Epicteti Enchiridion: The Morals of Epictetus, Made English in a Poetical Paraphrase

"The Story of Civilization" Vol III, "Caesar and Christ", "He settled in Nicopedia and drew to his lectures there, students from many parts. One was Arrian of Nicomedia later governor of Cappadocia; Arrian took down the words of Epictetus, probably in shorthand, and published them as Diatribai- "Rubbings" or copies--now on all lists of the world's best books as Discourses. Arrian later issued an Enchiridion, or synopsis "Handbook" of Epictetus." What, Epictetus again? Well, no, this is about the Encheiridion, a short book, 18 or 20 pages total. It is one of those interesting little books that could easily have two or three thousand pages written about it. Even a two or three volume encyclopedia. Volume 1, the history of the Encheiridion, Volume 2, the philosophical history and paralels in psychology of the ideas in the Encheiridion, Volume three modern science as it supports and modifies the Encheiridion. Yet, it, itself is only 18 or 20 pages long depending on things like page and type size. Such a booklet must be discussed at least in brief. So, how to describe the Encheiridion? Well, imagine that you are watching late night TV, "Red Eye" on Fox News or something similar. A commercial comes on and the barker begins, "Now YOU can enjoy the secrets methods used by Roman Emperors, Roman Governors, Greek Philosophers, Christian Monks and Muslim Mystics for thousands of years to achieve internal peace and tranquility. Yes, now for a one time offer, the daily mental exercises, not some dry philosophers delusions about how the world works, but the daily mental exercises used by these men to achieve peace and tranquility can be yours for the one time price of 19.95. Call now, and we will double, not triple the offer and send you not one, but three copies of the Encheiridion for this once in a lifetime opportunity. Only 15 minutes of reading a day can make you emotionally and mentally fit enough to govern an empire if you had one. Call now, this is a short time offer." The Encheiridion or Handbook is not really a system of philosophy or designed to enlighten the mind of students with increased understanding of reality. It is a set of readings about how to deal with yourself daily in life so that you can remain tranquil, even happy, no matter what life may bring. The key is, dealing with yourself. The focus is on dealing with how you react to the world. Not on dealing with the world but on you. The Encheiridion teaches you to take control of your faculties of desire and aversion and focus them not on externals but on yourself. It teaches you to care more about how you act and react than about how the world treats you. Aristotle posited a vegetable, animal and rational faculty in humans. Freud posited an id, ego and superego. McLean posited a reptile, mammal and primate brain. Modern science has disproved these theses in detail but supports them in essence. The brain is indeed divided into different sections which serve different purposes. A famous medical case describes a man who suffered injury to the emotive part of his brain, he became very logical but could not make decisions. Hume said that it is necessary to have emotions to make decisions. The rational logical part of the brain is naturally the servant of the animal passions. It evolved so the animal could figure out smarter ways to get food and get laid. Yet, the servant is always the master. In order for the servant to guide the animal hungers to success, they have to accept the servants commands on when to stop and when to go, on what is smart and what is stupid. So, our brain has an interesting arrangement. A faculty for desire, and a rational faculty capable of choosing what we should desire and how we should go about getting it. The Encheiridion is a handbook of how to think about problems and issues so that a sense of happiness and success comes from exercising self-control and achieving tranquility, rather than from controlling others and the