Discourses and Selected Writings

Intellectual and artistic exercises like grammar and music cannot “analyze itself” (5). Reason is different because it can “evaluate itself” (5). Epictetus elaborates that reason is a gift from the gods and a “portion” (6) of divinity. However, he argues that reason is neglected and that people instead focus on their physical bodies, their loved ones, and material things.

Accepting reason would mean not becoming too attached to the material or even too attached to one’s own life. Epictetus gives the example of Lateranus, who, when condemned to be beheaded by the emperor Nero, calmly offered his head to the executioner and even offered it twice when the first blow did not kill him. One cannot choose not to die, but one can choose dignity and calm over distress. Epictetus argues that this is “the kind of attitude you need to cultivate if you would be a philosopher” (7).

Epictetus argues that since humans are “the rational animal” (8) they instinctively hate anything that is irrational or unreasonable. Even when someone dies by suicide, that course of action may appear reasonable or rational. This is because “standards of reasonableness and unreasonableness vary from one person to the next” (8).