Stoic Reflections Issue №7
The Salvation of Epictetus
The story of Epictetus is remarkable and highlights how important the study of philosophy is.
Epictetus was a slave. We don’t know how he got to become a slave, but we know that he was enslaved by a freedman of Nero’s by the name of Epaphroditus.
Epictetus was lame. There’s conjecture that it was due to torture from his master.
So here we have a broken slave. Yet, we still talk about him 2,000 years later.
To me, the story of Epictetus highlights why studying philosophy is important.
It’s important because we never know the impact our own philosophical musings and findings will have on other people.
Epictetus encountered the philosophy of Stoicism through the lectures of Musonius Rufus.
“We will train both soul and body when we accustom ourselves to cold, heat, thirst, hunger, scarcity of food, hardness of bed, abstaining from pleasures, and enduring pains.”
― Musonius Rufus, Musonius Rufus: Lectures and Sayings
