The Complete Works: Handbook, Discourses, & Fragments

by Epictetus, Robin Waterfield (Editor)

The complete surviving works of Epictetus, the most influential Stoic philosopher from antiquity.



“Some things are up to us and some are not.”

 

Epictetus was born into slavery around the year 50 CE, and, upon being granted his freedom, he set himself up as a philosophy teacher. After being expelled from Rome, he spent the rest of his life living and teaching in Greece. He is now considered the most important exponent of Stoicism, and his surviving work comprises a series of impassioned discourses, delivered live and recorded by his student Arrian, and the Handbook, Arrian’s own take on the heart of Epictetus’s teaching.

 

In Discourses, Epictetus argues that happiness depends on knowing what is in our power to affect and what is not. Our internal states and our responses to events are up to us, but the events themselves are assigned to us by the benevolent deity, and we should treat them—along with our bodies, possessions, and families—as matters of indifference, simply making the best use of them we can. Together, the Discourses and Handbook constitute a practical guide to moral self-improvement, as Epictetus explains the work and exercises aspirants need to do to enrich and deepen their lives. Edited and translated by renowned scholar Robin Waterfield, this book collects the complete works of Epictetus, bringing to modern readers his insights on how to cope with death, exile, the people around us, the whims of the emperor, fear, illness, and much more.



CUSTOMER THE HARDCOVER IS FOR LIBRARIES AND HAS NO JACKET.



 

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Classics, Psychology, Academic, History, Personal Development

453 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 6, 2022

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

[Mark Wooten · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first stoic book to read and I found it very interesting. The main message seems to be that a person should concern themselves with what they are actually in control of, and stop worrying about what they can’t. What can we control? It seems Epictetus would say the use of our will and rational judgements.

An example that comes up several times is the idea that Caesar can arrest me or whip me or even kill me if he wants. I can’t do anything about that, and this shouldn’t worry. But as powerful as Caesar is, he can’t make me say something is false when I know it to be true. That is a thing that is entirely up to me, and so I should work to hone that skill.

That main message is really hammered in. You can pick that up in the first bit of this, and then you get 300 or so more pages of examples and repetition. It’s not a book I could just go straight through. I felt that it benefitted from coming back to it again and again over a longer period of time than I would normally spend on a book.

Maybe the most interesting thing to me was how often this work of philosophy overlapped with what I believe are core theological concepts. So many of my marginal notes read like “that’s Romans!”or “that sounds like 1 Peter”. Epictetus talks a lot about Providence and honoring God with your life. I believe he’s a little off track with the “god” he aims to worship, but the amount of this secular wisdom that accords with God’s Word is really fascinating.

[Henrik Haapala · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just any book by Epictetus. This is great new version.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much better translation than what i was reading before!

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important read. Nearly ran my highlighter dry. I don't think the individual quotes hold much strength on their own though - they need the full context, explanations, and time to absorb.

Anyways...

2.16.1 "Where should we look for what is good? In will. And for what is bad? In will. And for what is neither good nor bad? In things that aren't subject to will. All right, but do any of us remember this except when we're discussing it as we are now?"

[Bin_Chicken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting collection of lectures from an Ancient Greek Stoic philosopher.
While I don't agree and follow everything he believes in and teaches, I do find many of his practices very insightful and am eager to apply them to my own life from now on.

[Sinta · Rating 2 out of 5]

IS CHRISTIANITY JUST STOICISM????

Also the birth of individualism - the idea our happiness is completely dependent on our own judgments, refining our own rationality

I continue to see the attractiveness of certain Stoic ideas as psychological tactics, but it still doesn’t provide a fully sufficient, complete philosophy. Most things aren’t under your control so try to shut down all emotional response to them? Seems immature

Christianity parallels (building on Rufus)
- Scala naturae (great chain of being)
- Argument from design - orderliness of universe and made for the good of humankind shows it was created and is maintained by a cosmic reason
- Gods providential benevolence - resources to change and achieve happiness

Free will (prohairesis) is the faculty that allows us to assent or not to impressions, and therefore to make use of them

Note: I only read the Introduction and Handbook, not the full Discourses (the handbook felt like a sufficient summary given I’ve already read the prior stoics)

Notes from secondary commentary:
- Some scholars claim the first to come up with the concept of free will
- This birthed the stoic idea of not valuing anything that is not your choice
- Only your choice is truly yours because it is the only thing that cannot be taken from you
- You must always be ready to give back what has been given to you

Notes:
Introduction:
The fundamental question that his teaching was designed to address is: How must we live if our lives are to be subjectively fulfilling and objectively worth-while? And his answer was: Get ever closer to yourself, your true self.

Some things are not "up to us"-they are external to us and just happen to us—but our minds are our own, and we can con-trolour internal states and our responses to events: our desires, incli-nations, choices, judgments, and intentions; in short, all the things that make up our characters. These things are up to us and cannot be thwarted by anyone or anything else. We need to learn to accept experiences and events over which we have no control, to recognize them as "indifferent" (neither good nor bad, and with no contribution to make to our happiness or misery) and to use them as the materials on which to practice virtue and appropriate action; we need to see them as gifts of the providential God who steers and arranges everything in the universe, great and small. In this way, fated events become opportunities, not constraints.

we are fragments of the Reason that guides the universe

Epictetus was an orthodox Stoic. He introduced a few innovations, but they are changes in emphasis or terminology rather than substantial changes in doctrine. To say that he was orthodox is to say that he looked back to the first founders of Stoicism in the third century BcE, especially Chrysippus.

not surprisingly, since they reflect our nature as human beings, Stoic preferred indifferents coincide to a considerable degree with the ordinary values of society.

It is playing the game well that counts, not winning or losing, because although an action is up to us, its consequences are not.

Following Socrates's lead, the Stoies held that virtue was knowledge. They recognized four primary virtues and analyzed each as a kind of knowledge. Prudential wisdomis knowledge of good and bad; courage is knowledgeof what to fear and what notto fear; moderation is knowledge of what to pursue and what to avoid; justice is knowledge of what to give or not give others.

In this context the Stoics spoke of "appropriation" (oikeiõ-sis, literally "the process of making something one's own"), the natural preference all creatures have for what is good for themselves. A creature first and fundamentally appropriates itself to itself; hence the lifelong instinct for self-preservation (see 1.25-4). Gradually, in the case of rational creatures, the circle consisting of what it considers to belong to it, of what it appropriates to itself, widens to include family, friends, neighbors, fellow citizens, and eventually all other rational creatures, so that the motivation provided by appropriation is simultaneously self-regarding and other-regarding (1.19.13-14)." Hence, other-regarding virtues, such as justice, are good for the agent. So Epictetus insists that human beings are social creatures (e.g., 1.23.1, 1.28.20, 2.20.13, 4.11.1), by which he means that it is natural for us to take thought for others and to do them good. He repeatedly stresses other-regarding virtues such as kindness and trustworthiness.

However, some feelings were acceptable. Thinking that an indifferent is good or bad is false; so a sage, who has no false beliefs but only knowledge, experiences no passion. He does, however, experience three "good feelings" (eupatheiai): volition (the rational pursuit of something), caution (the rational avoidance of something, and joy (rational elation). Each of the three has subspecies that were therefore considered acceptable passions: kindness/benevolence, which is constantly stressed by Epictetus, was considered a form of volition, as was friendliness; modesty and reverence were forms of caution; a sense of humor and cheerfulness were forms of joy.

Since the will is free if it consists of a perfectly consistent set of true beliefs about the value of things, only the Stoic sage truly has freedom of will, while the rest of us compromise its freedom by enslaving ourselves, more or less, to the external world by false beliefs and wrong judgments. Freedom of will is something we should aim for, but it is not a birthright.

Everything we consciously do, however trivial, stems from our will and is therefore indicative of our moral character.

Whether Epictetus is talking about roles in the singular or plural, they have the same function: when it comes to making ethical decisions, we should refer to our roles. Whether or not you assent to an impression is determined in part by the kind of person you are or take yourself to be. Roles have consequences, and once we have accepted a role, we should accept as reasonable anything that follows from that role. Appropriate behavior is living in accord with nature or focusing only on things that areup to us, subject to our will, and treating all other human beings as kin-that is, with kindness and justice. Along with his development of the concept of prohairesis, this "role ethics" is Epictetus's most distinctive contribution to Stoicism.

If the earlier Stoics had claimed that true friendship can subsist only between and among people who are wise, the four Roman Stoics emphasized that, as rational creatures, all human beings are kin.

Will, as we have seen, is the faculty that determines for each of us what we believe and so influences our activities: assent, inclination/ disinclination, and desire/aversion. These, then, are the three faculties that need to be trained until they are "in accord with nature."… As several of these passages make clear, it is a progressive course: he consistently labels the three domains (as he calls them) "first," "second," and "third", and he talks of moving on from one domain to the next. The first domain is that of desire, the second that of inclinations, and the third that of judgment or assent.

[Desire domain = reasonable levels and appropriate objects. No more false conceptions of good and bad. Elimination of attachment to the external world. Achieve inner tranquility]

[Inclination domain = act appropriately in all our various roles. Recognize and fulfill your duties. Achieve appropriate outward behaviour]

[Assent domain = certainty of judgment. Assange only to true or beneficial impressions. Avoid being deceived. Observation of the way one’s mind is working. Achieve consistent and coherent judgments]

The Handbook:
"Blaming others when things are going badly for him is what an uneducated person does. Blaming himself is what a partially educated person does. Blaming neither others nor himself is what a fully educated person does."

"Instead of wishing that things would happen as you'd like, wish that they would happen as they do, and then you'll be content."

"If someone gave your body into the keeping of a passerby, you'd be furious. But you give your mind into the keeping of any random person, so that, if he maligns you, it becomes troubled and confused. Doesn't this make you feel ashamed?"

"If you're informed that someoneor other is speaking ill of you, don't defend yourself against the allegations, but respond by say-ing: Well, he must be unaware of my other faults, otherwise these wouldn't have been the only ones he mentioned!

"If you take on a role that's beyond your capabilities, you not only disgrace yourself in that one, but you've also passed up the role that you were capable of performing well."

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars: really liked it.

(University of Chicago Press 2022 edition, Waterfield translation)

An approachable and straightforward work on Stoicism. Epictetus emphasized concrete advice on how to live, so this is a largely practical work, though it does communicate Stoic theory. The ideas were understandable on their own, and the excellent introductory commentary really helped pull it all together into a cohesive philosophy.

I did not care for the haphazard organization. The Books contained no thematic groupings that I could detect. The entirety of the Discourses read as a series of vignettes, which began to feel repetitive and felt like a slog to get through by the end. The Handbook was shorter and snappier, more like a collection of proverbs, and I recommend reading it after the Discourses in order to understand the reasons behind each brief instruction.

This was my first study of Stoic philosophy. The key concepts I saw were as follows: Most things are not "up to you." The only thing of value is your own power of choice. Choose in accordance with reason. Accept life as it is. Stoicism is a lifelong journey of self-discipline.

Waterfield's translation was enjoyable and highly readable. His end notes and commentary were insightful and helpful.

[Mazharul Maaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/10 - Wisest book I have read. Actionable and relatable words from a man's lecture from 2000 years ago.



Notes for self.

Epictetus's discourses provide us with a framework to reach contentment through a life of virtue, free from being affected by things that are not up to us. Epictetus tells us what to do and how to act, especially when thing go bad.

The Framework
Epictetus provides us with a simple framework: "Taking just actions is good; taking unjust actions is bad; everything else does not matter". This framework is derived from the idea that we only have control over our present actions, so this is where we should spend all our efforts in maintaining justice. On the other hand, everything that happens or can happen to us is part of the natural world. It is is irrational to expect certain things to not happen despite being natural. This idea, alongside the fact that we have no control over what happens to us puts everything else in the category of Indifferents.

The Three Domains of Stoicism
Epictetus gives us three domains for us to practice to become a Stoic sage. Desire, inclination, and assent are the three areas of life where training is needed to make a person free and unconstrained by external hindrances. These are ordered in terms of decreasing urgency.
1. Desire/Aversion: Minimizing desires to what you can control (your actions), and aversions to what you can not control (everything else). Since frustrutated desires are source of all passion, minimizing desires will free a person from their whims and will eliminate attachment to the external world.
2. Inclination/Disinclination: The practice always doing what's good, and staying away from what's bad. We fail in this when we make decisions base on convenience.
3. Assent: The practice of assenting to the right things, ensuring we are not being affected by our bad mood. This generally gets affected if your mental faculty is not stable.

In general, an impression/thought enters your brain. You decide whether to assent to this impression. If you assent, you do what's right (inclination). Note that minimizing desires and aversion will minimize incorrect impressions, and will protect your brain from noise.

When an impression enters a Stoic brain, it is assessed. If the impression seems truthful, the command center will assent to it; otherwise, it will withhold assent or suspend judgment. If assented, and if the proposition to which it assents contains value terms (such as “it is right for me to do such-and-such”), an inclination is generated that leads to action.

Roles
For topics where justice is not very relevant (such as making your bed), Epictetus introduces the concept of roles. Every living creature has one or more roles. A human being's role is to help other humans. This is our primary role, but we also have roles as a son, a father, a brother, a citizen, a neighbour, etc. On top of that, we can choose to take on more roles, such as a Software Engineer, a community member, etc. Justice is to fulfill these roles well. When it comes to making ethical decisions, we should refer to our roles. Whether or not you assent to an impression is determined in part by the kind of person you are or take yourself to be. Roles have consequences, and once we have accepted a role, we should accept as reasonable anything that follows from that role.

Anxiety and Regret are Indifferents
The concept of Indifferents is really powerful as it allows Epictetus to prove to us that negative feelings such as regret and anxiety are fully irrational. Regret comes from a want to change the past. Anxiety comes from being scared of the future. We can change neither the past nor the future; we only have the ability to take actions in the present.

External Events are Indifferents
We need to learn to accept experiences and events over which we have no control, to recognize them as “indifferent” (neither good nor bad, and with no contribution to make to our happiness or misery) and to use them as the materials on which to practice virtue and appropriate action; we need to see them as gifts of the providential God who steers and arranges everything in the universe, great and small. In this way, fated events become opportunities, not constraints.

Exercises
General:
1. To foresee possibilities, especially negative ones, either in general or at the start of the day, so as to be able to preempt disturbances, and at bedtime to review with a critical eye the events of the day
2. To assess one’s progress.
3. To act always with reservation, so that one is never thwarted.
Phase 1: Controlling desires
1. To bring our bodily needs and desires under our control.
2. To practice responding correctly to things, and if necessary to change habitual responses to the opposite responses.
3. To undertake the gradual elimination of attachment to anything other than virtue.
Phase 2: Manage inclinations to always act virtuously
1. To look for the appropriate response in all situations
2. To check our instinctive inclination to act in ways that are pleasant by imagining the pleasure we will get from refraining from such actions and the sense of regret we will experience if we do not refrain
3. To ask ourselves what a completely virtuous agent such as Socrates, Diogenes, or Heracles would do when faced with a situation like the one we are faced with
Phase 3: Training our faculty of judgement
1. To pause and catch the act of assent before it happens, so that we can check whether the impression is something to which we really want to assent.
2. To assess, before every decision, what it demands of us and whether we can actually see it through.
3. To relabel and reframe situations in more positive ways, such as seeing ourselves as parts of a whole.

Some quotes:

Moment by moment, we need to assess our mental condition to make sure that we are focusing only on things that are up to us and not letting externals worry us. That way we can take control of our lives.

Desire, inclination, and assent are the three areas of life where training is needed to make a person free and unconstrained by external hindrances.

[Red Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an advocate of stoicism I wanted to get more out of this book, but have to admit it was tough to follow, and erratic in the flow and ability of the reader to comprehend. I probably need to try a version that focuses on commentary on the teachings of Epictetus vs. the more direct version like this of his teachings. Note that Epictetus himself apparently did not write down his thoughts, so these notes were taken by a student, Arrian.

Also of interest is that Epictetus was Greek, but was taken as a slave and lived in Rome, where his master had him educated, and he later returned to Greece to teach in or around the time of Christ.

Epictetus was interested in thoughts and theories, but he wanted the focus to be on putting those arguments into action.

"A person's caliber is revealed by difficult circumstances, and so, when a difficulty occurs, think of it as God pitting you, as a trainer might, against a tough training partner."

Sarpedon, son of Zeus - "When I left home, my intention was either to distinguish myself in battle or to enable someone else to do so. If I can't achieve any kind of success myself, I won't resent it is if someone else performs nobly."

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been reading and studying this book for the last 9 months and I can say that it’s honestly changed my life. In combination with a great therapist and trying my best to apply the principles laid out by Epictetus to my daily life I’ve managed to find control over my anxiety and stop worrying about things that are outside my control.
Despite being written almost 2,000 years ago it’s still incredibly relevant today. I also had a number of laughs throughout the Discourses, especially the distain Epictetus had for the Epicureans, accusing them of “farting in public”.
This is a must read for anyone for some guidance through life.

[Seth Gran · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very challenging read for me. Not necessarily because of the translation or anything, but just because of the pacing of Epictetus’ lectures, it was hard to follow and stay interested in. I mostly have to blame my weak reading skills, but that’s the one warning I give.

When it comes to the actual content, fantastic and intuitive concepts that really hit hard. There’s a lot of theological reference, so if you’re not religious you might find some of the points hard to grasp.

Overall I’m very happy I took the time to read it, but it’s not a text I would recommend strongly to anyone outside of the niche Greek philosophy zeitgeist (which includes me; not a huge Greek philosophy guy)

[Heath James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very good translation and I like that it’s all of Epictetus’ works. I’m quite new to philosophy and the older texts I’ve read so far are a bit above my “weight class”. I’ve read some modern stoicism and loved them so I wanted to read the actual works that the modern authors talk about. I enjoy Epictetus’ rhetoric and his overall style. I’ll eventually read this again (I hope) at a much slower pace and hopefully I’ll comprehend it more. For now this is a 3 star mostly from my lack of experience with classical literature.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

An In-depth Look at Epictetus

This book cover all of Epictetus' teachings. Unlike other books, this one starts with the Handbook and then proceeds to the Discourses. The footnotes are helpful and shed light on Epictetus.

[Irfan Hameed · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is The best book I ever read on stoicism or any other book on philosophy.
Overall the best teachings of Stoicism and translator has done a good job.
If you want to read only one book on stoicism, this is the one.

[Caleb Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for any student of philosophy and/or stoicism. Epictetus is a gripping speaker, and I was surprised at how funny he frequently chose to be. I adore the Waterfield's translation and footnotes and would highly recommend his collection.

[Norman Styers · Rating 5 out of 5]

The translator did good work.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t know if my mom was familiar with the works of classical stoicism, but her instructions from my childhood were eerily similar to the teachings of Epictetus.

[Acaer · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10

[Dpolaski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read! Very approachable translation and helpful end notes.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is amazing. However, this translation is not my favorite.

[Orlando Ruiz · Rating 3 out of 5]

🍦 Handbook 100% gelezen
🍣 Discourses 39% gelezen
🍔 Fragments 100% gelezen

[Lo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book to be reread numerous times. A manual for being a good human who can let things go and not get caught up in things that could destroy your soul.

[Young Cappa · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Marcus Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Fry Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as succinct as Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, the repetition does get redundant, but an essential read nonetheless.

Between this book and the Meditations, most of the contemporary "mental health industry" would (rightfully) go out of business.

[Paul B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are thinking about reading a bit of Epictetus, this is the edition you should choose. You won't regret having paid a little extra for the the University of Chicago Press edition, and that goes even if you are not especially interested in reading Epictetus's complete works. This new translation captures the sarcasm and informality of the discourses collected by Arrian during after hours bull sessions that Epictetus conducted with his students, visiting sages and random bystanders. Robin Waterfield - translator has used an English more in line with early 20th century vernacular. Not only will the reading go easier, for my money you'll get a better sense of what Epictetus was on about.

Of course, I could be wrong about that. If you are looking for a version of this late Stoic that is a bit more consonant with Christian dogma as it developed from, say, 1300 to 1790, you'll probably want one of the older translations.