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Some things are what? What does the beginning of the Enchiridion mean?
The Enchiridion of Epictetus is thought to be a basic introductory text to Stoicism. It is however a very advanced text, that needs a lot of context. This is an attempt at that. This is neither a paper nor an essay, but more like a class room exercise, encouraging a close reading the Stoics carefully,… Continue reading
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Socrates don’t kno nuffink
This keeps cropping up in online debates: “The paraphrased saying, though widely attributed to Plato’s Socrates in both ancient and modern times, actually occurs nowhere in Plato’s works in precisely the form “I know I know nothing.” Wikipedia To give some context, Socrates that he is the wisest man in Athens by the Oracle at… Continue reading
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Off the cuff comments on the discussion of Providence or Atoms in Marcus Aurelius
Some incomplete notes on the Discussion of Providence or Atoms in Marcus, put online for the purposes of a specific debate. It is a technical question. It is physics, how the world is made, of what. Providence is the substance of the universe, it is determinism itself, fixed causality itself, It is that all things… Continue reading
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Stoic Cosmology and Ethics
The Stoics had a naturalistic ethics based on an understanding of behaviors that can be identified as appropriate to any animal, in the specific case of humans, as social creatures endowed with language and language based reason, we are innately equipped with the potential to identify what is beneficial in the world, and what is… Continue reading
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The Scientific God of the Stoics
Originally featured on thesideview.com This article is published as an addition as an addition to issue 2 of The Side View Journal. The article continues an ongoing dialogue initiated by Brittany Polat, and continued by Kai Whiting and Massimo Pigliucci. In a recent article in The Side View, entitled “The Stoic God Is Untenable in the Light of Modern Science,” philosopher Massimo… Continue reading
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What is Controlling What?
What has come to be known as the Dichotomy of Control is a naïve misinterpretation of the opening of Epictetus’s Enchiridion. This is a short debunking of it. This is the popular rendering of the opening of the Enchiridion, however this particular wording is unattributed. (Nobody knows who produced this, it is not Elizabeth Carter… Continue reading
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The Enchiridion, Or Manual, Of Epictetus by Elizabeth Carter (1758)
There is a very a popular version of Enchiridion on the internet attributed to Elizabeth Carter which is not authentic. This is her work. “Of things, some are in our power and others not” Continue reading
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The Handpage to the Handbook of Epictetus
Living a good life requires a good understanding of Nature, the living world, and our place in it. This requires the best possible knowledge of the value and appropriate uses of, and responses to, what we encounter in the world, for our own benefit and the common good. The accuracy and coherence of our evaluative… Continue reading