Epictetus Free Will Essay

Over time, numerous philosophers have dabbled at the concepts surrounding free will, forming their own beliefs that either relate or reject other philosophical views. Free will is defined as the ability to choose between different possible courses of action. Epicurus, Stoics, and John Locke portray arguments about their beliefs on free will. Many times, each philosophical view of the three were influenced by aspects of another philosopher, especially Aristotle. Although their beliefs are unique, each philosophical view can be connected together. All three philosophical views either promote or reject the ideology of determinism referring to the issue of free will. I accept the Stoics beliefs on free will due to freedom resembling a person’s choices to do what he or she wants to do in life.

Stoicism allows us to put things in perspective by telling us to focus on the things we have control over. It tells us to accept the external world as it is because we do not have control. Stoicism can be a positive in a person’s life because it can help them live a mores stress free and relaxed life. By not worrying about the things out of their control a person is able to focus more on themselves and improving the things that they do have control over. There are not all positives with stoicism. This thinking that of not worrying about everything that is out of our control can lead to people becoming complacent and working or fighting for something because they think that almost everything is out of there control so why should they waste their efforts. This is when stoicism can have a negative impact on a person’s life. They will not try to improve things because they will think there is no point because everything is out of their control. This can happen when people think that everything, not just external things, are out of their control. When following the teachings of stoicism it is important to be aware of these positives and negatives so it can be used effectively.

Oedipus the King by Sophocles is the story of a man who was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. The story continues in the tradition of classic Greek plays, which were based upon the Greeks’ beliefs at the time. The ancient Greeks believed that their gods decided what would ultimately happen to each and every person. Since those gods destined Oedipus to kill his father and marry his mother, Oedipus’ life was definitely fated. However, the gods only decided where Oedipus’ life would eventually lead; they never planned the route he would take to get there. All the decisions that Oedipus made in order to fulfill his destiny, and the decisions he made after the fact, were of his own free will,

On the other hand, in the Epictetus’ Enchiridion, they barely talk about love. Rather than talk about love, in Enchiridion, Epictetus mentions the idea of the dignity of life in a rational way, but not an emotional way like Christianity. Being rational seems to become the core of Stoicism. “So far, there is nothing to value myself upon. And when I find an interpreter, what remains is to make use of his instructions. This alone is the valuable thing” (Epictetus par. 49). “Never say of anything, ‘I have l lost it’; but, ‘I have returned it’"(Epictetus par.11). Even though death is the saddest thing in the life, people can overcome it by this teaching. Such matters as birth, old age, illness, and death are the inevitable routes that every human being has to across. The universal laws show that the life is an eternal thing. People should not be sad when their family members die. Epictetus seems to avoid the grieve by rationality. After learning how to accept, people will not feel fear or pain anymore. This rational optimist’s thinking leads countless followers to attain happiness.

     Epictetus represents a myriad of concepts. One concept of which being that one should live with the awareness of human imperfection and finitude. He expresses the sentiment that one is able to relinquish the

“Happiness in particular is believed to be complete without qualification, since we always choose it for itself and never for the sake of anything else. Honour, pleasure, intellect, and every virtue we do indeed choose for themselves (since we would choose each of them even if they had no good effects), but we choose them also for the sake of happiness, on the assumption that through them we shall live a life of happiness; whereas happiness no one chooses for the sake of any of these nor indeed for the sake of anything else.” ( Aristotle 10-11) Aristotle is the other view of happiness that will be discussed. With him and the Stoics, they are both kind of similar due to both believe in virtue for happiness, Aristotle says virtue a different way and other ways about happiness. Aristotle along with the Stoic’s believe that virtues is the same, but Aristotle says this about virtue “and if we take this kind of life to be activity of the soul and actions in accordance with reason, and the characteristic activity of the good person to be to carry this out well and nobly, and a characteristic activity to be accomplished well when it is accomplished in accordance with the appropriate virtue; then if this is so, the human good turns out to be

. When Epictetus says that we should get angry if there is someone splashing in the bathhouse, he means that we should get upset at the way things are going. He would say that getting splashed at the bathhouse was out of your control. That no matter what the splashing would have happened, because it was already set up to happen that way, and there is no other way that it could have happened. The point that he is trying to make is that things in life are out of our control. They happen because there causes r set up to make it happen in that way. That there was no other way that things could have turned out. Epictetus thinks that if we learn to accept that these things were destine to happen and that they are out of our control, that we will

An advantage to an approach like this is being able to adapt to certain circumstances that you face throughout life in order to be satisfied. In this perspective of Extreme Epictetus is that we detach ourselves from our desires and expectations so that they can’t limit us in any way. If we never attach ourselves then we never set ourselves up for disappointment or dissatisfaction since we never become close enough to put efforts or energy into it. Epictetus advises individuals to take a third-person perspective so that we realize that things were supposed to happen the way they were, where if we don't have these attachments we can be content with how things turn out. Although it seems desirable to not let unwanted outcomes affect us, it is

Epictetus was a Stoic philosopher who wrote, The Enchiridion, a manual which instructed people on how to live their life ethically and honorably on a social level. His belief was that regardless of personal conditions, people could live with pride and discipline. Epictetus tells us differentiating between what is in our own power to control and what is not is the key to a noble life (281).

Seneca, a renowned and well respected philosopher, is the author behind the ancient dialogues Moral Letters to Lucilius and On the Happy Life, among many others. Throughout these two dialogues, Seneca shares his stoic views. Although he disagreed on some views, he felt strongly about others. His ideas mainly focus around the need to pursue happiness by adherently pursuing the nature of reasoning. Thus, he advocates the importance of pursuing happiness right-minded. I agree with Seneca’s stoic principles, emphasizing the need to strive for the highest good in life while living in accordance with temperance, wisdom, courage, and justice. According to Seneca, following these virtues allows any man live in a

The truest pleasure must come through the development within one of the generous emotions, kind sympathies, and large social interests”(Hyde, 51). Epicurus, however, insisted that courage, moderation, and the other virtues are needed in order to attain this happiness. To make someone wealthy it isn’t necessary to give him more money, only to reduce his desires. By eliminating the pain caused by these unfulfilled desires, and the anxiety that occurs because of the fear that one's desires will not be fulfilled in the future, the Epicurean attains tranquility, and thus happiness.

However, Stoicism’s belief that virtue (and its corresponding happiness) is indestructible when acting rightly is highly ignorant and raises serious questions about how happiness can coexist with physical suffering or death. The belief that happiness through virtue is a constant and unchanging mindset is a pinnacle belief for Stoicism (McGill, 1967, p.231). Clearly, under Zeno’s description of valuable externals, Stoics agree that health and looking after the body is preferable but virtue is the absolute and situations may arise when they must sacrifice their life to maintain virtue and live in accordance with nature (Epictetus, 1995, p.290). As Epictetus states “It is better to die of hunger, but free from grief and fear, than to live in affluence with a disturbed mind” (Epictetus, 1995, p.290). Although unlike material possessions, Epictetus’s view that the body and one’s life is still merely external and therefore they should be completely unattached from leads to a rather fallacious position. To Stoics it should not matter if they are “cold or warm… and whether dying or doing something else” (McGill, 1967, p.235). But, sacrificing life is not the same as giving up an object and there is an underlying and uncontrollable emotional response which the Stoics overlook and oversimplify. In extreme situations, it is possible to be tranquil whilst living in accordance to nature to one’s own physical detriment but this is not the same as happiness. As summarised in Aristotle’s argument against unwavering happiness, enduring suffering to pursue a righteous life certainly coincides with virtue but none would argue that suffering can coexist with happiness like the Stoics suggest (McGill, 1967, p.229). Thus, Stoic lack of attachment to health or life is fairly unattainable due to the

It focuses on the way of human being that conducts his behavior to obtain his truly accepted happiness (Wilson, 2008:83). In Epicureanism, the problem of defining happiness appears at first to be simpler. According to Epicurus, the result of pleasure is happiness; in Epicurean terms, pleasure is the absence of pain in the body of trouble in the soul. (Meno, 7). Indeed, happiness can be gotten by many forms, not only good but also bad way. This joyful or pleasure feeling has a strong bound of life’s energy, as someone feel happy, he can get second energy and get another spirit (Wilson,2008:225). As state from Epicurus’ letter; “Letter to

To live a true, good and happy life, I personally believe that one would just need the natural things that would sustain them; natural things that would give someone a healthy, life that is certainly worth living. Now, there are some people who would argue that pursuing a life based on the standards of “wanting what the universe wants”. I can argue plentily that as humans, we have individual, diverse needs. The universe will not accommodate to all those nitpicky needs of ours. This, is precisely what the Stoics have settled to say that this is the way to obtain the happiest of lives. However, the former, Epicureans, more of a peaceful, natural atmosphere to the pursuit of happiness. Hence, my siding with the Epicureans. I argue that the Epicureans’ methods of obtaining a good and happy life is to be the better of the two, due to the nature of their ways, the sheer differences between the two, and the harshness of the latter as opposed to the former.

In Epicurus’s Letter to Menoeceus, Epicurus gives advice on how to live a happy life. He states: “The unwavering contemplation of these enables one to refer every choice and avoidance to the health of the body and the freedom of the soul from disturbance, since this is the goal of a blessed life.” (128) His advice expresses how a happy life is twofold; health of the body and freedom of the soul from disturbance. A man who become accustomed to the simple necessities of life is one that is completely healthy; a man who searches for the reasons for his every choice, while getting rid of other opinions, is one whose soul is free from disturbance. He stresses three key points to obtain this happiness.