Epictetus believed that we are always able to and should control our emotions to achieve a state of happiness. He believed that if someone tries to insult you and you become insulted, you have only yourself to blame. Explain what he means.
Epictetus believed that human beings have the ultimate control of what happens to their emotions and state of self-value. He asserts that humans can control aspects such as intentions, judgments and desires. To achieve happiness, Epictetus asserts that people have to understand what is within their control and what is beyond their powers to manipulate (Kondo, 2018). In the case of insults, people have the power to control their opinion of self-value and status. Accepting to be insulted is, according to Epictetus, a dismissal of the power to control the sense of self-worth and value.
The ability to distinguish between the internal attributes that people can control and external factors that are beyond their control is key to human happiness. Epictetus realized that people confused the external and internal aspects and that led to gross unhappiness. Understanding that it is not possible to control external factors, especially when they don’t meet the desired expectations is one excellent way of avoiding inner grief, desperation and misery (Lavazza, 2016). Negative attributes such as envy, grief, fear and anxiety originate from the misleading notion that happiness is a product of external stimuli. Epictetus implies that happiness is a quality that people have to generate from within by striking a balance between the internal sense of self and external uncontrollable factors.
Epictetus, in his idea of stoicism, makes it clear that happiness is not about always obtaining our desires but striking a sense of fondness with what we already have. He cites the ability to being content and being in control of the inner state of mind as a central pillar of the well-being (Kondo, 2018). Epictetus, therefore, means that we cannot control much of what happens externally, but can forge a state of well-being and happiness by controlling our mind and inner sense of worth and emotional stability.
References
Lavazza, A. (2016). Happiness, Psychology, and Degrees of Realism. Frontiers in psychology, 7, 1148.
Kondo, T. (2018). Stoic Happiness as Self-Activity. In The Realizations of the Self (pp. 167-183). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
