Blog Posts

April 1, 2017 - Ancient Stoicism in Plain English
Tag(s): Book Excerpts

Distinguish the important from the incidental (Epictetus’ Discourses in Plain English 1.8)

Training in logic helps us spot incorrect and incomplete arguments, so we are not misled. Therefore, we need to train ourselves in logic.

March 29, 2017 - Ancient Stoicism in Plain English
Tag(s): Book Excerpts

Deal with arguments the logical way (Epictetus’ Discourses in Plain English 1.7)

We can easily be deceived by arguments involving questions and Arguments have a bearing on the way we should behave

March 25, 2017 - Ancient Stoicism in Plain English
Tag(s): Book Excerpts

Don’t complain; you have no reason to (Epictetus’ Discourses in Plain English 1.6)

The universe is well organized and everything is well co-ordinated. From this we can infer there must be a creator who created all this.

March 22, 2017 - Ancient Stoicism in Plain English
Tag(s): Book Excerpts

Beware of rigid thinking (Epictetus’ Discourses in Plain English 1.5)

Discourses is a collection of Epictetus’ conversations with his students and visitors, as recorded by his student Flavius Arrian. Discourses forms an excellent introduction to Stoicism and, in this series, The Stoic Gym presents Epictetus’ Discourses in plain English.

March 19, 2017 - Ancient Stoicism in Plain English
Tag(s): Book Excerpts

How to know that you are making progress (Epictetus’ Discourses in Plain English 1.4)

Discourses is a collection of Epictetus’ conversations with his students and visitors, as recorded by his student Flavius Arrian. Discourses forms an excellent introduction to Stoicism and, in this series, The Stoic Gym presents Epictetus’ Discourses in plain English.

March 18, 2017 - Ancient Stoicism in Plain English
Tag(s): Book Excerpts

Don’t become a treacherous animal (Epictetus Discourses in Plain English 1.3)

Discourses is a collection of Epictetus’ conversations with his students and visitors, as recorded by his student Flavius Arrian. Discourses forms an excellent introduction to Stoicism and, in this series, The Stoic Gym presents Epictetus’ Discourses in plain English.

March 15, 2017 - Ancient Stoicism in Plain English
Tag(s): Book Excerpts

You can endure anything; act your best. (Discourses in Plain English I.2.)

Discourses is a collection of Epictetus’ conversations with his students and visitors, as recorded by his student Flavius Arrian. Discourses forms an excellent introduction to Stoicism and, in this series, The Stoic Gym presents Epictetus’ Discourses in plain English.

March 10, 2017 - Ancient Stoicism in Plain English
Tag(s): Book Excerpts

Understand what is in your power (Discourses in Plain English I.1.)

Discourses is a collection of Epictetus’ conversations with his students and visitors, as recorded by his student Flavius Arrian. Discourses forms an excellent introduction to Stoicism and, in this series, The Stoic Gym presents Epictetus’ Discourses in plain English.

March 8, 2017 - Ancient Stoicism in Plain English
Tag(s): Book Excerpts

Training to be a philosopher

[In this discourse, Epictetus presents an idealized version of a philosopher, in the context of a student expressing an interest in Cynicism, which provided inspiration for Stoicism. Although the descriptions refer to a Cynic philosopher, it would apply equally to a Stoic philosopher.]

January 22, 2017 - Ancient Stoicism in Plain English
Tag(s): Book Excerpts

The Importance of the Dichotomy of Control

Epictetus classified things as being under our control or not under our control. His classic Enchiridion (The Good Life Handbook published by The Stoic Gym) starts with this basic idea of control.