A Handbook for Public Life: Epictetus - The Complete Works: Handbook, Discourses, and Fragments

[Celerity]

What the ancient Roman philosopher Epictetus can teach us about politics and public life today

https://www.liberalpatriot.com/p/a-handbook-for-public-life


Roman ruins at Nicopolis, the Greek city where the ancient Stoic philosopher Epictetus taught almost two millennia ago.

Of three main ancient Roman Stoics whose works come down to us across the millennia, those of the early second-century philosophy teacher Epictetus appear the least outwardly concerned with politics and public life. Neither an emperor like Marcus Aurelius nor a statesman and imperial advisor like Seneca, Epictetus was born into slavery and suffered a crippling leg injury at the hands of one of his masters. He served at the imperial court in Rome during the reign of the mad emperor Nero, where he attended the lectures of the leading Stoic philosopher of the day, Musonius Rufus. After his emancipation, Epictetus began teaching philosophy in Rome himself—only to be expelled from the imperial capital along with other philosophers by the emperor Domitian.

Politics and public life today may not be as hazardous to life and limb as they were in ancient Rome, at least not in societies with a modicum of democracy and basic physical security. But they’re still a bruising, messy affair that’s not for the faint of heart. It won’t be smooth sailing by any means when we engage in public life, and we’ve got to know that going in—all without succumbing to the corrosive cynicism and fatalism along the way. As the scholar Robin Waterfield’s new translation of Epictetus’ complete works makes clear, the ancient Stoics still have much to teach us even in twenty-first century America when it comes to navigating the treacherous waters of politics and public life.

After his exile Epictetus set up a school in Nicopolis, a town on the northwestern coast of modern Greece, where he lived until the end of his days and taught philosophy far from the hustle and bustle of Rome. He never wrote any philosophical treatises for publication, and no private philosophical journal akin to Marcus’ Meditations survives. His two main extant works—the Discourses, after-class lecture notes recorded by his student Arrian, and the Handbook, itself a concise distillation of the Discourses—come from his time as one of the Roman world’s most sought-after philosophy instructors. In the four books of Discourses we still possess, Epictetus dwells principally on the practical application of Stoic philosophy to day-to-day life, or what he called the “art of living.”

But this focus on the everyday doesn’t mean Epictetus has nothing to say about politics and public life; quite the contrary. As a slave serving at the imperial court, for instance, Epictetus witnessed the politics of Rome and the escalating chaos of Nero’s reign first-hand. What’s more, his Discourses and Handbook are shot through with political imagery and references to relatively recent imperial history—events well within living memory. Most importantly, though, Epictetus gives us profound but practical advice on how we ought to conduct ourselves as we engage in politics and public life. With both his specific remarks on politics and his more general advice on the art of living, Epictetus conveys three main lessons about participation in public life—lessons we’d all do well to heed today.

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[cilla4progress]

1. I have his book,

The Art of Living. Hope to go to Greece some day. These pre-Christian Stoic philosophers really speak to me!

[Tanuki]

2. Interesting, thank you.

[Karadeniz]

3. Advice to live by!!!! Yes, totally relevant to the present....

[twodogsbarking]

4. Perhaps my favorite quote by anyone.

“Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or they neither are, nor appear to be; or they are, and do not appear to be; or they are not, and yet appear to be. Rightly to aim in all these cases is the wise man's task.”

― Epictetus