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Library Epictetus

Discourses, Book II — Epictetus

Recorded oral teaching

Discourses, Book II

Epicteto en la portada de las obras de Séneca (Amberes, 1605)
byEpictetus

On tranquillity, the indifference of external things, divination, the nature of the good, friendship and the practical use of preconceptions, with polemics against Epicureans and Academics. Chapters (26): 1. That confidence is not inconsistent with caution; 2. Of tranquillity; 3. To those who recommend persons to philosophers; 4. Against a person who had once been detected in adultery; 5. How magnanimity is consistent with care; 6. Of indifference; 7. How we ought to use divination; 8. What is the nature of the good; 9. That when we cannot fulfil the character of a man we assume that of a philosopher; 10. How we may discover the duties of life from names; 11. What the beginning of philosophy is; 12. Of disputation; 13. Of anxiety; 14. To Naso; 15. To those who obstinately persist in what they have determined; 16. That we do not strive to use our opinions about good and evil; 17. How we must adapt preconceptions to particular cases; 18. How we should struggle against appearances; 19. Against those who embrace philosophical opinions only in words; 20. Against the Epicureans and Academics; 21. Of inconsistency; 22. Of friendship; 23. On the power of speaking; 24. To a person who was not esteemed by him; 25. That logic is necessary; 26. What is the property of error.

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Authorship note

Epictetus wrote nothing. The Discourses are notes of his lectures taken by his pupil Flavius Arrian, who says in the prefatory letter to Lucius Gellius that he transcribed them word for word; the language (colloquial Koine, unlike the Attic of Arrian's own works) supports the view that they preserve the master's voice, though the selection and final wording are Arrian's. A minority of scholars (Robert Dobbin) has argued that Epictetus wrote them himself.

Editions and translations

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English

  • The Discourses of Epictetus; with the Encheiridion and Fragments

    George Bell and Sons; Wikisource, 1877

    Translation: George Long

    Dominio público.

    View in store · Wikisource en inglés (gratuito)

Español

  • Disertaciones por Arriano — Epictetus

    Disertaciones por Arriano

    Gredos (Biblioteca Clásica Gredos, 185), 1993

    Translation: Paloma Ortiz García

    ISBN 9788424916282

    Introducción, traducción y notas.

    Buy the book · Amazon (amazon.es)

Other works by Epictetus

Sources

  • Epicteto. Disertaciones (por Arriano) y Manual. Texto griego en Wikisource en griego; trad. inglesa de George Long, The Discourses of Epictetus; with the Encheiridion and Fragments (Londres: George Bell, 1877), en Wikisource en inglés.

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