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Enchiridion of Epictetus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Enchiridion, or Handbook of Epictetus, was written in 135 A.D.
The Handbook is a guide to daily life. Unlike some of his forefathers in Greek philosophy (i.e. Plato and the other metaphysicists), Epictetus focuses his attention on how to practically apply oneself on a philosophical level. The primary theme in this short work is that one should expect what will happen and wish it to happen so. The other motif that appears is Epictetus' opinion on the judgment of events:
| “ | What upsets people is not things themselves but their judgments about the things. For example, "death is nothing dreadful (or else it would have appeared dreadful to Socrates)..." -- Chapter Five of the Handbook[1]. |
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Underlying all of this, however, is the idea that "Some things are up to us and some are not up to us"[1] and we must react and interact with those things accordingly.
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Wikisource has original text related to this article:
- The text (translated by Elizabeth Carter circa 1750), which is brief, can be found at http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html.
- Free audiobook of The Enchiridion (Elizabeth Carter translation) at Librivox.org.
- The Stoa - discussion forum for applying Epictetus' Handbook to life.