The Role Ethics Of Epictetus: Stoicism In Ordinary Life Stoicism In Ordinary Life

The Role Ethics of Epictetus: Stoicism in Ordinary Life offers an original interpretation of Epictetus’s ethics and how he bases his ethics on an appeal to our roles in life. Epictetus believes that every individual is the bearer of many roles from sibling to citizen and that individuals are morally good if they fulfill the obligations associated with these roles. To understand Epictetus’s account of roles, scholars have often mistakenly looked backwards to Cicero’s earlier and more schematic account of roles. However, for Cicero, roles are merely a tool in the service of the virtue of decorum where decorum is one of the four canonical virtues—prudence, justice, greatness of spirit, and decorum. In contrast, Epictetus sets those virtues aside and offers roles as a complete ethical theory that does the work of those canonical virtues. This book elucidates the unique features of Epictetus’s role based ethics. First, individuals have many roles and these roles are substantial enough that they may conflict. Second, although Epictetus is often taken to have only a sparse theory of appropriate action (or “duty” in older translations), Brian E. Johnson examines the criteria by which appropriate action is measured in order to demonstrate that Epictetus does have an account of appropriate action and that it is grounded in his account of roles. Finally, Epictetus downplays the Stoic ideal of the sage and replaces that figure with role-bound individuals who are supposed to inspire each of us to meet the challenges of our own roles. Instead of looking to sages, who have a perfect knowledge and action that we must imitate, Epictetus’s new ethical heroes are those we do not imitate in terms of knowledge or action, but simply in the way they approach the challenges of their roles. The analysis found in The Role Ethics of Epictetus will be of great value both to students and scholars of ancient philosophy, ethics and moral philosophy, history, classics, and theology, and to the educated reader who admires Epictetus. Contents 9 Preface 11 Acknowledgments 15 Introduction 19 1 Epictetus’s Role for Human Beings 29 2 Bearing Many Roles: Specific Roles in an Individual’s Life 43 3 Roles in Action: Appropriate Acts (or “Duties”) 61 4 Education and the Good of Epictetean Roles 81 5 The Cases of Socrates and Heracles: Role Conflict and Identity 103 6 The Role of Roles in Epictetus’s Discourses 1.2: Three Interpretations 123 7 Resolving Role Conflicts 141 8 Cicero’s Account of Panaetius’s Four Personae: A Theory of Decorum 153 9 Epictetus’s Role Ethics: The Unfolding Script 191 Bibliography 205 Index 211