Epictetus - a pondering...

Epictetus –Handbook, 5.

2 “Ench”, 1.5.1.1

"Circumstances* do not trouble* men; but [their] conclusions* concerning circumstances do."

         Tara¿ssei tou\ß aÓnqrw¿pouß ouj ta» pra¿gmata, aÓlla» 2 ta» peri« tw◊n pragma¿twn do/gmata.

    

NOTA BENE:

FlexLex (Flexibility lexicon):

* Things/circumstances = facts; deeds; events; circumstances

*trouble = disturb; disquiet; stir up; confound; alarm; frighten; throw into disorder; agitate; distract

*conclusions = decree to be true; judgments; decisions; dogma

PROBLEMS concerning possible word choices: (1) “opinions” has Platonic history; (2) “judgments” has Kantian history

Emphatic formula = Tara¿ssei (verb=disturb)+ do/gmata (subject=opinions)

Several possible translations:

• “What upsets people is not things themselves but their judgments about the things.”
• Not disturbing to men are things, but rather opinions (cf. Plato) about those things.
•  Circumstances do not frighten people; but their judgments about those circumstances sure do.
• Things do not trouble* men; but [their] conclusions* concerning things do.

Commentary: Any limitation we have is the creations of our own minds, which means that our destiny is, truly, in our own hands.

Heraclitus - a (short) reflection

An idea is attributed to Heraclitus (2, 1.1.119.1), which goes something like this: h™qoß aÓnqrw¿pwi dai÷mwn (If this does not look like Greek to you, you will have to install a Greek font on your computer!) In the vernacular (i.e., English) this means, quite literally, that: ‘a man’s habit is his lord’.

Some grammatical considerations, or what one might call a FlexLex (Flexible Lexicon):

*; (to) h™qoß = nominative, neuter; = custom, usage, habit.

*; aÓnqrw¿pwi = dative, masculine; = to or for a man

*; dai÷mwn = nominative, masculine=appositional or compliment; god/deity; fate, destiny, fortune (numen); possibly as adjective = skilled in a thing.

What Heraclitus is clearly drawing our attention to, regardless of how we ultimately translate our phrase, is what we might call an Emphatic formula: h™qoß = dai÷mwn.

Several possible translations:

•    The actions of a man flow from what he values.

•    A man’s action flows from his character.

•    Habit to a man is God.

•    Character to a man is his deity.

•    What we do habitually is who we are or who we become.

Commentary: With this statement Heraclitus provides us with the foundation of both a metaphysic (what is true about the world) and an ethic (how we should act in the world given what is true about the world).