Epictetus · c. 50 – c. 135 CE
Discourses 1.22 ¶2 — Epictetus
From “On Precognitions”
Translation by George Long (1877)
Epictetus, Discourses 1.22 ¶2
What then is education? Education is the learning how to adapt the natural precognitions to the particular things conformably to nature; and then to distinguish that of things some are in our power, but others are not: in our power are will and all acts which depend on the will; things not in our power are the body, the parts of the body, possessions, parents, brothers, children, country, and generally all with whom we live in society. In what then should we place the good? To what kind of things (οὐσίᾳ) shall we adapt it? To the things which are in our power? Is not health then a good thing, and soundness of limb, and life? and are not children and parents and country? Who will tolerate you if you deny this?
Cite this passage
Epictetus, Discourses 1.22 ¶2, tr. George Long (1877)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/discourses/1.22.2
Epictetus, Discourses (as recorded by Arrian), tr. George Long (1877). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesEducation means learning to fit our natural ideas of good to the right things, and above all to tell apart what is in our power, namely our choices and the actions that flow from them, from what is not, such as body, possessions, family and country. An objection is raised: are health, children and country not goods?
Older wording
- “precognitions”
- — natural, shared basic ideas such as good and justice
- “in our power”
- — up to us, within our control
Themes and situations
- What is in our control
- Virtue and character
- Learning and progress
- Family and love
- Anxiety about the future
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