5 ms·

The Enchiridion by Epictetus

91 points by atropoles 8mo ago

0xmattf 8mo 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 https://stoacentral.com (there's still a lot of work to be done, but I've been pushing along).
Archelaos 8mo 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.tlg002/ https://scaife.perseus.org/library/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0557....
bm3719 8mo 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__ 8mo ago
  Ryan Holiday has really popularized Stoicism in the last decade.
- dkarl 8mo 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 8mo 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?
    - dkarl 8mo ago
      The latter can be applicable to the former. Traditionally the connection was acknowledged, with Socrates the prototype of the philosopher who believed that happiness, ethical living, and philosophy were inextricably linked. Obviously philosophy has come a long way since Socrates, but academic philosophers continue to give lip service to the idea that philosophy can be valuable in everyday living, if not in ethics then in processing information, critiquing arguments, and understanding the origins and limitations of ideas.
      - jjk166 8mo ago
tasuki 8mo ago
I made a website for comparing the translations: https://enchiridion.tasuki.org/ https://enchiridion.tasuki.org/
- layer8 8mo ago
  It would be nice to have a gradual highlighting of the differences.
- Archelaos 8mo ago
  Ever considered to add the Greek text?
  - 0xmattf 8mo ago
    It looks like the Greek text is there. You have to click "Compare Translations" on the top left -> Top Result.
    - Archelaos 8mo ago
      Very nice. I missed that, because I expected that "Compare Translations" would highlight differences and thus did not check it out.
      - 0xmattf 8mo ago
        For sure. I found it by mistake. I was just trying to get to the homepage by clicking the menu icon.
        tasuki 8mo ago
        Oops. Any idea how to make the UX better?
        0xmattf 8mo ago
        No worries! For UX, I would personally add the Greek text by default, and remove the hamburger icon from "Compare Translations". I don't know, my brain is trained to see that icon strictly as a site navigation item. If you wanted to, perhaps at the top of the page, you can add <select> tags for the translations. But after figuring out what everything is doing, it's a super nice project; I like it, no need to change anything (above are just suggestions). Thank you for putting it together!
ZeroGravitas 8mo ago
Standard Ebooks version: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/epictetus/short-works/george-long/text/the-enchiridion https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/epictetus/short-works/geor...
- robin_reala 8mo ago
  …also available as Kindle, ePub and Kobo-flavoured ePub as part of a longer compilation at https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/epictetus/short-works/george-long https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/epictetus/short-works/geor...
josefritzishere 8mo ago
I am actually exited to read this.
AlfredBarnes 8mo 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.
booleandilemma 8mo 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 8mo ago
Related: Sorry, but as an AT fan I couldn't resist: https://adventuretime.fandom.com/wiki/The_Enchiridion_(book) https://adventuretime.fandom.com/wiki/The_Enchiridion_(book)
augusteo 8mo 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 8mo ago
  It's choose your battles
bigstrat2003 8mo 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.
FeteCommuniste 8mo 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 8mo ago
  So the more accurate English word for enchiridion in the book sense is probably handbook?
  - FeteCommuniste 8mo ago
    Sure. Though "manual" actually shares the same kind of root as well (from Latin "manus" [= hand]).
    - wendgeabos 8mo ago
      manus, mens et. one each.
- pinnochio 8mo ago
  Interesting. I thought it was a new menu item from Taco Bell.
  - quercusa 8mo ago
    Still thinking about those three black olive slices?
brumar 8mo ago
My favorite book.
popalchemist 8mo ago
Everyone should read this at least once. It's practical, grounded, and still relevant.
rramadass 8mo 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-of-Cebes-Guides-to-Stoic-Living/Seddon/p/book/9780415324526 https://www.routledge.com/Epictetus-Handbook--and-the-Tablet...

91 points by atropoles 8mo 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 https://stoacentral.com (there's still a lot of work to be done, but I've been pushing along).

Archelaos 8mo 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.tlg002/ https://scaife.perseus.org/library/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0557....

bm3719 8mo 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__ 8mo ago
Ryan Holiday has really popularized Stoicism in the last decade.
dkarl 8mo 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 8mo 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?
  - dkarl 8mo ago
    The latter can be applicable to the former. Traditionally the connection was acknowledged, with Socrates the prototype of the philosopher who believed that happiness, ethical living, and philosophy were inextricably linked. Obviously philosophy has come a long way since Socrates, but academic philosophers continue to give lip service to the idea that philosophy can be valuable in everyday living, if not in ethics then in processing information, critiquing arguments, and understanding the origins and limitations of ideas.
    - jjk166 8mo ago

tasuki 8mo ago

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

layer8 8mo ago
It would be nice to have a gradual highlighting of the differences.
Archelaos 8mo ago
Ever considered to add the Greek text?
- 0xmattf 8mo ago
  It looks like the Greek text is there. You have to click "Compare Translations" on the top left -> Top Result.
  - Archelaos 8mo ago
    Very nice. I missed that, because I expected that "Compare Translations" would highlight differences and thus did not check it out.
    - 0xmattf 8mo ago
      For sure. I found it by mistake. I was just trying to get to the homepage by clicking the menu icon.
      - tasuki 8mo ago
        Oops. Any idea how to make the UX better?
        0xmattf 8mo ago
        No worries! For UX, I would personally add the Greek text by default, and remove the hamburger icon from "Compare Translations". I don't know, my brain is trained to see that icon strictly as a site navigation item. If you wanted to, perhaps at the top of the page, you can add <select> tags for the translations. But after figuring out what everything is doing, it's a super nice project; I like it, no need to change anything (above are just suggestions). Thank you for putting it together!

ZeroGravitas 8mo ago

Standard Ebooks version: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/epictetus/short-works/george-long/text/the-enchiridion https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/epictetus/short-works/geor...

robin_reala 8mo ago
…also available as Kindle, ePub and Kobo-flavoured ePub as part of a longer compilation at https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/epictetus/short-works/george-long https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/epictetus/short-works/geor...

josefritzishere 8mo ago

I am actually exited to read this.

AlfredBarnes 8mo 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.

booleandilemma 8mo 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 8mo ago

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

augusteo 8mo 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 8mo ago
It's choose your battles

bigstrat2003 8mo 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.

FeteCommuniste 8mo 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 8mo ago
So the more accurate English word for enchiridion in the book sense is probably handbook?
- FeteCommuniste 8mo ago
  Sure. Though "manual" actually shares the same kind of root as well (from Latin "manus" [= hand]).
  - wendgeabos 8mo ago
    manus, mens et. one each.
pinnochio 8mo ago
Interesting. I thought it was a new menu item from Taco Bell.
- quercusa 8mo ago
  Still thinking about those three black olive slices?

brumar 8mo ago

My favorite book.

popalchemist 8mo ago

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

rramadass 8mo 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-of-Cebes-Guides-to-Stoic-Living/Seddon/p/book/9780415324526 https://www.routledge.com/Epictetus-Handbook--and-the-Tablet...