Discourses · Chapter
In What a Man Ought to Be Exercised Who Has Made Proficiency; and That We Neglect the Chief Things explained
Epictetus outlines three topics of exercise for the wise and good: desires and aversions, duties, and freedom from deception.
What happens
Epictetus outlines three topics of exercise for the wise and good: desires and aversions, duties, and freedom from deception. He criticizes contemporary philosophers for focusing on the third topic—sophistical arguments—while neglecting the more urgent first two. He illustrates how people are disturbed by external opinions and fail to cultivate their own will, using Diogenes' finger gesture and the example of a man undone by a mouse to show misplaced priorities.
Themes in this chapter
Desire and Aversion
Epictetus identifies the first and most urgent topic as managing desires and aversions to avoid perturbation, sorrow, and envy.
Social Duty and Friendship
The second topic concerns duties as a son, father, citizen, and pious person, emphasizing natural and acquired relations.
Rationality and Self-Examination
The third topic involves freedom from deception and rash judgment, but Epictetus criticizes its overemphasis while neglecting the more fundamental areas.
Characters to notice
- Diogenes
Pointed out a sophist by stretching out his middle finger, demonstrating that a man is shown by his principles, not by his finger.
- Chrysippus
Mentioned as a philosopher whose works people read to appear learned, yet they neglect true proficiency.
- Antipater
Listed alongside Chrysippus as a philosopher studied for reputation rather than for genuine improvement.
- Archedemus
Referenced as a philosopher whose works are read by those who are proud of their learning but remain disturbed by trivial things.
- Epictetus
The speaker who delivers the discourse, criticizing the neglect of chief topics and urging focus on desires, duties, and inner will.
Key passages
“There are three things (topics, τόποι ) in which a man ought to exercise himself who would be wise and good. The first concerns the desires and the aversions, that a man may not fail to get what he desires, and that he may not fall into that which he does not desire.”
A person aiming to be wise and good must train in three areas: first, managing desires and aversions so as to always get what they want and avoid what they don't.
This introduces the core Stoic framework of the three disciplines.
“Do you not know that Diogenes pointed out one of the sophists in this way: by stretching out his middle finger? And then when the man was wild with rage, 'This,' he said, 'is the certain person: I have pointed him out to you.' For a man is not shown by the finger, as a stone or a piece of wood; but when any person shows the man's principles, then he shows him as a man.”
Diogenes once exposed a sophist by extending his middle finger; when the man became furious, Diogenes explained that he had revealed the man's true character—not by a gesture, but by the principles his anger displayed.
This anecdote illustrates that a person is defined by their inner principles, not by external signs.
“Wretch, you hear these very things with fear and anxiety that some person may despise you, and with inquiries about what any person may say about you. And if a man come and tell you that in a certain conversation in which the question was, 'Who is the best philosopher,' a man who was present said that a certain person was the chief philosopher, your little soul which was only a finger's length stretches out to two cubits.”
You listen to these teachings while still worrying about being despised and what others say about you. If someone reports that you were called the best philosopher, your tiny ego swells immensely.
Epictetus criticizes the vanity and external validation that undermine true philosophical progress.
