvard University Press (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
     
    How to Be Free: An Ancient Guide to the Stoic Life (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers)

    How to Be Free: An Ancient Guide to the Stoic Life (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers)

    • Hardcover Book
    • Epictetus (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 232 Pages - 10/30/2018 (Publication Date) - Princeton University Press (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
     
    Epictetus: Discourses, Books 3-4. The Encheiridion. (Loeb Classical Library No. 218)

    Epictetus: Discourses, Books 3-4. The Encheiridion. (Loeb Classical Library No. 218)

    • Used Book in Good Condition
    • Hardcover Book
    • Epictetus (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 576 Pages - 01/01/1928 (Publication Date) - Harvard University Press (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
     
    A Manual for Living (Little Book of Wisdom (Harper San Francisco))

    A Manual for Living (Little Book of Wisdom (Harper San Francisco))

    • Epictetus (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 96 Pages - 06/23/1994 (Publication Date) - HarperOne (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
  • Last update 2020-06-17. Price and product availability may change.

    Nelson Goodman

    George Henry Lewes

    Roy Wood Sellars

    Peter Abelard

    Edward Sapir

    • Contact
    • Facebook

    Copyright © 2022 · CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME. “AS AN AMAZON ASSOCIATE I EARN FROM QUALIFYING PURCHASES.”