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Paul's question in 1 Cor 9:1, 'Am I not free?' provides the initial focus of this study. Paul's discourse (1 Cor 9) creatively exhibits his own freedom as subsumed under the ultimate good, the gospel in which he shares. Paul's vocabulary (compulsion, willingly and unwillingly, rights and freedom), ideas, and topoi reflect the symbolic universe that he shares with the Cynic-Stoic philosophic tradition and the ongoing debates and conversations about freedom in the Corinthian community. This study demonstrates that such conversations highlighted issues of divine call, identity, assignments, obligations, and exhibition to the world, work, independence, hardship, toil and self-control, and one's attitude to money or wealth. Paul's exemplum directs attention to the gospel that transforms his 'rights', entrusts him with a 'stewardship,' and extends to him participation in the gospel as a partner. With this self understanding, Paul appeals to his readers for adherence to the values that he is advocating. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Translated by George Long ... Read more

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Shortly after Aristotle's death, ancient philosophy shifted away from abstract technical issues and focused on the more practical moral question of how to be happy. While many schools of thought arose on the subject, Stoicism and Epicureanism dominated the philosophical landscape for nearly 500 years, often locked in bitter rivalry with each other. Epicureanism advised pursing pleasure as a means to happiness, and Stoicism held that true happiness could only be achieved by accepting one's assigned lot in life. The lasting impact of these philosophies is seen from that fact that even today 'Stoic' and 'Epicurean' are household words. Although the founder of Stoicism was an obscure Greek philosopher who wrote nothing on the subject, his school consistently attracted more followers than its Epicurean counterpart. Little, in fact, survives of early Stoicism, and our knowledge of it comes largely from a few later Stoics. In this unique book, William O. Stephens explores the moral philosophy of Epictetus, a former Roman slave and dynamic Stoic teacher whose writings are the most compelling defence of ancient Stoicism that exists.Epictetus' philosophy dramatically captures the spirit of Stoicism by examining our greatest human disappointments, such as the death of a loved one. Stephens shows how, for Epictetus, happiness results from focusing our concern on what is up to us while not worrying about what is beyond our control. He concludes that the strength of Epictetus' philosophy lies in his conception of happiness as freedom from fear, worry, grief, and dependence upon luck. ... Read more

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The Discourses are a key source for ancient Stoicism, one of the richest and most influential schools of thought in Western philosophy. They not only represent the Stoicism of Epictetus' own time, but also reflect the teachings of such early Stoics as Zeno and Chrysippus, whose writings are largely lost. The first of the four books of the Discourses is philosophically the richest: it focuses primarily on ethics and moral psychology, but also touches on issues of logic, epistemology, science, and rhetoric. Other notable schools of ancient thought, including Epicureanism, the Sceptics, and the Cynics, are discussed.
Robert Dobbin presents a new translation into clear modern English of this important work, together with the first commentary on the work since the eighteenth century. Each of the thirty discourses that make up Book 1 is introduced and summarized; then the arguments are examined in detail. The general introduction gives background information about Epictetus' life, the intellectual context of the work, the style of the discourses, and the history of the text. A bibliography surveys the literature. The volume serves as a guide to Epictetus' thought as a whole. ... Read more

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Translated by George Long.This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1903 edition by G. Bell and Sons, London. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Publisher: J. M. DENTPublication date: 1910Notes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

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Thus should we ever have sung: yea and this, the grandest and divinest hymn of all:ÑÉ wrote Epictetus. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

marcus is eternal
bought for the marcus aurelius section, which is excellent and gave this to my mother to enjoy. everyone should have the chance to read this and reflect on how to emotionally handle different situations. people have not changed much in 2000 years, we just have a lot of modern gadgets now. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Epictetus believed that the foundation of all philosophy is self-knowledge, that is, the conviction of our ignorance and weakness when measured by the standard of good, and ought to be the first subject of instruction. Logic provides valid reasoning and certainty in judgment, but it is subordinate to practical needs. The first and most necessary part of philosophy concerns the application of doctrine, for example, that people should not lie; the second concerns reasons, e.g. why people should not lie; while the third, lastly, examines and establishes the reasons. This is the logical part, which finds reasons, shows what a reason is, and that a given reason is a right one. This last part is necessary, but only on account of the second, which again is rendered necessary by the first. ... Read more

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This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the text that can both be accessed online and used to create new print copies. This book and thousands of others can be found in the digital collections of the University of Michigan Library. The University Library also understands and values the utility of print, and makes reprints available through its Scholarly Publishing Office. ... Read more

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This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature. ... Read more

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Epictetus believed that the primary job of philosophy is to help ordinary people effectively meet the challenges of everyday life, and to deal with life's inevitable losses, disappointments and griefs. His prescription for the good life centered on three main themes--mastering our desires, performing our duties, and learning to think clearly about ourselves and our relations within the larger community of humanity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

We Must Embrace Life With Equanimity
Hair and skin color, such are accidents in the objective we can have no control over.We cannot for the most part change much of the Universe we live in, but there is Hope, as we can focus on what we CAN control, our subjective response to the objective Reality that greets us each waking moment.Epictetus lived as a slave and philosopher, steeped in Stoicism and eschewing popularity for living a virtuous, simple life.With true Stoic resolve, Epictetus admonished us to accept fickle Fortune with equanimity and grace. We cannot blame Her for following Her true Nature, which is to give with one hand and take with the other.In this age of economic turmoil and constant reappraisal of values, Epictetus' cool, calm voice comes to the fore concerning many topics that are still relevant in our post-postmodern age.While Fortune may change, Human Nature does not, and this little gem of a book helps map out the territory of the governable human soul with intelligence and wit to boot.Highly recommended!

Epictetus Deserves Better
This book is not a translation of Epictetus' writings. Rather, it is an interpretation written by Sharon Lebell, who is identified on the jacket as "a philosophical writer and musician who lives in Northern California." No other qualifications are listed.

Unfortunately, Ms. Lebell's interpretations, in trying to be contemporary, tend to distort Epictetus' thoughts. Readers interested in learning what he really thought and wrote should read the Enchiridion [ISBN 0879757035] or the Loeb translations of his work [ISBN: 0674991451, 0674992407]

To the Stoics, everything is part of the natural order, including cruelty, pain and death. The function of the individual within this world is to suffer with dignity, restraining anger and being tolerant of the acts of others, recognizing that anything they do is in their nature and the natural order of things. The Stoic philosophy is basically pessimistic - Life's a losing battle, but in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter because we only spend a brief time here, before being recycled by nature.

A pessimistic view, certainly, yet taken as a whole, Stoicism provides useful information for dealing with life's unpleasantries, most of which involve living the simple life - being modest and grateful for the good things that one has enjoyed, treating others politely and fairly, being indifferent to superficial honors and indicia of status, and living life honorably, simply and well during our brief moment on the stage. And if things aren't going well? We'll be dead soon enough, and after that it won't matter.

It is a philosophy particularly well suited to the ascetic and/or military life; Admiral James Stockdale credited Epictetus for his survival in a North Vietnam POW prison.

The foregoing sounds simplistic and depressing, yet the effect of the philosophy is positive, perhaps because we all recognize that we are capable of being better people.

Readers who wish to pursue Stoicism further should consider:
* Seneca's "Letters to Lucilius;" and
* Cicero's "On the Good Life."

... Read more