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Epictetus (50 ─ 140 AD) – a Roman Stoic philosopher, Greek by origin, one of the pillars of Stoic philosophy.
Stoicism is an occult-mystical philosophy that originates directly from Platonism, i.e., the mystical teachings of Plato, and emphasizes the practical side of the question and the development of optimal behavior models in this imperfect world. The teachings of the Stoics (and Epictetus in particular) not only preached but also embodied in practice the greatness and beauty of the human spirit. Epictetus himself wrote nothing. His lectures were recorded by his student Flavius Arrian. This book maximally collects everything from the existing fragments of Epictetus in Russian. These are the most important and interesting aphoristic fragments from Epictetus' conversations with his students. A significant part of the fragments is presented in a new Russian translation, organized logically – in sections that are most significant for the methodology of the Stoics. This book is one of the three literary pillars of Stoic teaching. The two others are "Letters to Lucilius" by L.A. Seneca and "Meditations" by Emperor Marcus Aurelius. All three are, without exaggeration, the most important books for anyone seeking truth.
What is the purpose of this book's emergence, given that Epictetus has been published in Russian before, and more than once? There are two reasons for this.
The first concerns Epictetus himself. This remarkable philosopher was not a writer and, according to those who knew him, did not write a single line in his entire life. He considered it much more important to know how to practice virtue than to be able to describe it. This circumstance connects Epictetus with his centuries-old predecessor – Socrates.
The second reason concerns the reader, who has to live in an era of aggressive clichés and vulgar stereotypes, in conditions when the human personality not only faces monstrous pressure and criminal encroachments from the outside but also when it can hardly even form itself, and instead, in modern conditions, humanoid automatons devoid of anything human are endlessly replicated – zombies, to use the favorite word of today's cultural activists.
In such times, cultivating Stoicism, yoga, and individualism becomes a sacred, almost holy duty of anyone who has not succumbed to globalizing dehumanization, for only in these three teachings today can one find the weapons of human self-defense and spiritual survival. Everything has become depersonalized and lost its individuality.
Such is not the tradition of the East, and the results of learning were different: individuality triumphed; without it, how can one strive for perfection and merge with the Absolute? And on this path, Epictetus, as a Teacher, is irreplaceable.
The book neither needs justifications nor advocates; it does not require image makers or advertisers. Moreover, an intelligent person will understand without it, while explaining to his opposite a hundred times is in vain.