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"The second-century Stoic sage Epictetus argued that "Your will needn't be affected by an incident unless you let it". In other words, we can be masters and not
by virissimo 9y ago
"The second-century Stoic sage Epictetus argued that "Your will needn't be affected by an incident unless you let it". In other words, we can be masters and not victims of fate because what we believe our capability to be determines the strength of that capability."
That is absolutely not what Epictetus meant. In fact, like other Stoics, he taught his students a technique called negative visualization that is literally the opposite of positive thinking. The author couldn't have picked a worse example of an ancient precursor to positive psychology.
- bitexploder 9y agoI have read almost all of the biographies and works covering Epictetus. Just want to confirm you are correct. Stoicism at it's true core was how to react to a life that was foretold. Most stoics believed their date was predetermined but now how they dealt with it. In context, Stoicism was the cure to being dealt a rough hand by "fate". It holds up so well that many modern therapies, such as CBT, can be directly connected. Now, we of course don't think probably believe in destiny here on HN (in general). Anyway just providing some color for how off the author was. Stoics lived with death as a way to take the right course of action. E.g. if I knew this was my last day with my daughter how would I act? Could I claim to have made good choices or would I have regrets.