Part 1 — The Enchiridion

The Library of Liberal Arts OSKAR PIEST, _General Editor_ [NUMBER EIGHT]

EPICTETUS The Enchiridion

The Enchiridion By EPICTETUS

Translated by THOMAS W. HIGGINSON

With an Introduction by ALBERT SALOMON _Professor of Sociology New School for Social Research_

THE LIBERAL ARTS PRESS NEW YORK

First Edition, _October, 1948_ Reprinted _December, 1950_; _August, 1954_ Second Edition, _November, 1955_

Published at 153 West 72nd Street, New York 23, N. Y. Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

Note on the Text Introduction Selected Bibliography The Enchiridion

NOTE ON THE TEXT

The text of the second edition is a reprint of the first edition except for a few minor corrections in style, punctuation, and spelling, which have been revised to conform to current American usage.

The editorial staff of the publishers has added a few explanatory notes which are set in brackets and marked “Ed.”

O.P.

INTRODUCTION

The little book by Epictetus called _Enchiridion_ or “manual” has played a disproportionately large role in the rise of modern attitudes and modern philosophy. As soon as it had been translated into the vernacular languages, it became a bestseller among independent intellectuals, among anti-Christian thinkers, and among philosophers of a subjective cast. Montaigne had a copy of the _Enchiridion_ among his books. Pascal violently rejected the megalomaniac pride of the Stoic philosopher. Frederick the Great carried the book with him on all campaigns. It was a source of inspiration and encouragement to Anthony, Earl of Shaftesbury, in the serious illness which ended only in his death; many pages of his diaries contain passages copied from the _Enchiridion_. It has been studied and widely quoted by Scottish philosophers like Francis Hutcheson, Adam Smith, and Adam Ferguson who valued Stoic moral philosophy for its reconciliation of social dependency and personal independence.

That there was a rebirth of Stoicism in the centuries of rebirth which marked the emergence of the modern age was not mere chance. Philosophical, moral, and social conditions of the time united to cause it. Roman Stoicism had been developed in times of despotism as a philosophy of lonely and courageous souls who had recognized the redeeming power of philosophical reason in all the moral and social purposes of life. Philosophy as a way of life makes men free. It is the last ditch stand of liberty in a world of servitude. Many elements in the new age led to thought which had structural affinity with Roman Stoicism. Modern times had created the independent thinker, the free intellectual in a secular civilization. Modern times had destroyed medieval liberties and had established the new despotism of the absolute state supported by ecclesiastical authority. Modern philosophies continued the basic trend in Stoicism in making the subjective consciousness the foundation of philosophy. The Stoic emphasis on moral problems was also appealing in an era of rapid transition when all the values which had previously been taken for granted were questioned and reconsidered.