O ljudskoj slobodi

by Epictetus

„Zapamti da su ti vrata uvijek otvorena“, poručuje nam Epiktet, jedan od najzanimljivijih filozofa stoicizma iz 2. stoljeća. Ovaj Grk veći je dio svog života proveo kao rob što je uvelike oblikovalo njegovu filozofsku misao. Epiktet promišlja pojam slobode težeći oslobođenju iznutra, spoznajno i filozofski. Upravo je potraga za unutarnjim oslobođenjem ono što najviše povezuje ovaj antički tekst s današnjim čovjekom, koji nastavlja propitivati značenje slobode i pregovara uvjete njena postizanja u svojim specifičnim okolnostima.

O ljudskoj slobodi koja se nalazi pred vama sastoji se od izabranih poglavlja, odnosno zapisa iz izvornika koji je antičkom svijetu poznat kao Epiktetovi Razgovori.

Genres: Philosophy, Classics, Nonfiction, Self Help, History, Psychology, Politics

138 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 125

About the author

Epictetus was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He was probably born a slave at Hierapolis, Phrygia (present day Pamukkale, Turkey), and lived in Rome until his exile to Nicopolis in northwestern Greece, where he lived most of his life and died. His teachings were noted down and published by his pupil Arrian in his Discourses. Philosophy, he taught, is a way of life and not just a theoretical discipline. To Epictetus, all external events are determined by fate, and are thus beyond our control, but we can accept whatever happens calmly and dispassionately. Individuals, however, are responsible for their own actions which they can examine and control through rigorous self-discipline. Suffering arises from trying to control what is uncontrollable, or from neglecting what is within our power. As part of the universal city that is the universe, human beings have a duty of care to all fellow humans. The person who followed these precepts would achieve happiness.

Other language versions:
Epictète
Epícteto
Epiktet

Reviews

[david]

Faith, rather than philosophically based.

[Tg]

I have found Seneca to be helpful on the Emotional response to Death and Hardship,
Epictetus comes across as a Spirited Teacher--"Zeus has not made you in charge of the winds, he has charged Aeolus with that" "But Such and such gives lectures to large fawning crowds, I wish to be famous and give lectures to adoring crowds also--Wretch you cannot go about this in haphazard and random fashion, show us your governing principles as athletes are able to show their shoulders"

"I assure you I understand every-word and concept of Chrysippus--- Slave the Carpenter does not say come and hear me Philosophize on Carpentry-He draws up a contract and builds a House--So do you in life adorn yourself with dignity and self-respect, eat like a man, raise children, sleep like a man, endure insults, get married and you will deemed one worthy of entering the games....

[Cathal Kenneally]

Testing

I originally downloaded this because he was recommended by a tutor from a mental health first aid course. I must have downloaded the wrong book. It's not an easy read by any stretch of the imagination.

[Klara]

I don’t agree with all chapters but here are my favorites.
Favorite chapters: 6., 7., 14. and 15.

Note: 7 days

[Antek]

I love stoicism

[Karol]

Ekpiktet reprezentuje wartościowe postawy Stoickiego myślenia. Ze zbioru tych przemyśleń można wyciągnąć fascynujące i rozwijające wnioski. To lektura która prawdziwą wartość niesie ze sposobu w który pobudza umysł czytelnika do jego własnych przemyśleń.

Oczywiście, przez te wszystkie lata niektóre z poglądów są już odległe bezpośrednich przekładni które są zawarte w tej książce.

[Antartys]

Not very concise or synthesized, but great book on stoicism.

[Christopher]

You would think I would unreservedly love something this fatalistic and stylistically well crafted, but my fatalism has no room for faith. There are sections that positively bristle with quotable passages though.

[Carlota]

"Si has resuelto ir al baño público, represéntate las cosas que generalmente suceden en esos baños"

[Les Johnson]

Recently, I had cause to do a rendition of Epictetus' Handbook and more recently still I posted it here: http://lesjohnsonsopenpages.blogspot.... Perhaps that will do the job. It still needs a few edits.

[Rob Roy]

This volume is a dip into Greek Stoic Philosophy. While much philosophy is pretty esoteric, stoicism is down to earth how you live your life stuff. What was good advice for 100 BCE is still darn good advice.

[Dave Franklin]

Encheiridion literally means "ready at hand." In short, it is a handbook. Epictetus was a man of intelligence who gained wisdom through adversity. He was born into slavery, and in his childhood, he faced both the abuse of power and human degradation.

Epictetus was born around 50 A.D. At 15 he was sold at a slave auction in Rome to Epaphroditus, a secretary to Emperor Nero. After Epaphroditus abetted Nero’s suicide, Epictetus was freed, then banished to Nicopolis.

For Epictetus philosophy was a way of life. Needless to say, Stoic discipline won only the few to its standard, but those few had inordinate influence. In theory the Stoics taught a doctrine of perfectionism. Stoicism sought to inculcate in men a yearning for a life of courage and right action. Epictetus, a great teacher, played his part in changing the thinking of right-minded Romans. And, like all great teachers, his life was his teaching: “It is no easy thing for a principle to become a man’s own, unless each day he maintain it and hear it maintained, as well as work it out in life.

Epictetus is a harsh master, and his teaching is difficult. Nonetheless, we can find much wisdom in his epigrams. He exhorts us to gainsay our fears and live with intrepidity. He tells us clearly, “The chief source of all evils to Man, and of baseness and cowardice, is not death, but the fear of death.”

[Karol Rudziński]

Nie sądziłem, że taka krótka 200 stronnicowa książka zajmie mi tyle czasu. Mimo, że Diatryby tak jak i Encheiridion w większości składają sie z jednostronicowych rozmyślań/dialogów spisanych przez ucznia Epikteta, czytelnik potrzebuje czasu na przemyślenia po każdym z nich. Głównym filarem filozofii myśliciela z Hierapolis jest wolność. Według niego człowiek jest dopiero wolny kiedy uświadomi sobie, że istnieją rzeczy zależne od naszej woli takie jak pragnienia czy wyobrażenia o świecie. Niezależnymi są natomiast np. majątek czy zdrowie. Abyśmy byli naprawdę wolni powinnyśmy więc powstrzymywać o osądów na temat otaczającego nas świata. Według Epikteta śmierć sama w sobie nie jest zła ani dobra, tylko wyobrażenia na jej temat są negatywne.
Ciężko polecić taką książkę lub nie. Mogę tylko napisać, że warto było poświęcić czas na przeczytanie rozważań Epikteta.

[Kristina]

Kada je riječ o ljudskoj slobodi, po Epiktetu, koji je bio jedan od glavnih predstavnika stoicizma, skoro niti jedan čovjek ne bi bio slobodan. Govori o dualnosti i kontradiktornosti pojma slobode. Svakog čovjeka sačinjavaju dva dijela - onaj nad kojim nema kontrolu (sve tjelesno, materijalno, zdravlje, smrt, porodica) te onaj nad kojim ima - razum (prosudbe i ponašanje). Knjiga se sastoji od nekoliko dijaloga čije su teme pojam slobode, impresije (duševne promjene izazvane vanjskim utjecajima), impulsi (ljudske motivacije i želje), karakter, teške situacije itd.
Knjiga me potaknula na dublje promišljanje o situacijama poput smrti i bolesti, te na koji način im pristupiti u duhu stoicizma.

[John]

I only read The Encheiridion (Discourses are on the TBR list).

These are Stoic philosophy classics - companions to Marcus Aurelius's Meditations. Encheiridion translates to 'handbook' or 'manual' and, where Meditations seem to be Marcus Aurelius's notes to himself, these are more directed at an outside audience.

It's said 'The Manual' was popular among Vietnam War era soldiers and Admiral James Stockdale memorized it - a feat that served him well during his long stay at the Hanoi Hilton.

Not the most scintillating prose, but good life lessons if internalized. Will bear up under repeated reading.

[Paweł]

Pierwsza część, rzeczone diatryby to zapiski z wykładów wygłaszanych przez Epikteta. Ze względu na taką formę mogą sprawiać wrażenie nieco chaotycznych i częściowo powtarzających się, ale nie jest to rażące. Oczywiście należy brać poprawkę na stan wiedzy, stosunki społeczne i uwarunkowania religijne, które panowały w II wieku n.e.
Część druga to 52 zagadnienia omówione w krótkich punktach, tworzące tzw. podręcznik. W zasadzie nie tyle omówione ile skomentowane przez Epikteta.
Dla ciekawych tematu z pewnością godne polecenia 😉

[kjusielvi]

George Long translation. Very difficult book to read, because a lot of it is written in diatribes, and yet the rhetorical questions/claims and the answers are presented together in mega paragraphs, just giant walls of text. I got lost so many times because of that. The language is a bit archaic too, so I used the dictionary more often than I would like.

That said, the wisdom is worth consideration. I'm slavish, I'm a wretch but so are you XD

[walery]

O ile początkowo język diatryb niespecjalnie do mnie przemawiał, tak w miarę czytania można się było przyzwyczaić. Encheiridion praktycznie streszcza te wcześniejsze nauki w parunastu stronach. Interesujące uzupełnienie po Rozmyślaniach Marka Aureliusza, bo Epiktet skupia się na trochę innych aspektach i w innym stylu przemawia do czytelnika.

[Kamaverba]

još uvijek ne mogu skužit te stoike

[Oczytany_Miquel]

Świetnie napisane. Zasady umiarkowania w życiu doczesnym.

[Seneka Najmłodszy]

Klasyk. Trafia do mnie idealnie.

[Denislav Vasilev]

Напълно естествено поставям редом с "Към себе си" на Марк Аврелий. Една от книгите, които препрочитам почти всекидневно.

[Gundii9]

4,75. żałuję że nie przeczytałem tego wcześniej

[Carpasmeencasiola]

Didn’t agree with his views. And this publication was ill written. To bad.

[Reader]

„Gdy szukasz tego co nie należy do ciebie, tracisz to co jest twoje.”

[Lara]

Sloboda se ne postiže zadovoljenjem želje, nego njezinim uklanjanjem.

[Stephen Lewis]

Great ideas but the translator made some quirky choices.

[Brian Johnson]

Timeless wisdom from a former slave turned leading philosopher of his era.

“Of things some are in our power, and others are not… examine it by the rules which you possess, and by this first and chiefly, whether it relates to the things which are in our power or to the things which are not in our power: and if it relates to anything which is not in our power, be ready to say, that it does not concern you.”

~ Epictetus from The Enchiridion

Epictetus was born a slave in modern day Turkey in 55 AD. He later gained his freedom and became one of the leading Stoic philosophers of his era.

Practically speaking, there a number of translations of Epictetus’ Enchiridion (or Manual)—a book transcribed by one of his leading students named Arrian. I went with the classic 1888 translation by George Long. It’s a little rougher than the great modern/more readable adaptations by, say, Sharon Lebell or Gay Hendricks, but I dig it and wanted to keep it old-school.

Some of my favorite big ideas from this book include:

1. What’s Your Opinion? - It’s (very) important.
2. A Tranquil Flow of Life - Let’s get in it!
3. Act Well - The part that you got.
4. Expect To Be Ridiculed - And don’t worry about it.
5. Your Purpose In Life - What’s yours?
6. Whose Cup Broke? - Mine or yours?
7. Who’s In Your Head? - Get ‘em out!
8. Criticism - If he knew ALL my faults! :)
9. Wool & Milk - That’s what we’re after.

I’ve summarized those Big Ideas in a video review that you can watch here: https://youtu.be/cjF_N5NCz0Y?feature=...

I’ve also added The Enchiridion by Epictetus to my collection of Philosopher’s Notes--distilling the Big Ideas into 6-page PDF and 20-minute MP3s on 600+ of the BEST self-development books ever. You can get access to all of those plus a TON more over at https://heroic.us.

[Bogdan]

This was the first stoic book I read and I totally get why people are drawn to stoicism. There are a few key points in the book:
- "I must die. But must I die lamenting?"
- there is will, which everyone has, and there's everything else, called "externals"
- we must learn to accept all externals as they are, and only focus on what is within our power to change i.e. our will
- we should be brave concerning externals, but cautious towards our own will
- everything that you have e.g. your titles, your possessions, your family, even your own body, was given to you and you must be ready to part with it at any moment.
- man must live in accordance to nature and accept his condition

The last point is repeated over and over in the book and is why I'm only rating it 3/5. What is "in accordance to nature"? Epictetus never bothers to explain. Also, this assumes a static world order where nothing ever changes and where every man had a clear role in society. It might have seemed right in Ancient Greece, but we know this not to be the case.

[Giovanni Generoso]

I think we could all learn from the stoics. They encouraged us to attend to ourselves in a way that you simply don't see amongst most people these days. They were determined, focused, driven to formulate the self. Every experience is a learning-experience, good or bad, if only we have the will and the commitment to learn and grow. Most of us are unwilling to acknowledge our faults. We get defensive when people criticize us. The Stoics encouraged us to acknowledge where we've failed. If someone is bad-mouthing us for things we haven't done, laugh about it and move on with life. If they're right, learn from it and change. If we're worried about the future, ask, "Is any of what I'm worried about within my control?" If we can't control it, don't worry about it.

This is cognitive-behavioral therapy from the ancients, and it's pure gold, pure wisdom, pure philosophy.