Discourses · Chapter
How We Should Struggle Against Appearances explained
Epictetus teaches that habits and faculties are strengthened by corresponding actions, so one must resist harmful impulses from the start.
What happens
Epictetus teaches that habits and faculties are strengthened by corresponding actions, so one must resist harmful impulses from the start. He urges the reader to pause before appearances, test them, and oppose them with noble examples like Socrates. By practicing self-control and invoking God as a helper, one can achieve true freedom and happiness.
Themes in this chapter
Desire and Aversion
Epictetus emphasizes training desire and aversion by resisting sexual temptation and the love of money, using reason to restore the ruling faculty.
Philosophy as Practical Discipline
The chapter is a practical manual for struggling against appearances, comparing the philosopher to an athlete who exercises daily to strengthen virtue.
Rationality and Self-Examination
Epictetus urges the reader to pause, test appearances, and count days without anger, using reason to weaken bad habits and achieve self-mastery.
Characters to notice
- Epictetus
The speaker, who exhorts himself and the reader to resist appearances and cultivate virtue through disciplined practice.
- Socrates
Cited as an exemplar of self-mastery, who lay with Alcibiades and mocked his beauty, achieving a victory over himself.
- Plato
Quoted for his advice to have recourse to expiations and to seek the society of noble and just men when tempted.
- Hercules
Mentioned as a standard of heroic virtue, with Socrates' victory ranked in number from Hercules.
- Zeus
Implored as a helper and protector, along with the Dioscuri, in the storm of violent appearances.
Key passages
“Appearances, wait for me a little: let me see who you are, and what you are about: let me put you to the test.”
Pause before acting on an impression; examine it critically before letting it influence you.
Epictetus advises a deliberate, rational approach to resisting impulsive reactions.
“Go to Socrates and see him lying down with Alcibiades, and mocking his beauty: consider what a victory he at last found that he had gained over himself; what an Olympian victory; in what number he stood from Hercules.”
Look to Socrates as a model: he lay beside the beautiful Alcibiades yet mocked his own desires, achieving a victory greater than any athletic contest.
Socrates' self-control is presented as a heroic, almost divine achievement.
“If you have intermitted thirty days, make a sacrifice to God. For the habit at first begins to be weakened, and then is completely destroyed.”
When you have gone thirty days without giving in to a bad habit, thank God, because the habit is now weakening and can be fully overcome.
Epictetus encourages tracking progress and celebrating small victories in self-discipline.