Most helpful "self-help" audio I've ever encountered!

books:


	• Epictetus: The Art of Living : The Classic Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness Audio Literature, 1997 average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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Most helpful "self-help" audio I've ever encountered!

While some reviewers might object to the "updated" terminology of Lebell's adaptation of Epictetus' philosophy, I must say that the reason that this edition is so effective is largely because the "abstract", "scholarly", "dry" language that one usually encounters (with conventional translations of Epictetus' philosophy) has been replaced with a pleasing approximation of how Epictetus himself would likely speak TODAY (assuming his native tongue were English).

Since discovering this audiobook (an excellently judicious abridgement of Lebell's conventional-book edition) some years ago, I've found myself listening to it over and over and over, and I expect to do so for the rest of my life! I certainly can't say THAT about any other audiobook (albeit the audio edition of "How to Stop Worrying" by Dale Carnegie is, for me, a noteworthy--but distant--"next-best").

I suggest you purchase the "audio download" edition of this audiobook so that you can have it as either a conventional compact disc or as MP3 files (for your iPod, MP3 player, computer, etc.). [As of this writing, you can find Amazon's "audio download" edition by first "searching" on the ISBN number of the CASSETTE edition (1574530887) and then clicking on the "Also Available" audio download edition link near the top of the page.] The price for the "audio download" edition is remarkably low; indeed, it may well amount to the greatest "self-help" bargain you'll ever encounter!

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Epictetus Deserves Better

This book is not a translation of Epictetus' writings. Rather, it is an interpretation written by Sharon Lebell, who is identified on the jacket as "a philosophical writer and musician who lives in Northern California." No other qualifications are listed.

Unfortunately, Ms. Lebell's interpretations, in trying to be contemporary, tend to distort Epictetus' thoughts. Readers interested in learning what he really thought and wrote should read the Enchiridion [ISBN 0879757035] or the Loeb translations of his work [ISBN: 0674991451, 0674992407]

To the Stoics, everything is part of the natural order, including cruelty, pain and death. The function of the individual within this world is to suffer with dignity, restraining anger and being tolerant of the acts of others, recognizing that anything they do is in their nature and the natural order of things. The Stoic philosophy is basically pessimistic - Life's a losing battle, but in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter because we only spend a brief time here, before being recycled by nature.

A pessimistic view, certainly, yet taken as a whole, Stoicism provides useful information for dealing with life's unpleasantries, most of which involve living the simple life - being modest and grateful for the good things that one has enjoyed, treating others politely and fairly, being indifferent to superficial honors and indicia of status, and living life honorably, simply and well during our brief moment on the stage. And if things aren't going well? We'll be dead soon enough, and after that it won't matter.

It is a philosophy particularly well suited to the ascetic and/or military life; Admiral James Stockdale credited Epictetus for his survival in a North Vietnam POW prison.

The foregoing sounds simplistic and depressing, yet the effect of the philosophy is positive, perhaps because we all recognize that we are capable of being better people.

Readers who wish to pursue Stoicism further should consider:
* Seneca's "Letters to Lucilius;" and
* Cicero's "On the Good Life."

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Epictetus believed that the primary job of philosophy is to help ordinary people effectively meet the challenges of everyday life, and to deal with life's inevitable losses, disappointments and griefs. His prescription for the good life centered on three main themes--mastering our desires, performing our duties, and learning to think clearly about ourselves and our relations within the larger community of humanity.