The Story of Epictetus

As a worldview, Stoicism is a philosophical approach to help people to cope with times of great stress and troubles. In order to give comfort to humanity, the Stoics agree with the Pantheistic view that God and nature are not separate. Instead, the two forces are one. By believing that God is nature, humans have a sense of security because nature, like God, is recognized as rational and perfect. The perfection of nature is explained through the Divine, or natural, Law. This law gives everything in nature a predetermined plan that defines the future based on past evens (cause and effect). Because the goal for everything in nature is to fulfill its plan, the reason for all that happens in nature is because it is a part of the plan. It is apparent that, because this law is of God, it must be good. The Divine Law is also universal. Everything on the planet has a plan that has already been determined. There are no exceptions or limitations to the natural law. The world in the Stoics’ eyes is flawless, equal, and rational.

In the world there are two distinct types of things. There are things that exist external to us, such as one's reputation or a relationship. We do not have direct control over these things since they exist outside of us. Then there are internal things that we do have control over, like out desires, or things we dislike. The internal things can be controlled, while the external can be harder to control. Some philosophers even believe that the external things cannot be controlled, and attempting to control them will just bring unhappiness.

From the days of ancient Greece and before, epic heroes have had their lives chronicled and their stories passed on from generation to generation all the way to present day. Two of the greatest heroes have been Gilgamesh from the epic named after him and Achilles from Homer's Iliad. While the two men's stories transpired in vastly different eras, their lives shared a surprising number of commonalities. Of course, with resemblances come several discrepancies in the way they lived and the ideals they believed in.

...y went against Mill’s beliefs; he had to be careful about his response to the reform. As alluded, Epictetus’ experience as a slave is portrayed in his philosophy. As a slave, his life was determined for him, and there was little to no independence. Worrying or acting upon things out of his control would cause distress, so believing in a deity can be interpreted as a coping method. In summary, context had a great impact on both philosophers’ method of understanding freedom because they saw in terms of personal issues.

"All of us have similar experiences. We share in the life journey of growth, development, and transformation. We live the same stories…the trappings might be different, the twists and turns that create suspense might be different from culture to culture, the particular characters may take different forms, but underneath it all, it's the same story, drawn from the same experiences"(Linda Seger, Creating Myth, 1). All people face trials and tribulations throughout their life. Thus, what defines one from one's fellow human beings is not the trials themselves, but how one overcomes the challenges along the journey, as well as the psychological and physical lessons one learns from the actions engaged.

Hercules an epic hero Everyone knows the famous Herakles also known as Hercules the hero. I believe Hercules is a great hero for many reasons. Let me sum up his history, Hercules is the son of Zeus and Alcmene. However, Zeus has a wife named Hera & he cheated on her with Alcmene who got pregnant with his baby.

Epictetus was a philosopher that was born in 50 C.E.and died in 130 C.E., Epictetus was famous for his strong belief in self discipline. Unlike fellow philosopher Epicurus Epictetus does not believe that matter is the most important thing in the universe and that people should try to fulfill their pleasures. Epictetus believes that the most important thing in the universe is God. He believes that people should live their entire lives understanding where they stand in the cosmic universe. As stated in the book Great Traditions In Ethics Epictetus believes “That we are first to learn that there is a god; and that his providence directs the whole” (Denise, White, &

The current inquiry considers some of the chief notions of the Stoics, but more specifically it focuses upon one important question: what does it mean to follow nature for the Stoics? To answer this question, the testimonies of several of the Stoics are pooled and examined together in the end. Not only does this inquisition illustrate chief attributes of Stoicism, but those attributes are eventually evaluated in light of their coherence as well.

Odysseus’ Quest In the Hero’s journey, The Odyssey, the main protagonist, Odysseus, changes in a way which helps him gain self-knowledge. Odysseus ' experiences transformed his personality from how he was in the beginning to the end, by leading him through a heroic journey, also known as a quest. The real reason for a quest never involves the stated reason, and this is no different with Odysseus. As the story developed, many of Odysseus’ sides were exposed through the challenges he faced.

Intellectuals are philosophers, are writers, are artists. They are all those people who work with their minds by questioning the events that touch them and that are touched by them. To recall a Plato's famous allegory, we can say that intellectuals are those who are able to look beyond the shadows and never take concepts for granted. However, some questions as what their role is and, more specifically, whether they should be engaged in politics are still unanswerable. Over the years answers and behaviors towards the engaged culture have been various and we can assume that the intellectuals who cannot separate the two live their lives actively for they want to be part of the events that surround them and let awareness win over apathy. On the contrary, we can assume that those who let apathy win are the intellectuals that look at politics and culture as two different and specific concepts and live a solitary life far from society. However, this is not an appropriate judgment because it would be difficult to consider to which extent solitude can be regarded as cowardliness and to which extent action can be regarded as consciousness.