Epictetus


Epictetus’s The Handbook discusses the stoic belief about how you should live your life. According to the stoic view, you are responsible for your own life and your own actions. A stoic believes you should detach yourself from distracting emotions which in turn allows you to become a clear and level headed thinker. The Handbook explains how some things are up to us and others are not. We control our opinions, impulses and desires. Anything that is not our own doing is not up to us and should not be sweat over. You cannot let other people or other things dictate the way that you live your life, when something bad happens the only person you can blame is yourself. It is not the fault of others when something happens to you. You also cannot let things outside of your control get to you and control how you live. If someone dies it is important to remember them, but you should not let it change your life. When something or someone has left you, according to Epictetus, you should not say that you have lost it, but that you have given it back. This to me is an interesting point of view because stoics seem to believe that they are in control of their own lives but still believe in some type of higher power. The stoic belief to me seems to be putting your life into your own hands. If you want to be happy you must make that happiness yourself and the only way to do that is to not let anything get to you.
I enjoyed reading this book and talking about different schools of thought. It is interesting to me, especially listening during class discussions, how everyone’s views are so different on how you should live your life. There are such contrasting views between individuals about what is right and wrong and the way that they see the world. I think that I fit into the stoic school of thought in a few ways. I don’t let things get to me very easy, I almost always let things roll off of my back, which is good and bad in different situations. I think this is a good way to live life because you can’t change things that you’re not in control of so why make a big deal about them. I can however see that this would be a difficult way to live life everyday for many people because they are unable to let things go. If you can completely detach yourself from the world you would not do very well in today’s society because it is not possible to find a significant other or make money when you are detached from anything that might hurt you so I believe that although it is a good idea and good way to attempt to live your life, it is not possible in today’s society.