PHL/CNE 410: Stoicism     Dr W. O. Stephens

Here are some ideas for possible paper topics on Epictetus.

If you like one, I strongly prefer that you modify it to suit your own intellectual curiosity rather than just parroting a topic as described.

The concepts of freedom, slavery, and hindrance.  Political freedom/slavery vs. psychological/desiderative freedom/slavery.

The prosōpon (personal character; the kind of person one is) and how that determines actions that are dignified or fitting and actions that are intolerably demeaning or unfitting for an individual.

Education, application of preconceptions, and the doctrine that all wrongdoing (vicious action) results from ignorance.  (This derives from the Socratic/Platonic doctrine that 'no one errs willingly' or that 'everyone seeks the apparent good.'

The status of 'externals' ('indifferents') and the analogy of how travelers treat an inn (as something that is not theirs)

The analogy of Olympic athletes and striving to overcome difficulties and hardships (e.g. Heracles' labors).

The game analogy (e.g. dice players, ball players) as illustrative of the proper skillful use of externals without valuing them as in themselves good things

The view of death, what it is, why understanding it is so important, the proper way to deal with it (and how Socrates dealt with it), when it is reasonable to choose to die, when it is not, why the fear of death is bad, etc.

The view of Zeus/god/the gods, how human beings are related to the gods, what is in common between the two, how this understanding informs one's attitudes, actions, self-concept, etc.

The view of nonhuman animals, how human beings are related to other animals, similarities & differences, how we should treat them and why, what behaviors they exhibit that are praiseworthy and should be emulated (animals' 'virtues'), what behaviors they exhibit that are vicious when displayed by human beings and why they are vicious in us (but possibly not in them)

Socrates and/or Heracles and/or Odysseus vis à vis Epictetus' account of Stoic heroism.

Epictetus criticizes Agamemnon (about his attitude regarding his Greek troops dying), so you could reconstruct that argument and analyze and evaluate it.

The role of logic in Stoicism.  You could compare the Stoic approach to the importance and role of logic with that of the Academics (Sceptics).

The Stoics vs. the Epicureans on pleasure, virtue, philanthropy, and philosophy as the art of living.