• Log In

The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

A Philosophy Podcast and Philosophy Blog

Subscribe on Android Spotify Google Podcasts audible patreon
  • Home
  • Podcast
    • PEL Network Episodes
    • Publicly Available PEL Episodes
    • Paywalled and Ad-Free Episodes
    • PEL Episodes by Topic
    • Nightcap
    • Philosophy vs. Improv
    • Pretty Much Pop
    • Nakedly Examined Music
    • (sub)Text
    • Phi Fic Podcast
    • Combat & Classics
    • Constellary Tales
  • Blog
  • About
    • PEL FAQ
    • Meet PEL
    • About Pretty Much Pop
    • Philosophy vs. Improv
    • Nakedly Examined Music
    • Meet Phi Fic
    • Listener Feedback
    • Links
  • Join
    • Become a Citizen
    • Join Our Mailing List
    • Log In
  • Donate
  • Store
    • Episodes
    • Swag
    • Everything Else
    • Cart
    • Checkout
    • My Account
  • Contact
  • Mailing List

Episode 124: The Stoic Life with Epictetus

September 21, 2015 by Mark Linsenmayer 19 Comments

http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/partiallyexaminedlife/PEL_ep_124_8-30-15.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:08:05 — 117.3MB)

Hayek by Sterling BartlettOn the Manual of Epictetus, aka The Enchiridion, from around 135 CE.

What's a wise strategy for life? What is freedom? Stoicism says that the secret is mastering yourself. If you let yourself be perturbed by things that happen to you, then you're a slave to those external things. Your good lies only in the things you can (with practice) control, i.e., your own attitudes, judgments, and opinions. Even a slave can be free, according to this strategy: Nothing external can break your spirit unless you let it.

The full four are joined by comedian Alex Fossella of the Modern Day Philosophers podcast to argue about how weird and misguided Epictetus's advice actually is. Read more about the topic and get the book.

Please support PEL!

Epictetus image by Sterling Bartlett.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Filed Under: Podcast Episodes Tagged With: Epictetus, Ethics, Hellenistic philosophy, philosophy podcast, Stoicism, virtue ethics

Comments

  1. Paul Cooper says

    September 23, 2015 at 2:45 am

    The Stoics were one of the few schools of philosophy who acknowledged that those who subscribed to the philosophy as a way of life were on a journey toward becoming a Sage, while also acknowledging that nobody had ever actually become a Stoic Sage. In this way they accepted their failings, while all the time striving for the perfect. When Epictetus is talking about dealing with tragedy, such as the death of your child, he is describing the perfect response, in terms of what to strive for i.e. the reponse of a Sage. The way this topic was covered here was a little misleading, for me at least. Great talk though and thank you for covering it.

    Reply
  2. Alan Cook says

    September 23, 2015 at 9:31 am

    I’ve listened to the first 5 minutes of the podcast, and already I’ve got a problem: the assumption that “nobody reads the Stoics these days.” If you go to Amazon and type in “stoicism” as the search term, in the first 2 pages of hits there are 12 (count ’em!) books, all published within the past 10 years, on the theme of “how the ancient Stoics can make your life better.”

    Reply
    • Jonathon Jones says

      September 23, 2015 at 9:38 am

      I think the comment was more about how they typically aren’t taught in introduction to philosophy courses, even historically focused ones. Most of the textbooks that one would use for such a course will either neglect them entirely or give them extremely short entries. Which is unfortunate, because there is some really valuable and interesting work there.

      Reply
      • Alan Cook says

        September 23, 2015 at 4:20 pm

        Point well taken. In part, I was reacting to the impression I got from Mark’s written intro, and reinforced by the previous comment, that the podcasters’ antipathy to Stoicism would lead to a somewhat unfair treatment of the subject. The podcast was pretty good; more balanced than I had expected. Still, everyone was discussing Stoicism “from the outside,” and it would have been easy to find a participant who identified with and advocated Epictetus’s positions.

        Reply
        • Billy says

          September 23, 2015 at 7:54 pm

          I definitely agree with the discussion being from the outside. Someone who could have cited Seneca or Marcus Aurelius to clear up certain arguments would have been great. I found the attitude of the guest strange. This topic and reading were his decision. If he was so dismissive of the philosophy, why did he choose it for discussion? I wish he would have had more to contribute.

          Reply
          • Dave says

            September 26, 2015 at 7:23 am

            Definitely from the outside, definitely sophomorically dismissive in places. There was so much argument along the lines of “but that’s totally unnatural!” when it’s kind of the point that the natural way of responding to these things isn’t necessarily helpful or desirable, and other ways can be aspired to. Obviously, the way of a sage isn’t going to be “natural” for the mass of men.

            Also, one wonders how much of what we consider the “natural” way of emotionally responding to things simply represent the cultural norms of our time and a soft, rather weak-willed Western society.

  3. Parolang says

    September 24, 2015 at 12:08 pm

    I haven’t listened to the podcast yet, but will. I just wanted to say that there is a rather large internet community who practice Stoicism, so I don’t know why you chose a comedian to mock Epictetus (from the intro).

    I love this podcast otherwise, but I’ll listen to it in case the intro is incorrect.

    Reply
    • Seth Paskin says

      September 24, 2015 at 3:09 pm

      Come back and give your impression after you have listened to the whole episode.

      Reply
    • Alexandre Lemke says

      June 6, 2016 at 8:14 pm

      What community is that? I’m interested!

      Reply
  4. qapla says

    September 26, 2015 at 11:06 am

    Listened to the episode or part one of it. Really enjoyed it and looking forward to hearing part two.

    I think it was right to bring up cognitive behavioral therapy, Epictetus was influential on Albert Ellis from what I’m aware of. And maybe not so much in the text but certainly eudaimonia and something more akin to mindfulness is probably more aligned with and present in the Stoics, Epicureans, Cynics, etc..

    One thing not mentioned, although Augustine was mentioned, was the influence of Epictetus through American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr now in the “Serenity Prayer” which is pretty much right out of the first lines of Epictetus.

    “… grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
    The courage to change the things I can,
    And the wisdom to know the difference.”

    much respect

    Reply
  5. Alan Cook says

    October 2, 2015 at 10:02 am

    With regard to the problematic passage in Section 3 that’s discussed about 10 minutes into the podcast, the Greek just says hoti anthropon kataphileis: “that you kiss a human being.”

    Reply
  6. Stacy says

    October 13, 2015 at 11:05 pm

    “I’m not with everyone else”.

    I thoroughly enjoyed this topic. I don’t ascribe to any one philosophy, but found a lot useful in the stoic approach. I saw the correlations between stoicism and cognitive behavior therapy before it was mentioned, and even more with dialectical behavior therapy. I wish my philosophy major son was exposed to some psychiatry/psychology as I think it dovetails nicely with philosophy, but with impacted majors that seems impossible.

    Reply
  7. Thom Amskersh says

    May 20, 2016 at 5:25 pm

    This is an interesting conversation which is frequently interrupted Alex Fossella.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Episode 124: The Stoic Life with Epictetus (Part Two) | The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast | A Philosophy Podcast and Blog says:
    September 28, 2015 at 7:46 am

    […] how to deal with other people, how not to be a snooty philosopher, and how to behave at parties. Listen to part one first or get the racier, unchopped Citizen […]

    Reply
  2. Episode 132: Living Stoically with Seneca and Massimo (Part One) | The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast | A Philosophy Podcast and Blog says:
    January 25, 2016 at 7:00 am

    […] in ep. 124 we considered the Stoic Epictetus, but due to audience demand, we wanted a second and a third […]

    Reply
  3. Books of Wisdom | The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast | A Philosophy Podcast and Blog says:
    October 11, 2016 at 7:00 am

    […] Lynd excitedly picks up Epictetus, intent on giving it another go. He tells us that he enjoys reading this philosopher, who discusses […]

    Reply
  4. What Epictetus Really Thinks Is in Our Power | The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast | A Philosophy Podcast and Blog says:
    January 17, 2017 at 7:00 am

    […] the Stoic school and tradition of philosophy. This particularly so in the thought of the late Stoic Epictetus, where the presently much-discussed "dichotomy of control" receives its definitive formulation. The […]

    Reply
  5. Episode 158: Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy (Part One) | The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast | A Philosophy Podcast and Blog says:
    February 13, 2017 at 7:00 am

    […] bad things really happen to good people? Boethius, surprisingly, says no, for Stoic (anything that can be taken away can't be of central importance; you can't lose your virtue in this […]

    Reply
  6. Best Stoicism Podcasts | Andrew Kirby says:
    February 27, 2018 at 7:00 am

    […] Tim Ferriss, PartiallyExaminedLife, Rationally Speaking and The Art Of […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

PEL Live Show 2023

Brothers K Live Show

Citizenship has its Benefits

Become a PEL Citizen
Become a PEL Citizen, and get access to all paywalled episodes, early and ad-free, including exclusive Part 2's for episodes starting September 2020; our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat more causally; a community of fellow learners, and more.

Rate and Review

Nightcap

Listen to Nightcap
On Nightcap, listen to the guys respond to listener email and chat more casually about their lives, the making of the show, current events and politics, and anything else that happens to come up.

Subscribe to Email Updates

Select list(s):

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Support PEL

Buy stuff through Amazon and send a few shekels our way at no extra cost to you.

Tweets by PartiallyExLife

Recent Comments

  • Mark Linsenmayer on Ep. 302: Erasmus Praises Foolishness (Part Two)
  • Mark Linsenmayer on Ep. 308: Moore’s Proof of Mind-Independent Reality (Part Two for Supporters)
  • Mark Linsenmayer on Ep. 201: Marcus Aurelius’s Stoicism with Ryan Holiday (Citizen Edition)
  • MartinK on Ep. 201: Marcus Aurelius’s Stoicism with Ryan Holiday (Citizen Edition)
  • Wayne Barr on Ep. 308: Moore’s Proof of Mind-Independent Reality (Part Two for Supporters)

About The Partially Examined Life

The Partially Examined Life is a philosophy podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a text and chat about it with some balance between insight and flippancy. You don’t have to know any philosophy, or even to have read the text we’re talking about to (mostly) follow and (hopefully) enjoy the discussion

Become a PEL Citizen!

As a PEL Citizen, you’ll have access to a private social community of philosophers, thinkers, and other partial examiners where you can join or initiate discussion groups dedicated to particular readings, participate in lively forums, arrange online meet-ups for impromptu seminars, and more. PEL Citizens also have free access to podcast transcripts, guided readings, episode guides, PEL music, and other citizen-exclusive material. Click here to join.

Blog Post Categories

  • (sub)Text
  • Aftershow
  • Announcements
  • Audiobook
  • Book Excerpts
  • Citizen Content
  • Citizen Document
  • Citizen News
  • Close Reading
  • Combat and Classics
  • Constellary Tales
  • Exclude from Newsletter
  • Featured Ad-Free
  • Featured Article
  • General Announcements
  • Interview
  • Letter to the Editor
  • Misc. Philosophical Musings
  • Nakedly Examined Music Podcast
  • Nakedly Self-Examined Music
  • NEM Bonus
  • Not School Recording
  • Not School Report
  • Other (i.e. Lesser) Podcasts
  • PEL Music
  • PEL Nightcap
  • PEL's Notes
  • Personal Philosophies
  • Phi Fic Podcast
  • Philosophy vs. Improv
  • Podcast Episode (Citizen)
  • Podcast Episodes
  • Pretty Much Pop
  • Reviewage
  • Song Self-Exam
  • Supporter Exclusive
  • Things to Watch
  • Vintage Episode (Citizen)
  • Web Detritus

Follow:

Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | Apple Podcasts

Copyright © 2009 - 2023 · The Partially Examined Life, LLC. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy · Terms of Use · Copyright Policy

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in