Digestion and Moral Progress in Epictetus

Authors

  • Michael Tremblay Queen’s University, Ontario

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1981-9471.v13i1p100-119

Keywords:

Epictetus, digestion, moral, stoicism, askesis

Abstract

The Stoic Epictetus famously criticizes his students for studying Stoicism as ‘mere theory’ and encouraged them to add training to their educational program. This is made all the more interesting by the fact that Epictetus, as a Stoic, was committed to notion that wisdom is sufficient to be virtuous, so theory should be all that’s required to achieve virtue. How are we then to make sense of Epictetus criticism of an overreliance on theory, and his insistence on adding training? This paper argues that this tension can be resolved through an appeal to the metaphor of ‘digesting theory’. Epictetus discusses the digestion of theory in three parts of his existent work. While the use of digestion as a metaphor for moral progress in Epictetus has been noted, an explanation as to exactly what this process consists of has yet to be provided. This paper attempts to provide such an account. I argue that digestion consists of assimilating what we have learnt conceptually, at the level of general principles, into specific beliefs concerning existent objects. I argue further that this process of digestion can only be achieved through what Epictetus calls training (askesis).

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Braicovich, Rodrigo Sebastián. “Critical Assent, Intellectualism, and Repetition in Epictetus.” Apeiron 45.4 (2012): 314–337. https://doi.org/10.1515/apeiron-2012-0004

Cooper, John M. “The Relevance of Moral Theory to Moral Improvement in Epictetus.” The Philosophy of Epictetus. Ed. T. Scaltsas and Andrew S. Mason. Oxford: New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. 9–19. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199233076.003.0002

Cooper, John M. Pursuits of Wisdom: Six Ways of Life in Ancient Philosophy from Socrates to Plotinus. Princeton University Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400842322

Epictetus. Discourses and Selected Writings. Trans. Robert F Dobbin. London: Penguin, 2008.

Epictetus. The Discourses of Epictetus. Trans. Robin Hard. London: Rutland, Vt: J.M. Dent: C.E. Tuttle, 1995. Print. Everyman Library.

Hadot, Pierre. Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault. Trans. Arnold I. Davidson. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1995.

Hadot, Pierre. The Inner Citadel: the “Meditations” of Marcus Aurelius. Trans. Michael Chase. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998.

Hadot, Pierre. What Is Ancient Philosophy? Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2002.

Johnson, Brian E. The Role Ethics of Epictetus: Stoicism in Ordinary Life. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2014.

Long, A. A. Epictetus: A Stoic and Socratic Guide to Life. Oxford: Oxford: New York: Clarendon Press: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Long, A. A., and D. N. Sedley. The Hellenistic Philosophers. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire]: New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511808050

Nussbaum, Martha Craven. The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1994.

Crivelli, Paulo. “Epictetus and Logic.” The Philosophy of Epictetus. Ed. T. Scaltsas and Andrew S. Mason. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. 20–31. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199233076.003.0003

Sandbach, F.H. “Ennoia and Prolepsis in the Stoic Theory of Knowledge.” Problems in Stoicism. Ed. A. A. Long. London: Athlone Press, 1971. 22–37.

Scaltsas, T., and Andrew S. Mason, eds. The Philosophy of Epictetus. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199233076.001.0001

Sellars, John. “Stoic Practical Philosophy in the Imperial Period.” Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 50.94P1 (2007): 115–140.

Sellars, John. The Art of Living: The Stoics on the Nature and Function of Philosophy. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004. Print. Ashgate New Critical Thinking in Philosophy. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-5370.2007.tb02420.x

Sharpe, Matthew. “It’s Not the Chrysippus You Read: On Cooper, Hadot, Epictetus, and Stoicism as a Way of Life.” Philosophy Today 58.3 (2014): 367–392. https://doi.org/10.5840/philtoday20145225

Downloads

Published

2019-08-10

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Digestion and Moral Progress in Epictetus. (2019). Journal of Ancient Philosophy, 13(1), 100-119. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1981-9471.v13i1p100-119