Volume 1 - Discourses - Books I - II - College of Stoic Philosophers

INTRODUCTIONlargely abandoned, lie manifests but slight interestin it.Among duties lie is concerned principally withthose of a social character. Nature places us incertain relations to other persons, and these determineour obligations to parents,, brothers, children,kinsmen, friends, fellow-citizens, and mankind ingeneral. We ought to have the sense of fellowshipand partnership (KQLVWLKQL), that in is, thought andin action we ought to remember the social organizationin which we have been placed by the divineorder. The shortcomings of our fellow-men are tobe met with patience and charity, and we shouldnot allow ourselves to grow indignant over them, forthey too are a necessary element in the universal plan.The religious possibilities of Stoicism are developedfurther by Epictetus than by any otherrepresentativeof the school. The conviction thatthe universe iswholly governed by an all-wise,divine Providence is for him one of the principalsupports of the doctrine of values. All things,even apparent evils, are the will of God, comprehendedin his univei*sal plan, and therefore goodfrom the point of view of the whole. It is ourmoral duty to elevate ourselves to this conception,to see things as God sees them. The man whoreconciles his will to the will of God, and sorecognizes that every event isnecessary and reasonablefor the best interest of the whole, feels nodiscontent with anything outside the control ofhis free will. His happiness he finds in filling therole which God has assigned him, becoming therebya voluntary co-worker with God, and in filling thisrdle no man can hinder him.xxiii