Discourses of Epictetus

In fact, one of the things that gradually convinced me of the non-existence of free will is reading Epictetus.

Epictetus says very clearly, and there is a point in the Discourses, in the first book of the Discourses, where one of his students says, you know, shouldn't we just eliminate these people, these thieves, for instance, you know, robbers and stuff like that.

And Epictetus says, whoa, whoa, slow down.

What do you mean, these robbers and thieves? What you mean is these are blind people.

Arian sat in the room, listened, made notes, and later tried to preserve the teaching he'd heard.

Even though only partly worked, there were originally eight books of the Discourses, only four survived.

which is quite a lot of philosophical responsibility to place on one student's note-taking.

And what survived is a lot messier than the modern slogan.