Status Updates From المختصر

perfect for understanding how we should self-reflect to become better version of ourselves to live properly

15

Anything to meet my reading goal babes

Uhhhhh

Lehren 17 - 28.

19. (...) Du willst doch nicht Feldherr, nicht Magistrat, nicht Konsul sein, sondern frei.
23. (...) Und willst du es auch jemand scheinen, so scheine es dir selbst, das ist genug.
28. Wenn man dem ersten besten Gewalt über deinen Leib gäbe, das würde dich entrüsten. Scheust du dich denn nicht, jedem beliebigen, der dir begegnet, Gewalt über dein Gemüt zu geben, (...)

Seite 8, Lehre 12
fast an meiner Spucke verschluckt :DD
Epiktet du oller deadbeat ( I jest... unless..) :

"So beseitige in dir folgende unrichtige Gedanken: (.....) >>wenn ich meinen Sohn nicht strafe, so wird er ein Bösewicht werden.<< Besser ist es, ohne Furcht und Kummer sterben, als mit unruhigem Gemüt in allem Überflusse leben; BESSER, DASS DER JUNGE EIN BÖSEWICHT WERDE, ALS DASS DU UNGLÜCKLICH SEIEST."

gelesen: Erster Teil 10-17

11) Solange "er" es dir zum Besitz überlassen hat, besitze es als fremdes Gut.
14) Wer frei sein will, muss nichts begehren und nichts fürchten, was in eines andern Macht steht; andernfalls ist er dessen Knecht.
15) Bedenke das: du musst dich im Leben wie bei einem Gastmahle verhalten.
16) >>Nicht dieser Unfall beschwert ihn, sondern die Vorstellung, die er davon hat.<<

It’s very nice so far, a bit difficult vocabulary.

gelesen: Erster Teil 1-9

1) Gehört es zu den nicht in unserer Macht stehenden Dingen, so halte dies Wort bereit: >>Es berührt mich nicht.<<
3) Siehst du einen Krug, so sage dir, dass du einen Krug siehst; dann wirst du nicht in Unruhe geraten, wenn er bricht.
5) So ist der Tod an und für sich nichts Schreckliches(...), vielmehr ist die vorgefaßte Meinung von ihm, dass er etwas Schreckliches sei, das Schreckhafte.

if a book written in the first century in rome doesn't heal me, i'm afraid nothing will do it

In der Bücherei gesehen und direkt mal gelesen. Die stoische Philosophie ist interessant; ich hab aber keine große Meinung zu dem Buch.

Greek philosopher- read through chapter 26

Good people are NOT invincible, Epictetus, and it is folly to suggest that they are.

Also, that statement contradicts many of the statements you've made previously about accepting what you can't control and accepting that the world is not as you wish.

Also, all the vague appeals to nature without defining what that is are really starting to irk me.

He cautions against fallacious thinking, yet the appeal to nature is itself a fallacy.

I'm impressed that Epictetus can understand that women feel pressured to be pretty and even goes into the why of it.

However, his "inner beauty is what matters" platitude isn't really enough. I feel he ought to think more and more about sexism before he opens his mouth about it.

Also, in one instance he says "care for your body", but also that the mind is more important than the body.

Because romantic love is a key ingredient in the success of most, if not all marriages and committed relationships.

And yet many a-romantic people are not necessarily asexual. They have carnal desires, if not romantic ones, and it is unfair to deny a-romantic people sexual pleasures just because they aren't served well by marriage & committed relationships.

I personally am not a fan of casual sex myself, but I feel that casually instructing others not to, as Epictetus does here (even as ironically, he says not to try and discourage others from it!) is very, very small-minded.

For example: there are plenty of a-romantic people who would not be served well by things like marriage + long-term relationships.

And again, what if your family/community/country's customs are actively amoral and go against virtue.

Like, for example: slavery, segregation, religious intolerance, denying women's rights...

Again, more contradictions.

"fix your resolve on expecting justice and goodness and order" and "don't demand or expect that events happen as you would wish them to"

Huge contradiction. You can't both expect things to be good and just while at the same NOT trying to expect things to go as you wish.

Unless you're actively wishing for bad things to happen, I guess.

"Don't consent to be hurt and you won't" that's bullshit.

"you have obligations to your father even if he is an objectively terrible person" is TERRIBLE advice.

Also, this philosophy is very contradictory. Only now it does it acknowledge that humans are part of a community and have obligations. But before, it was very hyper-individualistic and detached.

Plus, it makes the path of wisdom sound very culty.

Arguably, our actions ARE responsible for what people think of us. It's only true that we can't control what others think to an EXTENT.

If you behave badly, people will find out and think of you accordingly. (Sensible people, that is).

Of course, obsessing over your reputation is bad, but you aren't completely helpless as to how it forms.

"Be nice, don't try to feel others' pain"

Yeah, in my experience, people tend to hate that. They tend to hate detached, above-it-all kindness.

They prefer it when you try to feel or understand the person's pain instead of just giving them pity.

Your grieving friend's problem is not the event but how he perceives it.

Wow. That is such a cruel, monstrous way to deal with other people.

It's one thing to go through life like that for yourself, but to treat other people that way...you deserve to get slapped.

Not only is this philosophy detached, it is also unhealthily individualistic.

I'm told that Epictetus was a slave, but it sure doesn't sound like it from that paragraph.

And this is spoken by a person who's never been poor. Dying of hunger is not conducive to serenity. In fact, the hunger hormones tend to stress out the mind and body, causing the opposite of serenity.

That being said, the advice to be calm about your child's mistakes and disobedience is pretty good.

And to insist that the "will is bigger than the legs" is not inspirational-it is a recipe for doom. In the book's own words "if you think you have free rein over things that are naturally beyond your control...your pursuits will be thwarted and you will become a frustrated, anxious, and fault-finding person."

TL;DR, that's the most inspiration-porny BS I've ever heard.

And this page about "your will is bigger than your legs" is spoken like a true able-bodied person.

Yes, "sickness" limits what a person can do. To say otherwise, ironically, goes against one of the very principles this book has been arguing for: a sharp divide between what you can and can't control.

Disabled people are limited by what their bodies (and/or minds) can do for them.

That being said, blaming others for the mistakes YOU'VE made is wrong, yes.

But there's a difference between wrongfully and rightly blaming someone. One is avoiding accountability, the other is demanding it.

Now this is bullshit. People actually are, in fact, to blame about things they are responsible. This attitude practically discourages accountability.

For example: a builder drops a wrench from 10 stories high, and it hurts someone on the street below. It does not matter how we the onlooker feel about it; that builder is responsible for the damage he caused to the person on the street below.