HKB
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Often appears with: providence and divine governance · fate, destiny, and necessity · the passions and the emotions · justice as a virtue · value of modesty · the problem of evil and theodicy · the fear of death · socrates · resignation and comfort · providence vs chance · pleasure, pain, and the good life · philosophical method
Usually: detachment (4) · argument (3) · reflection (2) · the test or trial (2) · exhortation (2) · resignation (2) · dialogue (1) · confronting death (1) · sudden reversal of fortune (1) · the fall of the great (1)
“The first and most necessary place (part, [Greek: topos]) in philosophy is the use of theorems (precepts, [Greek: theoraemata]), for instance, that we must not lie; the second part is that of demonstrations, for instance, How is it proved that we ought not to lie?” Epictetus (translated by George Long), A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus with th · observation
Stoic providence is explained using medical prescriptions by Asclepius: the universe assigns each person disease and loss suitably, so accept events as enabling the health and order of the whole.
this, neither am I harmed. But if the state is harmed, thou must not be angry with him who does harm to the state. Show him where his error is. 23. Often think of the rapidity with which things pass by and disappear, both the things which are and the things which are produced. For substance is like a river in a continual flow, and the activities of things are in constant change, and the causes work in infinite varie…
Meditations reflects that people and their reputations become obsolete, then presses the reader to cultivate a just mind, charitable actions, truthful speech, and acceptance of whatever happens as ordinary and necessary.
discreet connection of things orderly and harmoniously disposed. There is then to be seen in the things of the world, not a bare succession, but an admirable correspondence and affinity. XXXVII. Let that of Heraclitus never be out of thy mind, that the death of earth, is water, and the death of water, is air; and the death of air, is fire; and so on the contrary. Remember him also who was ignorant whither the way di…
He contrasts providence and chance to explain peace of mind, tells readers to accept worldly cycles as a torrent, criticizes ostentatious “philosophers” who lack opinion-change, and doubts fame and honor’s value.
THE TENTH BOOK I. O my soul, the time I trust will be, when thou shalt be good, simple, single, more open and visible, than that body by which it is enclosed. Thou wilt one day be sensible of their happiness, whose end is love, and their affections dead to all worldly things. Thou shalt one day be full, and in want of no external thing: not seeking pleasure from anything, either living or insensible, that this world…
The text argues that public nature sends what happens, the world and sky “love” their outcomes, and one must accept that life continues, retreats, or ends—so comfort and steadiness are required.
and of change; tending to some kind of either putrefaction or dispersion; or whatsoever else it is, that is the death as it were of everything in his own kind. XX. Consider them through all actions and occupations, of their lives: as when they eat, and when they sleep: when they are in the act of necessary exoneration, and when in the act of lust. Again, when they either are in their greatest exultation; and in the …
Epictetus outlines a hierarchy of philosophical topics—first living by precepts, then proving them, then explaining proof—then gives vows of acceptance of Zeus/Destiny and an example of refusing harm from Anytus and Meletus.
The first and most necessary place (part, [Greek: topos]) in philosophy is the use of theorems (precepts, [Greek: theoraemata]), for instance, that we must not lie; the second part is that of demonstrations, for instance, How is it proved that we ought not to lie? The third is that which is confirmatory of these two, and explanatory, for example, How is this a demonstration? For what is demonstration, what is consequ…
Vincent accepts Anthony’s argument that their present condition is prisonlike, while Anthony consoles him: the “proper” inconveniences of imprisonment are slight compared to suffering for God’s sake.
foot fettered with the gout, lieth groaning on a couch, and quaketh and crieth out if he fear that there would fall on his foot no more than a cushion. And therefore, cousin, as I said, if we consider it well, we shall find this general prison of this whole earth a place in which the prisoners are as sore handled as they are in the other. And even in the other some make as merry too as there do some in this one, who…