Epictetus, Discourses | The Three Fields (Topoi) of Study | Philosophy Core Concepts

This is a video in my new Core Concepts series -- designed to provide students and lifelong learners a brief discussion focused on one main concept from a classic philosophical text and thinker.

This video focuses on book 3 of Epictetus' Discourses, specifically on his distinction between three key fields of study a person should engage in in order to become a genuinely good person, from the Stoic perspective. These fields have to do with desires and aversions, choices and duties, and assents.

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[Anekantavad]

I like how he orders these, and it reflects my fundamental relationship with philosophy itself. In my early 20's I went through a period of major depression and anxiety, but of a sporadic nature. About 50% depressed and 50% OK or better. Not necessarily bipolar, but sporadic.

Problem was, I only wanted to analyze things when I was depressed. "What is happening to me on a fundamental level?" was a question I only even *wanted* to address when things were going wrong. In fact, I had an aversion to self-analysis (and the larger issue of analysis of everything) when i was OK or better. Analysis, study, and theory were "correctives" as opposed to actual habit or "that which we can even do in a moment of drunkenness or melancholia".

In hindsight, it doesn't take a genius to put this together as a recipe for depression of a particularly intractable kind. Do al your analyses when you are, as it were, "impaired" (by depression) whilst simultaneously resisting the idea of analysis when one isn't .... I think this is a human enough error to make, since there is a tendency in depression to not want to let it spoil one's good periods - leading to those moments of weakness. A vicious circle that (if i grasp Epictetus correctly here) is to be remedied by placing the three in proper order. Philosophy becomes a habit, not a corrective.

Thanks again!

:-)