Epictetus on Perception Part 2 Reboot 88
Epictetus on Perception Part 2 Reboot 88
Etiam Tu: Eradicating Hatred Section 5 a Pause to Consider and Reflect (contributions of Freud, Epictetus, etc. applied to Eradicating Hatred and Etiam Tu)
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"Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form concerning them.
Death for instance, is not terrible, else it would have appeared so to Socrates. But the terror consists in our notion of death, is that it is terrible when; therefore, we are hindered or disturbed or grieved, let us never attribute it to others but to ourselves, that is to our own principles. An uninstructed person will lay the fault of his own bad condition upon others. Someone who has just starting instruction will lay the fault on himself. Someone who is perfectly instructed place the blame neither on others nor himself." - Epictetus
(As you think)
Epictetus as philosopher sought to teach and convert his students to his interpretation of the philosophy of stoicism. A belief which is very much in tune with a principal attributed to Aristotle that A is A in his Law of Identity (350BCE/1953). That which is, is as it is, period. He sought to bring people to an outlook in life which incorporated the stoic values of accepting reality for what it was, without trying to convince oneself or others that circumstances or meanings of occurrences were anything other than their plain meaning or obvious reality. …..
That being said about the description given by Epictetus about the audience to whom his insights were being provided; the principle being discussed was about man's perception. Epictetus points out the biased nature of our perceptions on those things we observe or consider. In his example of death, and Socrates' less than fearful approach to it, he chooses an example that wastes little time in getting straight to the point in the most extreme manner possible. In using death, a feature common to all mankind, he makes the starkest reality the subject of examination. …..
As Stoics, Epictetus, his predecessors and his students also deal with life and in this case with death as it comes. Epictetus' lesson here though is not so much about death as it is about perception.
We in our mental apparatus where perceptions are formed are subjected to the influences of biases we have developed over time. As was discussed prior to this, we are quite helpless to being at least subjected to the biases as each new thought and experience is measured against our past history of experiences, and feelings and emotions, that we've associated with these past experiences. As such our experiences influence how we process each new event and each new experience, and that works together with past ones to validate, amend, adjust and edit our (opinions) notions about a particular issue.
So that when we're challenged or confronted with the new stimuli, we have already established the biases we will have for use the next time we have the opportunity to encounter that stimuli. Epictetus' lesson here on perception was to, in true stoic fashion, point out to students that, any fact, any object, any occurrence or any circumstance that we encounter is plainly and simply (without particular emotional meaning or implied required emotional responses or valuation) just as they appear.
His point is that just like a piece of broken plate glass on the sidewalk does not necessarily mean someone broke in any more than a means someone inside actually broke it out with a mop handle: the emotions, or thoughts conjured up upon our initial viewing of it are not based on it but what we think may have caused it, or why it happened or what it means. All or any of these things regardless of why anyone of them are selected or felt are not a product of the broken glass but how we see it and think of it.
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