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It’s a pretty simple philosophy. Some Stoics tried to make it more complicated, they chopped logic, got distracted by big, ephemeral questions.
But not Epictetus.
He came to Stoicism from slavery. He didn’t have years of expensive tutors. Philosophy was not something he discussed over long, fancy dinners at his estate. No, to him, philosophy was something one needed in the dirty, day-to-day reality that was Rome. He left the academic debates to those who had the luxury of indulging such things.
As Thomas Wentworth Higginson (who led one of the first black regiments in the American Civil War) would write in his introduction to his 1865 translation of Epictetus (it’s good, though we prefer the Penguin edition or Waterfield’s recent translation), Epictetus limited “himself strictly to giving a code of practical ethics…
“His essential principles are very simple. All things (he holds) receive their character from our judgment concerning them; all objects, all events, are merely semblances or phenomena, to be interpreted according to the laws which nature gives us. An obvious classification at once occurs; all things are either controllable by will, or uncontrollable. If controllable, we may properly exert towards them our desire or aversion, though always guardedly and moderately. If uncontrollable, they are nothing to us, and we are merely to acquiesce, not with resignation alone, but joyously, knowing that an all-wise Father rules the whole. All success comes, according to Epictetus, from obedience to this rule; all failure proceeds from putting a false estimate on the phenomena of existence, from trying to control what is uncontrollable, or from neglecting what is within our power. ‘Two rules we should have always ready, — that there is nothing good or evil save in the Will; and, that we are not to lead events, but to follow them.’” This is the Stoicism that we follow today. Stoic physics? Who cares? But Stoicism as practical ethics? We can use that. Stoicism that helps us understand what’s outside our control, how to direct our power toward what is in our control? That is a timeless battle that pertains as much to a slave in Rome as it does to a salesman in Paris or a soccer mom in Los Angeles.
Success—in all things, in whatever we do—still comes from that same acquiesce, from the joyous acceptance of what’s in front of us, even suffering and difficulty.
P.S. If you want to learn more about Epictetus and how he applied Stoicism for his life, check out our course Stoicism 101: Ancient Philosophy for Your Actual Life. It’s a 14-day guided journey through the best of Stoicism and our most popular course over the past few years. Why? Because it’s all about how you can use this philosophy that’s designed to help you solve real problems in the real world. Sign up TODAY!
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