Utopian Tinges in a Universe Controlled by Nature: Handbook of Epictetus, sections 1-15

As I read the introduction to the text, I noticed that its author emphasized and talked about a specific section of Epictetus’s Handbook. “Do not seek to have events happen as you want them to, but instead want them to happen as they do happen, and your life will go well.” (p.2). This excerpt, apart from being one of the most important doctrines of Stoicism, has a great impact on me. Perfection is the basis of my life. Everything I do or think has a rigid, synchronized order. Whenever my mental order is interrupted by an event, I get completely frustrated and alarmed. I cannot stand the fact that there are things that I cannot control. This is why I disliked the concept of the fourth dimension present in Slaughterhouse Five.

The fact that the whole future is already planned disturbs me because it reveals human weakness. Many people have told me before to stop being so rigid about my life or about what may or may not happen, but I have never paid attention to them. I consider myself as a different person, as a question mark in society, as someone who doesn’t exactly fit in. However, as soon as I read this section of the introduction and the explanation the author provided, I realized that, in fact, there are things that I cannot control. “The basic idea is that for a human being to be in an ideal state is to lack all dissatisfaction with anything about the world, while at the same time being conscious and intelligent.” (p.2). The universe has an established order that we cannot alter. Nature and God, which are presented here as similar beings, have a complete control of everything that happens. Objecting them would be completely irrational because they possess a coherent pattern that governs the universe. “So detach your aversion from everything not up to us, and transfer it to what is against nature among the things that are up to us.” (p.12). It is amazing how the logos and ethos presented in the text manages to persuade the reader to accept the ideas of the Stoics. Personally, I was finally convinced that there are things that you simply cannot prevent, events that will always happen no matter what. The important thing is to learn how to deal with this and make the most out of every situation.

I also noticed how Stoicism goes hand in hand with Christianity and the Bible. For one thing, both texts recognize one God who controls the universe and mankind. “As long as he gives it, take care of it as something that is not your own, just as travelers in an inn.” (p.14). As it can be inferred from the previous quote, there is a character (“he”) that has the power to manage the affairs of mankind. This, according to the KJB, is God. Both texts also recognize the existence of the soul, or something independent from the physical body. “Illness interferes with the body, not with one’s faculty of choice, unless that faculty of choice wishes it to.” (p.14).

On the other hand, Stoicism contradicts the middle-of-the-road theories presented in the Dao-de-Jing. According to Epictetus, “…to be in a fully ideal and dissatisfaction-free state of mind, one would have to possess a completely detailed knowledge of all aspects of the organization of the cosmos, including a great deal of physics and also logic…” (p.4). Daoism, on the other hand, argues that there always has to be a balance in what you know and what you have. Knowing too little is equally as harmful as knowing too much. Personally, I would like to say that I agree with the Stoic view: knowledge is never too much, and logic is the key to discovering the mysteries of the universe.

I would also like to mention that the handbook of Epictetus is one of the few texts that actually proposes how to achieve the ideal state of mind, or a personal utopia. “The Stoic idea of the ideal human condition, therefore, can be fairly well approximated by saying that it attributes to that condition many of the characteristics that many people attribute to God…looking at matters from a purely impersonal point of view…an ideal state would involve looking at all events in the world in this way.” (pages 6-7). This quote not only identifies Stoic philosophy as a path to utopia, but Christianity and the belief in one God as well. This instance may be connecting Stoicism and Christianity as one sole faith. There are many similarities between them both, similarities that I have learned not only through the KJB but also by going to Church. Who knows if both of these beliefs are not actually one sole faith expressed in different ways by two distinct cultures?