Epictetus’s radical Stoicism—Part II

Epictetus, engraving by Juan de Noort, 1635. Image from boudewijnhuijgens.getarchive.net, CC license.

As I’ve explained in my previous essay, the philosopher Epictetus of Hierapolis has changed my life when I first encountered him a decade ago. He is often presented as a rather “conservative” Stoic, whose philosophy reaches back to that of the third Scholarch of the Stoa, Chrysippus of Soli. But I don’t think that picture is quite right. In my mind Epictetus was a radical innovator, who managed t...