Épictète
A former slave turned Stoic teacher: he taught that we can act only on our judgements and desires, never on the rest.
Life
Stoic philosopher (Hierapolis in Phrygia about 50 - Nicopolis about 135 CE), a slave in Rome and later freed. Expelled from Rome with the philosophers around 93, he taught at Nicopolis in Epirus. He wrote nothing: his pupil Arrian set down the Discourses and the Handbook. His thought rests on one distinction, between what is up to us (judgements, desires) and what is not, and calm comes from clinging only to the first.
Main works
A collection of precepts drawn from the Discourses by Arrian (approximate date): tell apart what is up to us from what is not.
The Nicopolis lectures recorded by Arrian in eight books, of which four survive (approximate date).
In his own words
« Of things, some are up to us and some are not. Up to us are judgement, impulse, desire, aversion: in a word, whatever is our own doing. »
τῶν ὄντων τὰ μέν ἐστιν ἐφ’ ἡμῖν, τὰ δὲ οὐκ ἐφ’ ἡμῖν. ἐφ’ ἡμῖν μὲν ὑπόληψις, ὁρμή, ὄρεξις, ἔκκλισις καὶ ἑνὶ λόγῳ ὅσα ἡμέτερα ἔργα
« What disturbs people is not things, but the judgements they hold about things. »
ταράσσει τοὺς ἀνθρώπους οὐ τὰ πράγματα, ἀλλὰ τὰ περὶ τῶν πραγμάτων δόγματα
« Do not seek for events to happen as you wish, but wish for events to happen as they do happen, and you will go on well. »
μὴ ζήτει τὰ γινόμενα γίνεσθαι ὡς θέλεις, ἀλλὰ θέλε τὰ γινόμενα ὡς γίνεται καὶ εὐροήσεις.
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceThe world is governed by a providential divine reason, and we should accept our place in it.
Epictetus, Discourses (c. 108)
Events are fated, yet our judgments and choices are 'up to us': freedom is the right use of impressions.
Epictetus, Enchiridion (c. 125)
The good lies in a rightly ordered will and character, not in external things.
Epictetus, Discourses (c. 108)
Life has a place in a rational cosmos: living according to nature and playing one's assigned role well.
Epictetus, Enchiridion (c. 125)