Virtue and Happiness is a nicely
produced book featuring some of the sayings of the ancient philosopher
Epictetus about how to live well, accompanied by beautiful calligraphic
representations of the Stoic’s original words. 
Stoic ethics recommends that one only concern oneself with what one has
power to control. Even a person locked
in a cell should be able to be happy because he or she will still be able to
control his or her own thoughts. So
long as one maintains realistic expectations and ensures one does not have
unfulfillable desires, one will never be frustrated. The Stoics put great emphasis on ways to have power over one’s
emotions and cravings, and recommended that one live a rational life.

"When an idea of pleasure arises in your mind,
treat it like the others, take care not to let yourself be carried away, defer
action and obtain from yourself some delay."

The main reservation one might have
about this book is whether it is fitting to treat the words of the Stoics like
poetry or art, when they themselves tended to counsel people to lead lives
based on reason that do not depend on possessions. It seems comparable to making a handsome glossy brochure
advertising the benefits of Puritanism. 
Certainly, the aestheticization of these words of philosophy turns them
into aphorisms or even "thoughts for the day" and undermines the
rational basis of justification the Stoics would have provided for their
interesting ideas. So if you purchase
this book, you would do well to also acquire other works of the Stoics that
provide a fuller account of their systematic approach to finding
happiness.

© 2003 Christian Perring. All rights reserved.

Christian Perring, Ph.D., is Chair
of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College, Long Island, and editor of Metapsychology
Online Review. His main research is on philosophical issues in medicine,
psychiatry and psychology.

Categories: General, Ethics