Podcast episode (Brian Johnson) discussing AA Long’s book How to Be Free and Epictetus’s stoic teachings. The host reviews Long’s etymology of enchiridion (handbook/hand-dagger), emphasizes practicing Stoicism as a practical weapon for life’s challenges rather than abstract study, and points listeners to additional Stoic resources in the app.
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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic one. In our last couple 1s, we've been spending some time mining AA Long's brilliant book on Epictetus and his brilliant stoic wisdom. Long's book is called how to Be Free. Check out the notes for more. And while you're at it, check out our collection of notes on dozens of the best books on Stoicism in the app. Just go to the Theory section, then scroll down and click on Stoic Stoicism to find all the notes, including some of my old school favorites like Aurelius's Meditations, Seneca's Letters from a Stoic, and on the Shortness of Life. Plus of course, Epictetus's Enchiridion and Discourses. Then there's the modern classics, including Ryan Holiday's the Daily Stoic. The Obstacle is the Way, Ego is the Enemy, Stillness is the Key, Discipline is Destiny encourages calling that man is prolific. Plus Donald Robertson's how to Think Like a Roman Emperor and a ton of others. Check him out. Today we're going to continue our exploration of some big ideas from AA Long's great book. Let's get to Work. Professor Long tells us, and I quote as a book title in Chaedian Was not Arrian's invention the Greek word chir is literally a little thing for carrion in the hand. The word had been previously used by an Epicurean philosopher to describe a handy collection of subject matter. In choosing the word enchiridion for his compendium of Epictetus, Arrian's meaning can be largely conveyed by handbook or manual. But I prefer to keep the Greek word. Long continues by saying in its earliest usage, inchiridion refers to a hand knife or a dagger. Arrian may have wished to suggest that connotation of the work's defensive or protective function. It fits his admonition at the beginning and end of the text to keep Epictetus message to hand. In obvious imitation, Erasmus in 1501 published a work in Latin with the title in Cyridian, Militis Christiani A Christian Soldier's Manual. Now, as we've discussed, Epictetus never wrote anything. We have one of his best students, Arian, to thank for capturing his teacher's words. Thanks, Arian. And I just love this origin story regarding the name of the book and the fact that Long thought it was important enough to merit a comment in his brief introduction. In Chaeridian, we translate that word as handbook in English, but like a lot of ancient words, it has a much deeper and much more powerful meaning. Epictetus wisdom was less of a handbook on how to live a good life and much more of a weapon we could use to meet life's inevitable challenges. So you want to practice your philosophy as a warrior rather than a mere librarian. Check out that plus one. Fantastic. Me too. Let's have our wisdom ready at hand, like a hand dagger, defending ourselves from the danger of poor thinking and acting. When. Echo. Echo, echo. All day, every day, especially today.
