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Key ideas of this discourse
This is probably the longest of all Epictetus’ discourses. Here he explores his central theme, human freedom.
Who is free?
You are free when you live as you wish; when you cannot be compelled, obstructed, or controlled; your choices cannot be blocked; when you get your desires fulfilled, and when you don’t face anything you want to avoid.
“Who wants to go through life, without knowing of how to achieve this?”
“No one.”
“Who wants to be deceived, reckless, unjust, undisciplined, mean and ungrateful?”
“No one.”
“So, no bad person lives the way they want. No bad person is free. Who wants to live in sorrow, fear, envy, and pity? Who wants to fail to get what they want and to get what they do not want?”
“No one.”
“So, can we find a bad person free from fear, frustration, or misfortune?”
“No.”
“So, we find no one who’s free.”
The many ways we are unfree
If you are a powerful person (such as a two-term consul), you will tolerate such talk only if I add, “But you are smart. This doesn’t apply to you, of course.” But if I tell you the truth and say, “You are as much a slave as one who is sold three times over,” what can I expect but a punch in the nose?
“How can you call me a slave? My father is free, my mother is free, and there’s no agreement for my selling me. Besides, I am a senator and a personal friend of the king himself. I have been twice consul and I have many working for me.”
“Most worthy senator, in the first place, your father could have been a slave in the same sense that you are, along with your mother, your grandfather, and all your ancestors. And, even if they were all free, what does it prove? What if they were noble and you are mean-spirited? What if they were brave and you are a coward? And what if they were disciplined and you are unrestrained?
“What’s that got to with being a slave?”
“Don’t you see, when you act against your will under protest and compulsion, it is no different than being a slave?”
“Maybe. But who has the power to compel me except the king, who has power over everyone.”
“So, you agree you have at least one master. Don’t let the fact that he is also the master of others comfort you. It just means that you’re a slave in a large household. You remind other citizens, ‘Because of our master, we’re free.’”
Let’s set aside your master for a moment. Just tell me this.
“Have you ever been in love, maybe with a man or a woman, a free or an unfree person?”
“What that has to do with being free or being a slave?”
“Weren’t you ever asked by the person you love to do something that you didn’t want to do? Didn’t you ever flatter her? Have you never kissed her feet? Yet, if someone forced you to kiss the feet of your master, you’d think it an outrage and the height of despotism. If this isn’t slavery, then what is?”
Haven’t you ever risked going out at night where you didn’t want to go, spent more than you wanted, and said words of misery and woe, put up with being ridiculed and thrown out? If you are too embarrassed to admit it, observe the words and actions of [the mercenary soldier] Thrasonides who fought many campaigns, perhaps more than you. He went out at night even when [his slave] Geta wouldn’t dare go. If he had been forced to go by his master, he would have gone out protesting loudly and complaining bitterly about his condition. What then does Thrasonides say? “No enemy could enslave me, and yet a pretty girl did.” [From Misoumenos of Melander.] Poor guy, to be enslaved by a girl, a cheap one at that! How can you still call yourself free? What’s the point in bragging about your military victories?
Then he asks for a sword to kill himself and gets angry at the person who, out of kindness, refuses to bring it. Then he sends gifts to his girl who despises him, and begs and weeps, and the moment he has had some success, he becomes ecstatic. But until he has learned to get rid of his lust and fear, how could he be free?
Think about how we apply the idea of freedom to animals. People raise lions in cages as tame animals, feed them, and even take them around with them. Who will say such an animal is free? Is it not true that the more softly a lion lives, the more slavish it is? And what lion that has sense and reason would care to be one of those lions? Birds, when they are caught and reared in cages, will do anything to escape. Some even prefer to starve themselves to death than endure such a life. Those that barely survive pine away and fly off the moment they get any opening. Such is their desire for natural freedom, to be independent and uncaged.
“Well, what’s wrong with being here in a cage?”
“What a silly question! I was born to fly as I please, to live in the open air and sing. You want to take away all this from me and then ask, ‘What’s wrong with being here in a cage?’”
For this reason, we will call only those animals free that are not willing to be captive and, as soon as they are caught, escape by dying. It is for this reason [the Cynic philosopher] Diogenes says somewhere that one sure way to guarantee freedom is to be ready to die. He wrote to the King of Persia, “You can enslave the Athenians no more than you can enslave fishes.”
“Why? Can’t Athenians be captured?”
“Perhaps they can. But he moment they are captured, they will give you the slip and be gone, like a fish that dies when caught. If Athenians die like that when caught, what good is your military force?”
This is the voice of a truly free person who has deeply thought about freedom and found the truth about it. If you keep looking for it in the wrong place, is it any surprise that you won’t find it?
Don’t keep looking for freedom in the wrong places
A captive person wants to be set free. Why? Is it because he cannot wait to pay taxes when free? No, it is because he believes that, because he is not free he has been living in misery and with restrictions. He says,
“If I am set free, it’s all happiness right away. I don’t have to attend to anyone, I can talk to anyone on equal terms, I can come and go where I please.”
Then he is set free. But he has nowhere to go and looks for someone to flatter to get his next meal. Then he sells his body, gets a sugar daddy, and finds himself in a far worse position than the one he escaped. Even if he makes a fortune, being a man of no taste, he falls for a cheap woman. In his misery he longs to be captive again and says,
“How was I any worse then? Someone fed me, clothed me, and took care of me when I was sick, while I did hardly anything in return. Now I have many masters instead of just one! But if I get a ring of office on my finger, then my life will be blissful and fulfilled.”
To get them he suffers the humiliations that go with it. Then, when he gets them, it’s the same old story all over again. Now he says,
“If I serve in the army, then all my troubles will be over.”
So, he joins the army and goes off to a tour of duty and suffers as much as any convict. He goes off on a second tour of duty and then a third. Finally, he becomes a senator and finds himself a captive in fine and luxurious company.
We fail to apply our preconceived ideas correctly to specific situations
Socrates used to say “Don’t be foolish. Learn ‘what every specific thing means.’” [Xenophon’s Memorabilia]. Don’t apply your preconceptions casually to things. You get into trouble when you are unable to apply common preconceptions correctly to specific cases. Different people think that different things are bad. Someone thinks she is not well, but it is not true; the problem is she is not applying preconceived ideas correctly. Another imagines he is poor, another thinks he has a harsh parent, and yet another believes that powerful people don’t care for her. All these things really mean one thing and one thing only: None of them knows how to apply their preconceived ideas correctly.
After all, who does not have a preconceived idea of what is bad? That it is harmful, we have to avoid it, and we should use every means to get rid of it. Preconceived ideas don’t conflict among themselves. Conflict arises when we start applying them.
What exactly is this bad and harmful thing that we should get rid of? One person says that it is not being a friend of Caesar. He’s off the mark. He is not applying his preconceived ideas right. He is upset and is seeking something that is not relevant. Even if he succeeds in getting the friendship he is after, he still hasn’t got what he wants.
What he wants is what all of us want: To be peaceful and happy, to do what we like and not be forced to do what we don’t like. But when he gets the friendship of Caesar, can he not be restrained or obstructed? Will he be happy and peaceful?
“Who will tell us this?”
Well, who better than this man here, already a friend of Caesar.
“So [friend of Caesar], please step up and tell us when did you sleep more soundly: now or before you became of friend Caesar?“
“Go away. Don’t mock me. You have no idea how difficult it is for me. I barely start sleeping, a person comes in and announces, ‘Caesar is up already and about to make and appearance.’ Then come troubles and anxieties.”
“So, when did you eat better, now or earlier?”
Listen to what he says here too: When he is not invited to dine with the emperor he is upset. When he is invited he dines like a slave dining with his master, anxious the whole time not to say or do anything stupid.
What do think he is afraid of? To be whipped like a slave? He should be so lucky. No, he is such a great man, a friend of Caesar and, as befits such men, his head might be chopped off. That’s what he is afraid of.
“When were you more peaceful while taking a bath? When were you more relaxed while working out? In short, do you prefer: your present life or the previous one?”
“I bet that there’s no one so stupid or forgetful that they don’t regret being close to Caesar; the closer they are, the more they regret.”
The person who controls what you desire controls you
If neither the so-called kings nor their friends live as they wish, who is left that can be called free? Look for it and you’ll find nature has given you means for finding the truth. But if you find it difficult to find it by yourself, listen to those who looked for it before you. What do they say?
“Do you find freedom to be good?
“The best.”
“Then, can someone who has obtained this greatest good be unhappy or unfortunate?”
“No.”
“So, would you call someone who is unhappy, miserable, and mournful, unfree?”
“Yes.”
“We now have gone beyond buying and selling stuff. Because, if you are right to agree with our discussion so far, then the Great King himself cannot be free if he is unhappy; neither can any prince, or consul, or two-term consul.”
“Agreed.”
“Now tell me this. Do you think that freedom is something grand, glorious, and valuable?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“Is it possible that someone who has something this grand, glorious, and valuable be mean-spirited?”
“Impossible.”
“Therefore, if you find someone grovelling before another, or flatter insincerely, without hesitation call them unfree. It doesn’t matter if they do it to get a meal or a governorship, or a consulship. Call them petty slaves if they do it for petty rewards and call them slaves on a grand scale if they do it for big rewards.”
“Again, I agree.”
“Do you think that freedom is something independent and self-sufficient?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Then anyone who can be hindered and compelled by someone else is not free. Don’t be concerned about the status of their ancestors, or whether he was ever bought or sold. If someone calls another ‘Master’ with feeling call him a slave, even if twelve attendants go ahead of him. Or, if you hear, ‘God, the things I have to put up with!’, call that person a slave. In short if you find anyone moaning, complaining, or miserable, call him a slave in a purple toga.”
“What if he doesn’t do any of these things?”
“Still, don’t call him free yet. Find out how he judges. See if he feels boxed in, disappointed, or dissatisfied. If you find any of these, call him a slave on holiday at Saturnalia [where slaves had special privileges]. Say that his master is away. He will soon return, and you will see his true condition.”
“When who returns?”
“Whoever has the power to give or take away the things he values.”
“Do we have many masters, then?”
“We do. Even when there is no one else, circumstances are our masters – and there are many. Anyone who controls any one of them controls us all.”
Understand clearly what you control and what you don’t
After all, no one fears Caesar himself. What one really fears is death, deportation, loss of property, jail and loss of civil rights. Neither does anyone love Caesar, unless he is personally deserving. What one loves is money or the high office. When we love, or loathe, or fear these things, anyone who controls them becomes our master. This is inevitable. That’s why we treat them like gods. If they have the power over most benefits we seek, then we treat them as divine. Then we think of the false minor premise, “This person has the power to benefit me the most,” which inevitably leads to false conclusions.
“What then makes a person free and be his own master?”
“Because money, status, and even a kingdom are not the answer, we must find something else. Tell me, how does a person write freely and fluently?”
“By knowing how to write well.”
“How does a person play the harp well?”
“By knowing how to play the harp.”
“Therefore, it follows that in life also we need to know how to live well. You have heard this as a general principle but now think how it applies to specific cases. Suppose what you want is under the control of someone else. Is it possible for you, then, to be free and unrestricted?”
“No.”
“So, you cannot be free. Now consider this. What is under your control: everything, nothing, or some things?”
“What do you mean?”
“Is it under your control that your body always performs perfectly?”
“No.”
“Is it healthy whenever you wish?
“No.”
“To live or die?”
“No.”
“So, the body isn’t yours. It can be controlled by what is stronger than itself.”
“Quite so.”
“What about land? Can you have as much as you want, as long as you want, in the way you want?”
“No”
“People who work for you?”
“No.”
“Your clothes?”
“No.”
“Your house?”
“No.”
“Your pet animals?”
“No. None of this is.”
“Well, if you want so much for your children, your wife, your brother, or your friends to live. Is this under your control?”
“No, not this either.”
“Is there nothing at all that is within your total power and control?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, look at this way. Can anyone make you agree to something that is not true?”
“No, no one can.”
“So, in the area of assent, no one can force or obstruct you.”
“That’s for sure.”
“Can anyone make you choose something that you really don’t want?”
“Yes. They can threaten me with death or punishment and force me to do things.”
“What if you don’t care about dying or being punished? Can they still force you?”
“No.”
“What do you think about death? Is your attitude to death under your control?”
“It is.”
“Is directing your impulses your own action or not?”
“I have to admit it is.”
“And the choice to do something – that is under your control as well.”
“Yes, but what if I choose to walk and someone stands in my way?”
“What part can they obstruct? Not your decision?”
“No, but my poor body.”
“Yes. A rock might obstruct it as well.”
“So be it. Still I can’t go for my walk.”
“Who told you that walking is under your total control and no one can stop you? What I said was your choice cannot be obstructed. But when it comes to using your body and whether it co-operates are not, I have told you long ago, nothing is your own.”
“I will agree to that as well.”
“Can anyone force you to desire something you do not want?”
“No one.”
“Or propose or plan something or deal with your impressions in any way?”
“No, they cannot. But if I desire something, they can stop me from getting what I want.”
“If you desire something under your control, how can they stop you?”
“They can’t.”
“And who said that, when you desire what is not your control, you can’t be stopped?”
“Are you saying, then, I can’t desire health?”
“No. Nor anything else that is not under your control.”
If you cannot get or keep something at will, then it is not your own. Keep your hands, and more importantly your desire, far away from it. Otherwise, you will be making yourself a slave, putting your head under the yoke. The same thing happens if you value something that is not under your control; or develop a passion for something under someone else’s control, or that is perishable.
“Isn’t my hand my own?”
“It’s a part of you. But by nature, it is dirt, subject to restraint and force and therefore a slave to anything physically stronger.”
Be prepared to let go of things that are not your own
And why pick on your hand? As long as it lasts, the whole body should be thought of as a loaded donkey. If a soldier demands it for public service and takes it away, let it go. Don’t resist or grumble; you’ll be beaten, and you’ll lose the donkey anyway. If this is how you should treat your body, how should you treat things that serve the body? If your body is a donkey, then you have a donkey’s bridle, pack-saddles, shoes, barley, and fodder. Let them go too. Give them up even more quickly and more cheerfully than you did the donkey.
“When you are so prepared and trained to distinguish what is your own from what it not;
to know what can be obstructed from what cannot; and
to see clearly that what cannot be obstructed is your only concern,
is there anyone to be afraid of anymore?”
“No.”
“Of course not. What is there for you to be afraid about? About things that are your own in which good and evil reside? Who has the power over these? Who can take them away? Who can block them? No one can anymore they can hinder God. Or is it your body and property – things that are not your own and of no value to you – that you are afraid for? What else have you been studying from the beginning except distinguishing between what is your own and what it is not, what is in your power and what is not, what can be blocked and what cannot? What’s your purpose in talking to philosophers? So, you could be as lost and miserable as before; not be free of fear and anxiety?”
What has pain to do with you? Only when you anticipate something fearful and it becomes true, is it painful.
What will you desire now? All your desires are now only for things under your control as they are good and within reach. You want nothing outside your sphere of choice. So, there is no place for irrational or impulsive desire.
When this is your attitude, who can intimidate you? How can one person be intimidated by another – by appearance, speech, or meeting? It is no more possible than that a horse, a dog, or a bee can make another horse, dog, or bee intimidated. No. What makes people afraid is things? Whenever someone has the power to give or take away things from you, you become fearful.
External things are not the problem, our judgments about them are
[The dialogue that follows is based on a complicated metaphor of tyrants, fortress and bodyguards. It is explained along these lines by W.A. Oldfather: The fortress and the bodyguards are actual external things such as wealth and reputation, which are harmless in themselves. They become dangerous only when you judge them falsely to be of value. The tyrants are our false judgments which make us believe that external things are of value. Once we get rid of our false judgments, there’s no need to get rid of the external things themselves. They may hurt those who hold false judgments about them, but not us. We cannot get rid of all external things anyway. Some, like death and disease, are inevitable. Therefore, every person must do the work for themselves and get rid of false judgments. The main point of this metaphor is that you can’t be free just by getting rid of external things, because they’re harmless. You can only be free by getting rid of your false judgments about them.]
“How to destroy the tyrant’s fortress?”
“Not by weapons or by fire but by judgements. But if we destroy the fortress, do we also destroy our judgements about fever, and about pretty women? Do we destroy the things in our internal fortress, along with the inner tyrants who torture us every day, though they may look different at different times?
“No.”
“It is here you must begin. You must attack the fortress and drive out the tyrants. Give up your body and its different parts, your influence, property, reputations, offices, honours, children, brothers, and your friends. They’re not your own. When the tyrants are driven out there’s no need to destroy the fortress, as far as I am concerned. It does no harm to anyone by being there. You don’t have to drive out the bodyguards. They can stay. How can they affect you? Their sticks, spears, and knives are meant for others, not for you.”
Align your wants to conform to reality
Personally speaking, I was never kept from something I wanted or forced to have something I did not want. How did I manage it? By subjecting my will to God.
So, I say yes even to death and torture. Who can stop me now? Who can force on me what I do not want? I’m as completely free from hindrance and compulsion as God himself.
[Another way to interpret the above is to say that when we don’t fight or complain about the inevitable realities of our life – where we don’t have a choice anyway – and act only on things that are in our control, we become unstoppable. As psychologist and philosopher William James put it, "Be willing to have it so. Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.”]
This is how cautious travellers act as well. When they hear that there are robbers along the way, they do not go off on their own but wait for a group of people who travel together and go with them. A sensible person will behave the same way in life, thinking, “There are many thieves and bandits, many storms and many chances to lose my valuable things. How can I be safe? How can I escape thieves and robbers? Who should I attach myself to? Some rich and powerful person? What good will it do me if he loses his position and breaks down? What if my travel companion himself turns against me and robs me? What should I do?” By thinking this way, the traveller concludes that if he allied himself with God he would safely complete his journey.
“What do you mean by ‘allied himself’?”
“It means acting in such a way that whatever God wants, that is what we also want. If he doesn’t want something, we don’t want it either.”
“How can we do this?”
“By paying attention to his purpose and design.”
Enjoy what is given to you, for the time it is given to you
What has he given me as my own and what has he kept for himself? He has given me power over my choices, free of all restrictions and compulsions. How can he make the body, which is made of dirt, unrestricted? So, he put it along with other things in the cosmic cycle such as my property, my furniture, my house, my children, and my spouse. Why should I fight against it? Why should I try to grab something that lies outside the area of my choice, something that doesn’t belong to me? [While they are given to me] I’ll keep them in the spirit they are given, for as long as possible. One who has given it can also take it away. Why should I resist? It would foolish to resist someone who’s stronger than me. More than that, it would be wrong.
Where did I get things when I came into this world? My father gave them to me. Who gave them to him? And who made the Sun, the fruits, the seasons, human fellowship and social order?
You have received everything – including your life – from your benefactor. Yet, you are angry with the giver for taking things back?
Who are you? Why did you come here? Isn’t it God who brought you here? Hasn’t he shown you the light? Hasn’t he given you the people who support you? Hasn’t he given you your senses? Hasn’t he given you reason?
How did he bring you here? As a mortal, as one who would live here in flesh for a while, witness his grand design, and share briefly the pageant and the festival with him. So why not enjoy the feast and pageant while you are able? And when the time is up and when he leads you out, why not go out thanking him for what you have seen and heard?
“But I want to enjoy the festival a while longer.”
“Yes. So would newcomers to mysteries – they would like the initiation ceremonies to continue. So would the Olympic crowd – they would like to see more contestants. But the festival is over. Discreetly move on. Be grateful for what you have seen.”
Make room for others to get in. It is now their time to be born, as it was yours once. And, when they are born, they need a place to live. Their necessities of life need to be taken care of. But if those who came earlier wouldn’t leave, what would happen? Why are you so greedy and dissatisfied? Why do you crowd the world?
“Yes, but I want my wife and children with me.”
“Why? Are they yours? Don’t they belong to the one who gave them to you? The one who created you as well? Will you hang on to what’s not yours and refuse to give them up? Do you want to challenge someone better?”
“Why did he bring me in this world with all these conditions attached?”
“If you don’t like it, leave. He doesn’t need fault finders. He needs those who are keen to join in the festival and the dance – those who would applaud the festival with their praise and acclaim. He wouldn’t mind dismissing the grumpy and the cowardly.”
How to use external things
Even when such people are invited, they don’t act as though they are at a festival or play their proper role. Instead they whine, find fault with God, their fortune, and their fellow human beings. They don’t appreciate their own powers and resources given to them for the opposite purpose – to be generous, high-minded, courageous, and free – exactly what we are talking about now.
“Then why did I get the external things?”
“To use them.”
“For how long?”
“For as long as the lender pleases.”
“What if I can’t live without them?”
“They won’t be, if you don’t get attached to them. Don’t tell yourself that they are essential, and they aren’t.”
This is what you should practice from dawn to dusk. Begin with the least valuable and fragile thing like a jug or a cup. Then apply the same idea to clothes, pets, and property. Finally, apply the idea to yourself, your body parts, your children, your wife and others. Look around you in every direction. Mentally get rid of everything. Keep your judgments pure. See that you are attached to nothing that doesn’t belong to you and can be painful if taken away from you. While you are training yourself every day, don’t be pretentious and say that you are “pursuing philosophy.” Rather say that you are preparing for your liberation.
True freedom
For this is true freedom. This is the freedom that Antisthenes gave Diogenes who said that never again would he be a slave to anyone. Then he was captured by the pirates. What did he do? Did he call any of them his ‘master’? Did he use any other word that would mean the same thing? No. He screamed at them for feeding their prisoners badly. How did he behave when he was sold? He immediately started criticizing his new master – that he shouldn’t dress this way, or shave that way, and that he should teach his sons to live differently. Why not? If the same master had bought a personal trainer, he would have used the trainer as his master as far as exercises are concerned. The same goes if the master had bought a doctor or architect. In every field, the person with skill is superior to one without. So, in general, how can a person with knowledge of how to live be anything but the master?
“Who is the master of the ship?”
“The captain.”
“Why? Because if you disobey him you will be punished.”
“But so-and-so can also punish me.”
“But not without consequences.”
“I thought he could.”
“If he punishes without having the authority to do so, he cannot get away with it.”
“How would a master who puts me in chains be punished?”
“The very act puts him in chains. You yourself know this is true if you accept that human beings are civilized animals and not wild beasts. Answer this: When does a plant do badly?”
“When it goes against its nature.”
“When does a bird do badly?”
“When it goes against its nature.”
“So it is with humans. What then is human nature? Biting, kicking, throwing someone in prison or killing him? No, but being kind, cooperative, and having good will toward others. Like it or not, he feels badly whenever he acts unreasonably.”
“So, Socrates didn’t do poorly then?”
“No, but his jurors and accusers did.”
“How about Helvidius at Rome?”
“He didn’t. But his murderer did.”
“How do you figure that?”
“You don’t say that a cock that just won has fared badly, even if severely wounded; but rather the one that is beaten without a scratch. You don’t call a dog happy if he doesn’t hunt or work, but only when you see him sweating, labouring and exhausted by the chase. What is odd in saying evil is everything that’s contrary to nature? Don’t you say this about other things? Why do you make human beings the only exception?
“When we say that human beings by nature are gentle, affectionate, and faithful, aren’t we being ridiculous?”
“No, we are not.”
“Isn’t it the reason why people don’t suffer even when they are beaten, jailed, or killed? And the victim may be dignified in his suffering and come through as a better and more advantaged person? Isn’t it also true that the person who is really harmed, suffers the most, and is disgraced, is the one who has become a wolf, a snake, or a wasp instead of a human being?”
A Summary of the principles
Very well then. Let’s review what we agreed on.
This is the road that leads to freedom. This is the only road that frees you from slavery. This is what make you say at any time from the bottom of your heart
Lead me Zeus, Lead me, Destiny
To the goal I was long assigned.
A challenge to the student
“What do you say, Philosopher? A powerful person calls you and asks you bear false witness. Do you go along with it or not?”
“Let me think it over.”
“You’re going to think it over now? Weren’t you thinking over it when you were in school? Didn’t you learn what things are good, what things are bad, and what things are indifferent?”
“I did.”
“And?”
“The right and noble actions are good; wrong and shameful actions are bad.”
“Is living good?”
“No.”
“Is dying bad?”
“No.”
“And prison?”
“No.”
“And what about slanderous and dishonest talk, betraying of a friend, or the flattering of an oppressor? How do they strike you?
“As bad.”
Clearly, you are not thinking through this. You haven’t done so in the past either. Really, how much do you need to think it over – to decide that you should exercise your power to get the greatest goods and avoid the greatest evils? A fine subject for thinking – requires a lot of thought indeed! Who are you trying to fool? You never thought this through. If you had really understood that vice alone is bad and everything else is indifferent, you wouldn’t need time to “think it over.” You would have been able to decide right away using your reason as readily as you use your vision. Do you have to think it over whether black is white? Or, whether light is heavy? No, these things follow from the clear evidence of your senses.
Why then are you now “thinking it over” whether indifferents are more to be avoided than evils? These are not your judgments, are they? You don’t think that jail and death are indifferents, do you? Rather, you think they are the greatest evils.
This is the habit you have been developing from the beginning.
“Where were you?”
“I was in the classroom.”
“Who were you listening to?”
“I was talking with philosophers. Now I have left school, I don’t care for those finicky and foolish teachers.”
This is how a friend is condemned by a philosopher. This is how he becomes a parasite, this is how he sells himself for money, and this is how he betrays his beliefs when meeting with the Senators. Inside him, though, his true judgments are loudly crying out. These are not some half-hearted thoughts that he is barely hanging onto as a result of empty discussions. These are his true convictions derived from his initiation and training. [According to William Oldfather, the above probably refers an incident that happened during Nero’s reign when Epictetus was still a boy in which Egnatius Celer accused his friend, Barea Soranus.]
“Watch yourself carefully and see how you take the news. I don’t say your child has died, because you may not be able to endure it. I say your oil is spilled or someone drank up all your wine.”
“What if someone says, ‘Hey philosopher, you talked differently when you were in school. Who are you trying to fool? Why call yourself a human being when you’re a worm?’”
“I’d like to know how much self-control they have when they’re having sex. I’d like to see how they control themselves and hear the sounds they make. Whether they even remember their name or any of the discourses they had heard or taught.”
“What has this got to do with freedom?”
“This has everything to do with freedom, whether you rich people like it or not.”
“And your proof is...?”
As long as you have a master, you’re a slave
“What else, but you yourselves. You have this master [the emperor] and you live at his beck and call. You faint when he just looks at you with a scowl on his face. You say before the old men and women of the court, “I can’t possibly do this. I am not allowed.” Why aren’t you allowed? Weren’t you just telling me that you were free?”
“But Aprulla [a rich old woman] won’t let me.”
“Tell the truth then, slave. Don’t run away from your masters, don’t deny having them, and don’t say that you are free when there is so much proof that you are just a slave. If someone who is desperately in love does something against their better judgement, one can at least pity them because they are in the grip of an uncontrollable passion and in a manner of speaking, divine. But who can put up with you – you have a passion for old men and old women, you wipe their noses, wash them, bribe them with your gifts, wait upon them when they are sick; yet, at the same time, you are praying for their death and asking the doctors if they are about to die. Or when you kiss the hands of other people’s slaves for the sake of high honours and offices you make yourself a slave of slaves. What can you expect then?”
And then you proudly wander around as a magistrate or a consul. Do you think I don’t know who gave you that position and how you got it? If I were you, I would rather die than owe my life to Felicio [a freed slave of Nero], putting up with his rudeness and arrogance. I know how a slave behaves when he gets influence and importance.
“Are you free then?”
“God, I wish and pray to be. But I still can’t face my masters. I continue to value my body and try to keep it healthy, although it is hardly healthy. But if you want to see an example, I will point to Diogenes.”
Examples of free people: Diogenes and Socrates
Diogenes was free. Why? Not because his parents were free because they weren’t. He was free himself because he got rid of all handles of slavery. There was no way anyone could get close to him, capture him, and make him a slave. Everything he owned was only loosely tied to him. He could let go of everything. If you grabbed his property, he would rather let you have it than be pulled along with it. If you grabbed his leg, he would let go of his leg; if you grabbed hold his body, he would let go of his body. The same with family, friends, and country [the universe itself]. He was aware where they all came from, who gave them, and the conditions attached to them.
But he would never have given up his true parents [the gods] and his real country. He was more obedient to gods than anyone else. He was more willing to die for his country than anyone else. He didn’t pretend to care for the world for show. He was constantly aware that everything that comes into being has a source. Things happen for the sake of the universe at the command of its governor.
So, pay attention to what he says and writes.
“Diogenes, here is why you can speak your mind to the Persian king, and the Spartan king Archedamus.”
Was it because his parents were free? No. No Athenian, Corinthian, or Spartan could speak to the kings as they pleased, but feared and flattered instead, because all their parents were slaves. Someone asked him:
“Why are you then allowed to speak the way you like?”
“Because I don’t consider my body my own. Because I need nothing, and law is everything to me. I don’t care for anything else.”
That’s what made him free.
Just in case you think I chose an easy example of a person without family and social responsibilities (as a solitary person has fewer demands on him to bend the rules), consider Socrates. He had both a wife and children, but he treated them as though they were on loan. He had a country which he served as far as it was duty and for as long as it was his duty. He had friends and relatives, but he treated them as less important than the law and the need to obey it.
When he was drafted, he was the first one to leave home. He faced danger without flinching. When the Thirty Tyrants ordered him to arrest Leon [a leader of the opposition, who they wanted to murder], he never bothered to do anything about it, because he thought it was unlawful. Yet he knew he might die if he refused. But he didn’t care. He was not trying to save his life but his integrity and his honour. These are not matters up for negotiation.
Then, when he was on trial for his life, did he behave like someone with a wife and children? No. He behaved like someone who is not attached. How did he behave when it was time to drink the poison? Crito urged him to escape for the sake of his children, what did he answer? Did he think that this was a stroke of luck? No way. He thought about the right course of action and nothing else. He said that he didn’t want to save his body but the element that grew and thrived by justice but diminished and was destroyed by injustice. He didn’t save his life by acting shamefully. Socrates, who resisted the Athenians’ demand to vote on an illegal motion, who defied the Thirty Tyrants, who spoke so eloquently about excellence and goodness – such a man is not saved by any shameful means. He is saved by dying and not by running away. He was like a good actor who leaves the stage as soon as his role comes to an end.
“What will happen to your children?”
“If I had gone off to another city, you would have taken care of them. If I go off this world, would no one take care of them?”
See how he treats death lightly and jokes about it. If it had been you or I, we would have used philosophical principles to prove that those who act unjustly should be paid back in kind. And then add, “If I escape, I can help many people. If I die, I will be able to help no one.” If there was a mouse-hole of an opening, we would have squeezed through.
But how could we possibly be of use to anyone, with all our friends left behind? Or, if we were useful when alive, wouldn’t we be even more useful to the world by dying at the right time, in the right way? Now that Socrates is dead, his memory is even more useful to us than what he said and did while he was alive.
If you want to be free, if you understand the true value of your goal, then study these principles, these judgments, these arguments, and think about these examples. Does it come as a surprise to you that such a great goal needs many sacrifices? What people commonly consider as freedom, many had hanged themselves, thrown themselves over cliffs. Occasionally, even entire cities have been destroyed. So, for the sake of the true, secure, and unshakable freedom, will you not return to God what he gave you when he asks for it? As Plato says, be prepared not only to die but to be tortured, deported, beaten – in short, to give back everything that is not your own. Otherwise, you will be a slave among slaves – even if you are a consul a thousand times over, and even if you go up to the Palace – you will remain a slave all the same.
And you will see what Cleanthes meant when he said that, “Perhaps philosophers do things that are contrary to expectation, but not contrary to reason.” You will find this to be true. The things that are eagerly sought after and admired are of no use to you once you get them. Meanwhile, those who don’t have them imagine that everything good will be theirs once they get these things. And then they get them. Yet their longing and anxiety remain unchanged. So is their desire for what they don’t have.
Freedom is not achieved by fulfilling your desires, but by eliminating them
You cannot achieve freedom by fulfilling your desires, but only by eliminating them. To fully understand how true this is, work on these principles as diligently as you worked on your other things. Stay up late into the night to develop a liberated frame of mind. Cultivate the company of a philosopher instead of a rich old man. Hang around at the philosopher’s door. There’s no shame in it and you will not come back empty-handed or without profit, if you go there with the right attitude. At least try it. There is no shame in it.
Think about this
Free is the person who lives as he wishes and cannot be coerced, impeded or compelled, whose impulses cannot be thwarted, who always gets what he desires and never has to experience what he would rather avoid. Discourses IV.1.1. Epictetus [RD]
Chapter 2
