Discourses

Epictetus’ Discourses

The Discourses of Epictetus are a collection of informal lectures by the Stoic teacher Epictetus (c. 55–135 CE), written down by his student Arrian in Greek around the early second century CE. Originally comprising eight books, only four survive in substantial form. They are not a systematic treatise but a series of conversations and expositions on how to live a philosophically guided life.

Central to the work is the Stoic distinction between what is “up to us” (our judgments, desires, and aversions) and what is “not up to us” (health, reputation, wealth, and external events). The Discourses argue that genuine freedom and tranquility depend on recognizing this distinction and aligning one’s will with what is rational and within one’s control. Epictetus presents philosophy as a practical discipline, a rigorous training of the soul involving exercises such as self-examination, preparedness for misfortune, and the re-interpretation of events in light of Stoic doctrine.

Thematically, the Discourses address:

• Ethics and character: how to become a virtuous person, and why virtue is sufficient for happiness.
• Passions and emotions: how mistaken value-judgments generate destructive emotions, and how to “correct” them.
• Duty and social roles: the responsibilities of students, citizens, and family members, framed in terms of natural roles and rational order.
• Providence and fate: the view that the cosmos is ordered by divine reason, to which the wise person consents.

Stylistically, the text is conversational, often using anecdotes, questions, and rebukes. Epictetus appears as a demanding teacher who insists that philosophy must transform how one lives, not merely what one believes. The Discourses have been especially influential as a source for applied Stoicism, underpinning later summaries such as the Enchiridion and inspiring modern discussions of resilience, cognitive therapy, and moral autonomy.

Descartes’ Discourse on Method

The Discourse on Method (Discours de la méthode, 1637) by René Descartes is one of the foundational texts of early modern philosophy. Although often shortened to Discourse or grouped under “Discourses,” it consists of six parts outlining a new approach to knowledge and scientific inquiry, presented in French rather than the traditional Latin to reach a broader audience.

The work proposes a method built on methodical doubt: suspending belief in anything that can be called into question, in order to discover an indubitable foundation for knowledge. This leads to the famous formulation “cogito, ergo sum” (“I think, therefore I am”), although the Latin phrasing appears in later works. From the certainty of the thinking self, Descartes argues toward the existence of a non-deceiving God and, on that basis, the reliability of clear and distinct ideas.

Key features of the Discourse on Method include:

• Four rules of method: (1) accept only what is clearly and distinctly known; (2) divide problems into parts; (3) proceed from simple to complex; (4) review thoroughly to ensure completeness.
• Reconstruction of knowledge: an architectural metaphor of demolishing inherited opinions and rebuilding science on secure foundations.
• Provisional morality: a set of practical rules for living while one’s beliefs are under theoretical revision.
• Applications to science: appended essays on geometry, optics, and meteorology exemplify the method in practice.

Unlike Epictetus’ primarily ethical focus, Descartes’ Discourse is principally epistemological and methodological, concerned with the conditions under which scientific and philosophical claims can be justified. It helped redefine philosophy as a discipline grounded in subjectivity, rational autonomy, and systematic doubt.

Comparative Significance

Though separated by nearly fifteen centuries and divergent in content, Epictetus’ Discourses and Descartes’ Discourse on Method share several notable features. Both:

• Treat philosophy as a way of life, not merely an academic pursuit—Epictetus oriented to moral training, Descartes to intellectual reformation.
• Emphasize the role of the individual subject: Epictetus stresses personal responsibility for one’s judgments; Descartes emphasizes the solitary thinker who scrutinizes received opinions.
• Present their ideas in relatively accessible prose for a broader, non-specialist audience.

Historically, Epictetus’ Discourses played a major role in:

• Preserving and transmitting late Stoic ethics to Byzantine, Islamic, and early modern readers.
• Informing Christian moral thought, which adapted Stoic ideas about inner freedom and conscience.
• Influencing modern self-help literature and some strands of psychotherapy, particularly through the emphasis on how beliefs shape emotions.

Descartes’ Discourse on Method is widely seen as inaugurating:

• A new model of scientific rationality, based on clarity, systematic doubt, and mathematical method.
• The “subject-centered” turn in philosophy, focusing on the thinking self as the starting point for epistemology.
• Enduring debates about skepticism, the relation between mind and body, and the limits of reason.

While the similar title can obscure their differences, taken together these works illustrate the breadth of what “discourses” can mean in philosophy: from practical oral teachings on how to live well, to a programmatic treatise on how to think and know with methodological rigor. Both continue to be studied as exemplary attempts to reorient human life—ethical in one case, epistemic in the other—through sustained philosophical reflection.