Epictetus
Born enslaved, lamed by a master, free at last — the Stoic teacher who made the dichotomy of control the core of a usable philosophy.
“It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
Core ideas
- Some things are up to us, some are not; peace lies in knowing which
- It is not events that disturb us, but our judgments about them
- Practice like an athlete: small, repeated, under load
Historical context
Taught in Rome until Domitian banished the philosophers (c. 93 CE), then founded a school in Nicopolis; his student Arrian published the notes we read now.
Key works
Discourses · Enchiridion
Questions they speak to
Minds in conversation
- Marcus AureliusRome
- SenecaCordoba → Rome
- The BuddhaLumbini / Ganges valley
Sources
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Epictetus