L

A MODEL OF LATE STOIC

PRACTICE AND GLOSSARY OF

KEY TERMS AND PASSAGES

ate Stoic thought of the second century, as articulated in the writings of
Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, paints a vivid picture of the work of
philosophy in producing both self-coherence and progress on the path to
virtue. As suggested in the work of Pierre Hadot and A. A. Long (see
Suggestions for Further Reading), we have developed and formalized
Epictetus’s three disciplines into a chart that presents the progressive nature
of the late Stoic prescription for handling ourselves and our actions in the
world. This chart brings together the three topoi (topics, or fields of study)
and three different levels of training (askêsis) suggested by Epictetus and
shows how they correlate (noted in Hadot) to the pursuit of virtue as
expressed by Marcus Aurelius. The chart itself comes from these key
passages in Epictetus:

“There are three areas in which the person who would be wise and

good must be trained. The first has to do with desires and

aversions—that a person may never miss the mark in desires nor

fall into what repels them. The second has to do with impulses to

act and not to act—and more broadly, with duty—that a person

may act deliberately for good reasons and not carelessly. The

third has to do with freedom from deception and composure and

the whole area of judgment, the assent our mind gives to its

perceptions. Of these areas, the chief and most urgent is the first