Discourses · Chapter
VI: Miscellaneous explained
Epictetus discusses the nature of progress in philosophy, contrasting modern cultivation of logic and syllogisms with the ancient focus on maintaining a faculty conformable to nature.
What happens
Epictetus discusses the nature of progress in philosophy, contrasting modern cultivation of logic and syllogisms with the ancient focus on maintaining a faculty conformable to nature. He describes the invincibility of the good man who only contests what is within his will, defines common sense as the perception of common notions, and recounts Rufus's method of testing natural disposition by discouragement.
Themes in this chapter
Dichotomy of Control
Epictetus explains that the good man is invincible because he only contests things within the power of his will, not external possessions or the body.
Rationality and Self-Examination
The chapter contrasts modern cultivation of syllogisms with the ancient goal of maintaining the governing faculty conformable to nature, urging self-examination of true progress.
Characters to notice
- Epictetus
Responds to questions about progress, common sense, and the invincibility of the good man.
- Gaius Musonius Rufus
Mentioned as using discouragement to test the natural disposition of his pupils.
Key passages
“The good man is invincible, for he does not enter the contest where he is not stronger. If you (his adversary) want to have his land and all that is on it, take the land; take his slaves, take his magisterial office, take his poor body. But you will not make his desire fail in that which it seeks, nor his aversion fall into that which he would avoid.”
The virtuous person cannot be defeated because they only compete in areas where they have true strength. You can take their possessions, status, or even their body, but you cannot control their inner desires or aversions.
Illustrates the Stoic invincibility through focusing only on what is within one's control.
“As a stone, if you cast it upwards, will be brought down to the earth by its own nature, so the man whose mind is naturally good, the more you repel him, the more he turns towards that to which he is naturally inclined.”
Just as a stone thrown upward naturally falls back to earth, a person with a good natural character, when pushed away, only becomes more strongly drawn to what is right.
Rufus's metaphor for testing natural disposition through opposition.