The Enchiridion by Epictetus

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45109/45109-h/45109-h.htm

by atropoles • 6 months ago

91 44 6 months ago

0xmattf4• 6 months ago

Absolutely love this book. The discourses are great reads as well.

It's wild how the human psyche barely changed since the time of Epictetus.

P.S. If you're a follower of Stoicism, I've been working on a community platform/forum: https://stoacentral.com (there's still a lot of work to be done, but I've been pushing along).

Archelaos3• 6 months ago

The Perseus Project has a more advanced presentation of the text (including the Teubner edtion), for those interested: https://scaife.perseus.org/library/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0557....

bm3719• 6 months ago

Was in one of those chain book stores recently and decided to stop by the philosophy section. It was tiny, only taking up part of a single shelf in a huge store. I was surprised to find about half of the titles were on Stoicism and closely-related topics. There were many pop-psych texts about applying Stoicism to modern life. I guess it's been having a moment? Interestingly, it was right next to the massive self-help section.

I have a notion that both the ancient West and East experienced a chance to align with systems of thought that reject desire, either in part or whole. In the East, that was more successful and stuck around longer. Unfortunately for us, it remained a fringe notion (think how we would react to a modern Diogenes). However, we never completely forgot, flirting with similar ideas from the direction of Christian piety, the synthesis of Eastern thought that occurred in the counter-culture era, and the psychoanalytic frameworks of Lacan, Deleuze+Guattari, and others. Now that our desires are being exploited against us by the tech that mediates our very existence, it makes sense we would seek defense mechanisms. There's trillions of dollars of economic force out there creating, curating, and capturing desire. It's probably worth stepping back and asking how being embedded in that structure is actually affecting us and the degree it's aligned with our innate interests.

V__• 6 months ago

Ryan Holiday has really popularized Stoicism in the last decade.

dkarl5• 6 months ago

In the west, we've had a long, deep split between what ordinary people rely on (religion and self-help) and respectable academic philosophy. Philosophy rooted in religion has a strict requirement to scale down to serve masses of people. Philosophy rooted in academia has a strict requirement to scale up to allow practitioners to flex their elite skills and show that they are worthy of scarce academic positions. Academic philosophers pay lip service to the idea that philosophy can and should be for everyone, but in practice, they shy away from anything that could compromise their primary pursuit of a career and academic prestige.

As a result, they mostly respond to efforts to reach a lay audience by distancing and criticizing. They are really harsh on the compromises inherent in meeting lay audiences where they are.

IrishTechie• 6 months ago

That seems like a rather cynical take. I think you’re conflating philosophy as guidance for how to live (stoicism etc) and philosophy as more of a science to explore unanswered questions, which are naturally going to have very different practitioners and audiences?

OkayPhysicist2• 6 months ago

That's a pretty weak take. The difference between philosophy texts on ethics and the better self-help texts are just the difference between pulp fiction and classic novels. Time needs to pass before anybody is willing to go "actually, this is worth analyzing". That said, there's a lot of self-help that isn't philosophical (or, more exactly, don't attempt to defend the philosophy that they present the conclusions of).

Consider the difference between. "Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultry" and "you shouldn't kill or sleep with your neighbor's wife because both actions cause more harm than they provide benefit, which ought be our goal because the conclusions of such a cost/benefit analysis closely align to most people's natural sense of right and wrong". The former is a statement of morals. If you include the "...because God said so, and God is always right", then it becomes an ethical argument, like the second. The key is arguing the why down to axioms, and defending those axioms as superior to other axioms.

A self-help book like "How to win friends and influence people" provides rules to follow, to achieve a desired outcome, and attempts to explain why the rules work. It doesn't spend much, if any (it's been a while) energy arguing why you should want the desired outcome, or if the desired outcome is actually a good thing.

booleandilemma2• 6 months ago

Wonderfully put.

intalentive• 6 months ago

Strictures which successfully regulated desire crystallized over the ages into particular forms of tradition and morality. Hence early conservatives like Carlyle and Chesterton were anti-capitalist: they saw the economics of desire as a corrosive force that would break down and nullify the experience of centuries as encoded in customs, tradition and other social bonds.

20260126032624• 6 months ago

Christian thought remains diametrically opposed to Eastern philosophies, at least when it comes to religion. Rejecting desire in an attempt at eternal life is quite different from wanting to escape existence as a whole and return to non-existence.

layer82• 6 months ago

Stoicism has had a bit of a revival since the early 2010s: https://www.google.com/search?udm=14&q=stoicism+before:2015

tasuki2• 6 months ago

I made a website for comparing the translations: https://enchiridion.tasuki.org/

Archelaos3• 6 months ago

Ever considered to add the Greek text?

0xmattf4• 6 months ago

It looks like the Greek text is there. You have to click "Compare Translations" on the top left -> Top Result.

layer82• 6 months ago

It would be nice to have a gradual highlighting of the differences.

nicwolff• 6 months ago

Wow, instant bookmark. Thanks!

ZeroGravitas• 6 months ago

Standard Ebooks version:

https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/epictetus/short-works/geor...

robin_reala• 6 months ago

…also available as Kindle, ePub and Kobo-flavoured ePub as part of a longer compilation at https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/epictetus/short-works/geor...

josefritzishere• 6 months ago

I am actually exited to read this.

AlfredBarnes• 6 months ago

I enjoyed this book greatly, I do not enjoy how Stoicism has become the basic meaning of philosophy.

Meditations is also a decent read.

booleandilemma2• 6 months ago

I read this in my early 20's and it had such a profound effect on me. It's so hard to truly put it all into practice though.

Jun8• 6 months ago

Related: Sorry, but as an AT fan I couldn't resist: https://adventuretime.fandom.com/wiki/The_Enchiridion_(book)

augusteo• 6 months ago

bm3719's observation about Stoicism as a defense mechanism resonates with me. I've found it genuinely useful, not as self-help packaged for tech bros, but as practical mental infrastructure.

The core idea is simple. You separate what you can control from what you can't. Then you stop burning energy on the second category. Easier said than done, but the framework helps.

I keep coming back to "How to Think Like a Roman Emperor" as a practical companion to the original texts. It's Marcus Aurelius filtered through modern psychology, with concrete exercises instead of just principles.

The danger is treating Stoicism as emotional suppression. It's not. It's about choosing where to direct your attention and energy. That's genuinely useful when you're surrounded by systems designed to capture both.

zhouzhao• 6 months ago

It's choose your battles

bigstrat2003• 6 months ago

I have read this and love it. Besides being good practical advice, it's fun to read just how sassy Epictetus could be with his students. He doesn't hesitate to call people fools when they deserve it, and it makes him seem a lot more human and relatable as a result.

FeteCommuniste2• 6 months ago

An "enchiridion" is a manual or primer. Interestingly, in both ancient and modern Greek, ἐγχειρίδιον / εγχειρίδιο also means "dagger." Because both a small manual and a dagger were things that could fit comfortably in (εγχ / εν) your hand (χείρ / χέρι).

Not all that relevant to Epictetus, just wanted to add a little linguistic note.

wincy• 6 months ago

So the more accurate English word for enchiridion in the book sense is probably handbook?

FeteCommuniste2• 6 months ago

Sure. Though "manual" actually shares the same kind of root as well (from Latin "manus" [= hand]).

pinnochio• 6 months ago

Interesting. I thought it was a new menu item from Taco Bell.

quercusa• 6 months ago

Still thinking about those three black olive slices?

brumar• 6 months ago

My favorite book.

popalchemist• 6 months ago

Everyone should read this at least once. It's practical, grounded, and still relevant.

rramadass• 6 months ago

Epictetus' Handbook and the Tablet of Cebes: Guides to Stoic Living by Keith Seddon; has the first detailed modern commentary on The Enchiridion in over 1500 years. The book is positioned for both the general reader and academics with background notes, detailed commentary and explanations.

Every student of Stoic Philosophy should read this - https://www.routledge.com/Epictetus-Handbook--and-the-Tablet...

The Enchiridion by Epictetus

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