Description
Book SynopsisThe Role Ethics of Epictetus: Stoicism in Ordinary Life offers an original interpretation of Epictetus's ethics and how he bases his ethics on an appeal to our roles in life. Epictetus believes that every individual is the bearer of many roles from sibling to citizen and that individuals are morally good if they fulfill the obligations associated with these roles. To understand Epictetus's account of roles, scholars have often mistakenly looked backwards to Cicero's earlier and more schematic account of roles. However, for Cicero, roles are merely a tool in the service of the virtue of decorum where decorum is one of the four canonical virtuesprudence, justice, greatness of spirit, and decorum. In contrast, Epictetus sets those virtues aside and offers roles as a complete ethical theory that does the work of those canonical virtues.This book elucidates the unique features of Epictetus's role based ethics. First, individuals have many roles and these roles are substantial enough that th
Trade ReviewA strong and consistent reading of an ambiguous text is always welcome, and Johnson's effort to think through what a role-based ethics might entail is of philosophical interest regardless of its fit with Epictetus' ancient project. Readers at all levels will benefit, too, from Johnson's consistently patient and clear manner of laying out the issues and from his meticulous references to related passages elsewhere in the corpus. * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *
Brian Johnson’s study is the most extensive analysis to date of the importance of roles in Epictetus’ ethics. The work is ‘good to think with’: it provides ample textual evidence for its claims and robust analyses, it is generally lucidly written, and has a good bibliography * Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie *
This is a fresh approach that puts role ethics squarely at center stage in understanding Epictetus’s philosophy. With a lucid, penetrating, and original analysis, Johnson makes a strong case for both the importance of roles in Epictetus’s Stoicism and the originality of Epictetus’s version of role ethics. This study is a very welcome contribution to scholarship on Epictetus. -- William O. Stephens, Creighton University
Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1: Epictetus’s Role for Human Beings Chapter 2: Bearing Many Roles: Specific Roles in an Individual’s Life Chapter 3: Roles in Action: Appropriate Acts (or “Duties”) Chapter 4: Education and the Good of Epictetean Roles Chapter 5: The Cases of Socrates and Heracles: Role Conflict and Identity Chapter 6: The Role of roles in Epictetus’s Discourses 1.2: Three Interpretations Chapter 7: Resolving Role Conflicts Chapter 8: Cicero’s Account of Panaetius’s Four Personae: A Theory of Decorum Chapter 9: Epictetus’s Role Ethics—The Unfolding Script Bibliography
