You Did Not Pay The Price They Paid | Stoicism

#stoicism #stoicphilosophy #epictetus Somebody got the thing. The promotion, the invitation, the contract. You were pleased for them and you meant it, and underneath that was a second thing you did not say: that a ranking had been published and you were lower on it than you thought. Epictetus treats this as an accounting error, not a character flaw. Has any man been preferred before you at a banquet, he asks, or in being saluted? Then he drops the moral framing and talks about cost: you cannot be considered worthy of the same things if you do not do the same things — visit the man's doors, attend him when he goes abroad, praise him. Then he prices a vegetable. What is the price of lettuces? An obolus perhaps. If a man gives up the obolus and receives the lettuces, and you do not, do not suppose that you receive less: for as he has the lettuces, so you have the obolus which you did not give. Chapters 0:00 Somebody got the thing 0:54 Preferred before you at a banquet 1:49 He stops moralising and talks about cost 2:18 Visiting a man's doors 3:28 Unjust and insatiable 4:09 What is the price of lettuces? 4:39 You have the obolus you did not give 5:15 You did not pay for the supper 6:26 Have you nothing then? 6:54 The not enduring of the man 7:16 Not everything is bought 8:17 Where the argument stops working 9:02 Enter into no contest you cannot win 9:47 Envy will not have a place in us 10:28 A general, a senator, or free 11:17 These reasonings do not cohere 12:04 You are neither possession nor speech 12:44 The man with the beautiful horse 13:25 The use of appearances 15:00 Ask what the price was 15:42 Back to the person who got it Public domain: Epictetus, A Selection from the Discourses with the Encheiridion (tr. George Long, 1877). New video every week.