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Title: Epictetus Discourse Books 1 and 2 (Loeb Classical Library, No 131) by Epictetus ISBN: 0-674-99145-1 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: June, 1925 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: As others have noted.....
Comment: reading and understanding the Discourses is not difficult. The points are driven home time after time, with one excellent example after another. There is so much common sense wisdom in these pages that you will find yourself constantly stopping to examine a passage and easily applying it to a situation in your own life.
But as has been said many times, living the Discourses is really tough. As you apply the lessons, if you are anything like me, you will find yourself saying, "Well, there's another way I screw up in life."
But what the hell? You know yourself better as a person and you will also constantly find yourself saying, "That is something that is not in my control, now lets see if I can control the way I respond to what has happened."
I started reading Epictitus shortly after reading "A Man in Full" by Tom Wolfe. I love the notion that we find ourselves in these little prisons, (usually of our own making,) but the door is always open. If we choose to leave, nothing can stop us. But if we choose to stay, well then stop bitching and just get on with it.
Rating: 5
Summary: Not just the Discourses
Comment: This is volume one of a two volume set. The second volume is "Epictetus : Discourses, Books 3 and 4 (Loeb Classical Library, No 218)". The contents for both volumes are as follows:
VOLUME I:
Introduction (editors)
Bibliography
Symbols
Discourses, Book I
Discourses, Book II
Index
VOLUME II:
Discourses, Book III
Discourses, Book IV
Fragments
Encheiridion
The first thing worth noting is that although the titles of the volume refer to just the Discourses, the set is really a complete set of extant works, including fragments from other sources as well as a complete copy of the Encheiridion.
As is typical for the Loeb classical library books, the volumes are physically small, and the original text (Greek, for Epictetus) is given on the left hand page, with the English translation on the right.
The Introduction gives a brief biography of Epictetus and background information concerning Stoic philosophy. The Bibliography (which contains an update note from the original 1925 edition) gives the state of Epictetus scholarship. In the actual texts, footnotes are abundant and explain unfamiliar names, places, difficulties with translation, uncertainties about the source text, and Epictetus' quotes from earlier writers are more fully referenced. In summation, the background material supplied with these books is excellent.
As for the texts themselves, they were not actually written by Epictetus, but were notes taken by Arrian, one of his students (not unlike the Nicomachean Ethics, which were notes taken by a student of Aristotle). The Discourses are quite lively in style; Epictetus' personality and teaching style comes through vividly. This is not true of the Encheiridion, which Arrian abstracted from the Discourses and which had the life wrung out of it in the process.
The Discourses are not a well-organized body of work, as their origin might suggest. They are repetitive, and points that should have been grouped together logically are dispersed throughout.
The content is almost entirely ethical. Epictetus emphasizes the spark of divinity within man - that a man should always behave honourably. External things, such as wealth and power, are not things to be valued - they can be lost at any time, and are not worth a man's honour. Because his teachings are ethical, Epictetus is not concerned with what a man knows, but how he lives. The point isn't to understand his philosophy (which isn't hard), but to live it (which is).
Rating: 5
Summary: Taking control of your life
Comment: This volume and its companion, listed as Discourses Books 3 and 4, are actually what survives of one work written almost 1900 years ago: the historian Arrian's recording of what he learned from his study with the premier Stoic philosopher of antiquity, Epictetus. The Discourses are, quite simply, a collection of some of the most down-to-earth, practical, beneficial teachings ever spoken: understanding what Epictetus said is easy; he is a lucid and forthright instructor: putting his teachings into practice is the difficulty. But the struggle is worthwhile: practicing Stoicism is not "a denial of the self", but rather a freeing of the self from the dictatorship of things beyond our control. Epictetus teaches us how to see the world as it really is; how to see ourselves as we really are; and to understand how we can live at peace within chaos. [More information under my review of the Everyman's Library edition.
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Title: Epictetus: Discourses, Books 3 and 4 (Loeb Classical Library, No 218) by Epictetus ISBN: 0674992407 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: June, 1928 List Price(USD): $21.50 |
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Title: Enchiridion by Epictetus, George Long ISBN: 0879757035 Publisher: Promethean Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 1955 List Price(USD): $7.00 |
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Title: Handbook of Epictetus by Nicholas P. White ISBN: 0915145693 Publisher: Hackett Pub Co Pub. Date: June, 1983 List Price(USD): $3.95 |
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Title: A Manual for Living by Epictetus ISBN: 0062511114 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 23 June, 1994 List Price(USD): $9.00 |
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Title: The Art of Living : The Classical Mannual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness by Epictetus, Sharon Lebell ISBN: 0062513222 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 06 October, 1995 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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