A Doctor of the Soul

In the second century of our era there lived a man, a former slave, a cripple, who attracted a large following with his teaching. Like Christ, he never wrote anything, but, fortunately for us, one of his pupils named Arrian (Flavius Arrianus) took down his master’s words and put them in the order in which we read them today.

Of the life of Epictetus (45 – 135 A.D.) we kniow little. He was either lame from birth or was lamed by his master Epaphroditus. Epictetus gained his freedom when Emperor Domitian put his master to death. That deranged emperor, who instituted a reign of terror, banished all philosophers fron Rome and eventually from all Italy (did the decline of the Roman Empire start from this pont?).

Epictetus consequently moved to Nicopolis in north-western Greece, where he founded his own school, which became very popular. He never married, but towards the end of his life he adopted a boy, who otherwise would have perished.

The entire works of Epictetus, as compiled by Arrian, consist of four Dialogues, The Enchiridion (a Greek word meaning handbook), and Fragments (words attributed to Epictetus). The Delphi Complete Works of Epictetus amount to less than 500 pages (versus 1,200 pages for Atlas Shrugged).

What is the reason for the popularity of Epictetus’s philosophy? When we mention the word “philosophy” today, people shrug their shoulders and think that it’s the last thing they need. In the ancient world, on the other hand, philosophy was not an academic discipline confined to the lecture hall. It was something men of action used to solve their problems on the battlefield, in the Forum, in court, and in life.

The popularity of Epictetus’s philosophy dertives precisely from the fact that it is so practical. Arrian gave the title Enchridion (Manual) to the summation of Epictetus’s philosophy. That small volume is like a compass that serves to guide us past the shoals of life. It can be read in a few hours, but it is not a book to be read. It is a book to digest slowly, to come back to time and time again, and to reflect upon its maxims.

At the outset Epictetus states that in order to understand his philosophy we must learn to distinguish between things that are within our power and things that are not within our power. That sounds simple enough, but what does it mean?

Most things that lie outside of us are not within our power. What lies within our power is how we react to these things. He states, “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters”.

Can a philosophy be built upon such a simple principle?

Epictetus did by showing how the principle can be applied in all kinds of situations. According to eyewitnesses, he was a dynamic lecturer and took first one side and then the other side of an argument.

While his principle seems simple, it is extremely difficult to adhere to in real life by not succumbing to anger, disappointment, fear, and worry when external circumstances go against us or not as we had wished.

“Make the best use of what is in our power and take the rest as it comes,” he said.

Epictetus looks at all kinds of situations and how we should react according to his philosophy.

“The essence of pilosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.”

In this sense, Epctetus is a doctor of the soul because he aims to push fear and worry away from us and give us real freedom.

Stoicism then is a living philosophy of action. Many famous men of the past and present have embraced the doctrine and lived by its principles, among them George washington, Thomas Jefferson, Frederick the Great, Theodore Roosevelt, and Wen Jiabao, former prime mintser of china, who said he has read Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations over 100 times.

If you still think philosophy is of no practical use, Admiral James Stockdale credited Stoics like Seneca and Epictetus in particular for giving him the resilience and strength to endure his captivity as a POW in Vietnam.

Can anyone make a stronger endorsement of a philosophy?

The works of Epictetus can be downloaded for free from such websites as Internet Archive and Project Gutenberg, but I prefer to spend a mere two bucks for the Delphi edition of Epictetus that I can manage on my tablet or computer. You should also own the paperback version. Go and meet Epictetus and take a seat at the table of the gods.