Episode 124: The Stoic Life with Epictetus
The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast
Mark Linsenmayer
4.6 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 21 September 2015
⏱️ 128 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On the Manual of Epictetus, aka The Enchiridion (135 CE). What's a wise strategy for life? Stoicism says that the secret is mastering yourself. Nothing external can break your spirit unless you let it. So, how weird and misguided is that advice? With guest Alex Fossella.
End song: "But I Won't" by Mark Lint from Spanish Armada: Songs of Love and Related Neuroses (1993).
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The partially examined life will be doing a live performance of our episode 125 on Hanna |
| 0:05.1 | Arent. You can attend in-person in Pittsburgh on Saturday, September 26th at 6.30pm at |
| 0:11.8 | Duquesne University. This is part of the two-day event on Commons Theory and Public Space, |
| 0:16.8 | which is the 2015 Pittsburgh Continental Philosophy Network Conference. We plan on live streaming both |
| 0:22.8 | Saturday's episode recording and a Friday Q&A session. Look for more information at partiallyexaminedlife.com. |
| 0:30.4 | You're listening to the partially examined life, a philosophy podcast by some guys who are at one |
| 0:40.1 | point set on doing philosophy for a living, but then thought better of it. Our question for episode |
| 0:44.7 | 124 is something like how does a wise person live or what is freedom and re-read the incuridian |
| 0:51.0 | aka the manual of epictetus from around 125 AD. You can join the discussion, get the text, |
| 0:56.9 | lots more information at partiallyexaminedlife.com. This is Mark Linton-Meyer and Madison Wisconsin. |
| 1:02.3 | And this is Seth Paskin in different in Austin, Texas. This is Wes Allen in Boston, Massachusetts. |
| 1:08.4 | This is Dylan Casey in Middleton, Wisconsin. This is Alex Pasella in Brooklyn, New York. |
| 1:13.2 | Well, welcome Alex, our guest. Why don't you tell the folks who you are. I'm the head researcher |
| 1:19.9 | behind Modern Day Philosophers podcast with Danny Lebel. I liked if you just stopped just behind |
| 1:25.7 | Modern Day Philosophers as if they all call upon you. Yeah, I'm just I have access to the dead |
| 1:31.2 | souls of most philosophers, but only at a certain point like Enlightenment guys is a modern. I mean, |
| 1:36.1 | not like the pre-secratics they're lost even to my powers. I'm Dr. Strange from Marvel Comics. I |
| 1:41.7 | should mention that and can summon the dead. What do we got a comedian here? Something. |
| 1:46.6 | Yeah, and I am a comedian if we want to admit it that way. And I'm happy to be on board. We've |
| 1:52.4 | been talking about doing this for a while. Yes, I got you're okay to be on here before actually |
| 1:57.3 | getting Danny's. Yeah, but this is the topic you picked and this is finally when we're getting |
| 2:02.0 | around to it. And this is one of the ancient wisdom traditions. And looking at this, we should have |
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