The Enchiridion

Born a slave and lamed by his master, Epictetus studied Stoic philosophy while in captivity. Once freed, he survived Domitian’s banishment of all philosophers from Rome to settle in Greece, where he founded a school of philosophy. He quickly rose to prominence as a renowned Stoic scholar and teacher, and even though he was personally friendly with emperors, he kept a simple life. The Enchiridion is a summary of practical advice compiled by Epictetus’ student Arrian. While based on Epictetus’ Discourses, it’s not a philosophical treatise as much as it is a short handbook with practical suggestions on how to live a good and satisfying life. It remained popular for centuries with translations to different languages completed as early as 1493, and was even a common school text in Scotland during the 18th century.

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NishanStepakOct 2026

Frank Herbert Dune, book, there is a graphic novel of the latest edition which I glanced through. Machiavelli The Prince Sun Tzu The Art of War Epictetus The Enchiridion Tao Te Ching- different editions The Odyssey in variety of formats, illustrated, graphic novel, book The King James Bible-- Different pieces at various points. Proverbs many times. Lewis Carroll-- Alices Adventures In Wonderland, book, annotated edition

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0xmattfJan 2026

I only read non-fiction; mostly philosophy. Here are some books off the top of my head:

* The Inner Citadel/Philosophy as a Way of Life by Pierre Hadot

* Plato's dialogues (someone already mentioned a few of them, but the Republic was missing from their list).

* Epictetus (Discourses and Enchiridion)

* The various essays/letters of Seneca

* Matter and Consciousness by Churchland (older, but fascinating)

* The Mediations of Marcus Aurelius

* (mostly) any Buddhist texts

* What a Plant Knows

* Moonwalking with Einstein

There are tons of fascinating books, way too many to list.

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rramadassJan 2026

Epictetus' Handbook and the Tablet of Cebes: Guides to Stoic Living by Keith Seddon; has the first detailed modern commentary on The Enchiridion in over 1500 years. The book is positioned for both the general reader and academics with background notes, detailed commentary and explanations.

Every student of Stoic Philosophy should read this - https://www.routledge.com/Epictetus-Handbook--and-the-Tablet...

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whatamidoingyoOct 2025

I was thinking the same. Immediately, the "Enchiridion" of Epictetus came to mind. It's also called "The Manual", which is basically a guide to living life from a Stoic perspective. As others have wrote, there are lots of manuals. Maybe too many.

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photonthugMar 2025

Your take on this is wild to me, and while TFA as whole is somewhat more balanced, I'm pretty surprised at this whole train of thought. An emperor was a stoic, and so was a slave. Epictetus is only mentioned twice in passing in the article, but it does say that

> Some stoic authors were slaves themselves, like Epictetus author of the beautiful stoic handbook Enchiridion, and many stoic writings focus on providing therapies for armoring one’s inner self against such evils as physical pain, illness, losing friends, disgrace, and exile.

Seems like people from all walks of life thought maybe it was a useful point of view, and that it's universal because people from all walks of life have their own suffering to deal with.

I get that in an inevitably political world that's increasingly polarized, philosophy always becomes a sort of fashion show where it's not about what's being worn but who is wearing it lately. But this is really pretty silly. Stoicism predates silicon valley and will still be around after it's gone, and there is substance that goes far beyond "deeply hollow, dissociative, nihilistic".

If it sounds that way to you, I assume maybe you are just in a situation where you have someone that you kind of hate preaching it at you.. in which case adding some distance makes sense no matter what they are evangelizing. Quoting TFA again

> [stoicism] reminds me of the profession of wealth therapists who help the uber-wealthy stop feeling guilty about spending $2,000 on bed sheets or millions on a megayacht.

So there it is, that's what's really bothering the guy.

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rramadassDec 2024

Nice article. I had always held that Philosophy was an immensely practical discipline but bottled up by academia (after the scientific revolution) in meaningless debates/pointless nitpicking thus emasculating it of its vital essence. Philosophy was meant to be practiced, adjusted and modified for "Real Life" within a Worldview with certain inviolable core principles. Some books that i have personally found illuminating are (in no particular order);

1) Epictetus' Handbook and The Tablet of Cebes: Guides to Stoic Living by Keith Seddon - The author takes Epictetus's "Enchiridion" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enchiridion_of_Epictetus) and adds detailed commentary to it thus giving you a deeper understanding of its practical philosophy. "The Tablet of Cebes" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cebes#The_Tablet_of_Cebes ) is an allegorical tale of the structure of Life and the interplay of various factors affecting it; absolutely beautiful and one of my favourites.

2) The article's mention of Mengzi's "sprouts" reminds me another chinese text Caigentan aka "Vegetable Roots Discourses" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caigentan). Two good translations are the one by Robert Aitken/Daniel Kwok and the other by William Scott Wilson.

3) Hindu philosophy has multiple schools. One of the most ancient schools whose fundamental ideas have been taken into and modified by other schools is Samkhya (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhya). The beauty of this school is the way it defines and structures everything both material and non-material and distinguishes them from the "True us/self" (i.e. Consciousness/Awareness) into one unified framework. A good (and relatively easy to understand) translation of one of the main texts is The Essence of Samkhya Karikas: The Foundation of Yoga Philosophy by Damini Dalal.

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