philosophy · 50 – 135
The Handle
Epictetus, a former slave who taught that freedom is taught, says he cannot teach the thing he does not have. The Enchiridion is a handbook: a small set of discriminations rehearsed daily so that judgement under pressure stops consulting the wrong criterion. Its relevance to alignment is the training-of-judgement framing — you do not install caution in a crisis, you practise it until the practice has become the reflex.
“Some things are up to us, some things are not up to us.”
Advances
- Agapao, the abandonment of what is not in our power, as a practice with rules
- Judgement trained by repetition rather than acquired by insight
- The philosopher's own students trained as the first test of the philosophy
Landmarks
50 CE
Born in Phrygia
Born a slave, freed, and recorded as teaching in Rome and then Nicopolis.
108 CE
Exiled to Nicopolis
Domitian expels the philosophers; the school settles in Greek Asia and becomes accessible.
135 CE
Arrian takes the notes
The Discourses are transcripts; the Enchiridion is a manual Epictetus handed to beginners.
Who was arguing
Alignment stack at 135 CE (0 of 20 techniques)
Techniques introduced in this era: