Discourses and Selected Writings

Epictetus admits that what Stoicism teaches may “appear impossible” (77). He seeks to disprove this by showing that, in practice, his philosophy simply means acting in a way that is “cautious and confident at the same time” (77), specifically acting cautious toward possible evil and confident with the natural and the good. It is acting with fear and anger that causes people to believe in false impressions and causes “natural confidence” to be “perverted into rashness, thoughtlessness, recklessness and shamelessness” (78).

Pain and death are like what a “scary mask” (78) is to a child. Underneath the mask, there is nothing to truly fear, specifically the fact that death is inevitable and pain does not last forever. Epictetus adds that living philosophically is true freedom. No one wants to live “in a state of constant fear” (79) or constantly doing evil, therefore people who live like that are not truly free.

Epictetus urges people to live their principles instead of writing them down. A “real philosopher” (80) like Socrates only writes to test their own principles. The only “duty” is to prepare oneself for misfortune “with confidence” (81).