Approaches to Epictetus ’
Handbook and his
Diatribes – our action
in a world of instability
Recently,
the Netflix series “Adolescence” became a global success for bringing to light
several problems related to the new configuration between growing up, “social”
networks and violence: on the one hand, parents have no time or interest in
their children; on the other, the macho sphere is ready to radicalize boys,
vulnerable at a time when they still need support, but are alone; other parents
are concerned about providing all the material comfort, but are not capable of
listening to their problems.
The paranoia that women hate men ends up
“demanding” perverse action - more or less, with proportions, as the Jewish
people were described by the ideology of the 1930s as dangerous. What adults
should have taught has been replaced by the teaching of screens - with their
imminent fanaticism and prejudice. The ancients even had a god, Janus, with two
faces, god of the portals, to observe this transition - Carl Jung paid
attention to the myth of the hero.
On
the other hand, there has been much talk about borderline personality disorder,
so named by psychiatry because it appears to be on the border between neurosis
and psychosis, in which the individual experiences constant instability and
impulsivity, going from a feeling of emptiness to uncontrolled anger, to
hostility, making relationships and projects difficult. The population
prevalence can reach 20% in hospitalized psychiatric patients (Psychiatry
DataBase).
Capitalism also encourages impulse, which is the new Superego (a
social duty internalized in education). The recent trial of the Sean Combs case
(P. Diddy) also points to the excesses and lack of control of power linked to
sexual abuse, obsessive control and threat culture – a video shows how the
businessman kicks and drags his girlfriend Cassie Ventura through the corridors
of a hotel.
Far
from proposing to debate these issues, which should be guided by informed
discussions or properly addressed by modern therapies, we can draw attention to
the way in which antiquity reflected on similar issues and proposed
self-perception in a communal sense. Self -awareness has been pointed out as a
central therapeutic factor even for borderline patients.
In
the Platonic Dialogue Meno , Socrates will state that it is only
self-knowledge that can bring us phronesis - practical wisdom -
translated prudentia by the Roman Cicero - the most important skill to
be learned. Michel Foucault will speak, in the last century, of the culture of
self-care, which he identified in the first two centuries of our era (for
example in The Hermeneutics of the Subject ).
For Alcibiades, a young
and ambitious nobleman, Socrates will show that he does not have the wealth and
education to confront his rivals in the political field - nor does he have the tékhne
(art), a knowledge born of prudence that would enable him to compete with
rivals and govern the city well. Foucault thinks that this self-knowledge also
comes from the other (in Stoicism - a philosophy of Greek origin adopted in the
Roman world - self-care is reflected in the care of the other, for example).
Flavius Arrian Xenophon (ca. 86 -160), a Roman
citizen and student of the Phrygian-born Stoic philosopher Epictetus , compiled
his teacher's lessons in eight books (the Diatribes ) and synthesized
them into a “manual” for everyday use, related to the Stoic tradition of “daily
meditation” (Introduction to the Encheirídion – Dinucci, 2021).
Early
in this manual he writes: “Of the things that exist, some are our
responsibility, others are not. Our responsibility is judgment, impulse,
desire, repulsion – in short, everything that is our action” (Encheiridion 1.1). In Diatribe 48 we read: “Signs of one who
progresses: he does not blame anyone, he does not praise anyone, he does not
accuse anyone, he does not complain about anyone.” Anyone who submits to the
desire for external things or to the people who can offer them becomes a
“slave” (Encheiridion 1.2).
Therefore, we must focus on what depends on us,
on what we can actually control, these “ our burdens”: in this
context, judgment (hypolepsis) - how we evaluate what appears to us,
adding an opinion that directs our conduct; impulse (horme) - active
movement that results from a choice; desire (orexis) approaching
something that we consider good; repulsion (ekklisis) - the action of
moving away from something, avoiding what we consider bad (notes to the Encheirídion , Op. Cit., p. 73-75).
The part of the gods in
the human being would be the capacity for impulse and restraint (Diatribe
1.1.12). Not even Zeus could subdue the rational being's capacity for
choice.
Flavius Arrian already places at the beginning
of the Diatribes a reflection on the things we choose to care for and to
which we choose to attach ourselves (Diatribe 1.1.14). If we concern
ourselves too much with things that we cannot really care for, such as
property, the body, relatives, we are dragged along by them. Among the
capacities or arts (dynamis), such as grammar or music, all relate to
external objects ("how you ought" to do), only the rational capacity
evaluates itself and the use of the other arts, indicating the propitious
moment and "whether or not you ought" to perform the action. Because
the rational capacity is what deals with what appears to us (the
representations - phantasiai ).
One of the most moving aspects of Stoicism is
its advice on how to deal with suffering—to "be content with what is
given" (Diatribe 1.1.27 ), to maintain good humor and serenity in
the face of suffering (Diatribe 1.1.22), and to accept the
consequences of one's actions when lived according to natural
"logical" principles (Diatribe 1.1.18-32). Firm adherence to
what seems rational to us—based on correct judgments—does not submit to the
authoritarianism of other people's passions.
We see with admiration how the ancients thought
about phronesis, the art of self-observation, the education of
choice and the beneficial action that arises from paying
attention to the reaction to what is presented. All this with the understanding
that vanity, criticism and ambition end up corrupting society – a leader serves
the common good (as Marcus Aurelius states in the Meditations – Book 1.17 ).
The universe of the Greek city-state or the
Roman Empire evidently presents a scenario that is absolutely distant from ours
(the founder of Stoicism, the Phoenician Zeno, is 2,300 years away, for
example); but it would not be impossible to think about how the ethical
formulations of their thinkers dialogue with our own conduct and realities.
We
can have more control over a series of factors (and even know the need to take
care of our body, for example – something that the Stoics do not deny, since
things that are not virtue are “indifferent” in the moral sense); the body was
also divine matter, the Ordered Whole; for example, the second leader of the
school (scholarchē), Cleanthes [ ca. 330 BC - 230 BC], was a boxer
born in what is now Turkey; Seneca exercised with his servant and recommended
simple exercises such as “running, lifting weights and jumping” – Epistulae
morales ad Lucilium , XV).
However, we still live in a world of chronic
instability. The avid desire for external things, the inability to judge what
we receive, and aggressiveness based on errors of judgment are all very similar
– even more so if we consider a scenario of increasing militarization,
irresponsible neoliberalism, and plans for livestock production in schools.
Modernity has brought us greater respect for
individuality and instincts, and a greater awareness of the necessary freedom
in raising children, for example. We have almost freed ourselves from
fundamentalist sects and dictatorial powers that sought to domesticate women,
the LGBTQIA+ community, and non-whites. But when can our achievements become
shadows, such as obsession and abandonment?
Adolescents driven by conflicting
emotions, aggressive instincts, and powerful desires would need the wisdom
born of correct opinions from caregivers to avoid turning impulses into
violence. A sense of community would be necessary when everything revolves
around increasing sales and the desire to buy. Greater self-awareness would
prevent the impulsiveness that fuels so many relationships lived in criticism
and aggression.
As
Pepe Mujica has rightly pointed out , capitalism is a cultural phenomenon, a
kind of compulsion for money – it is no wonder that governments oriented
towards individual accumulation and the creation of hierarchies end the
Ministry of Culture, for example. Gaining spaces of inner freedom allows us to
think about spaces of political freedom – to shape the social structure so that
we can grow in harmony.
We need to create spaces and times for reflection to
avoid reducing the masses to fanaticism and exploitation. Thinking about
oneself means avoiding being mere characters in the dreams of others. Or, as
Marcus Aurelius would say, becoming “Caesars” ourselves (which is dangerous).
With prudent criticism in mind, a little “daily meditation” from the Stoic tradition would not be amiss.
Afonso Jr. Ferreira de Lima
Encheiridion of Epictetus (2014). Translation from the Greek, introduction
and commentary: Aldo Dinucci & Alfredo Julien. Annablume publisher/
University of Coimbra Press. https://ucdigitalis.uc.pt/pombalina/item/53859
Long live Vox Stoicism (blog). https://aldodinucci.blogspot.com
Marcus
Aurelius (2023) Meditations : The Personal Writings of
Marcus Aurelius. Penguin -Companhia das Letras.
Psychiatry DataBase . https://www.psychdb.com/personality/borderline
