Human beings create their own realities when they lose sight of the rational workings of the logos. An important aspect of the foundation of Stoicism is Heraclitus' claim that 'Life is Flux', everything is always changing, and so the disappointment one experiences today cannot last into tomorrow unless the person who has been disappointed chooses to make that so. The linchpin of Epictetus’s entire philosophy is his account of what it is to be a human being that is, to be a rational mortal creature. The logos is not sending `trials' or `tests' to people nor, according to Epictetus, are any of the aspects of human life which are regarded as negative anything other than natural and normal.īecause of the biological make up of a human being, that organism will be subject to age, sickness and death and, because of the psychological make up, a human will experience disappointment when expectations are not met. tion of human actions, since there does not seem to exist (in Epictetus. and many human rights advocates have also argued that all rights are equal: No human right outweighs another. Epaphroditus granted Epictetus his freedom at some indeterminate date and he then devoted his life to philosophy. Against those who hastily rush into the use of the philosophic dress. Against those who lament over being pitied. To those who are desirous of passing life in tranquillity.

These things, which humans define as `bad' or `tragic', are, to the logos, simply a part of the human experience. Bobzien, Determinism and Freedom in Stoic Philosophy (Oxford, 1998. In his inimitable, frank language, Epictetus explained that his curriculum was notabout revenues or income, or peace or war, but about happiness and unhappiness, success and failure, slavery and freedom. What things we should exchange for other things. The `plan' of the logos was the rational, natural, maintenance of the world which includes, for human beings, aging, sickness, disappointment, and death. Epictetus claims that the path to freedom from suffering is by accepting the natural order of life and with it the possibility of unpleasant circumstances.

Of human freedom epictetus