The Great Ideas 3: Epictetus the Stoic on Accepting What We Can't Control

Exploring Great Ideas: Gardening the Soul

Join us for this series of six sessions, led by the award-winning philosopher Scott Samuelson, on the greatest ideas of ancient Greco-Roman and Chinese philosophy for living a flourishing life. Each session will begin with a brief but comprehensive lecture on one great idea and then move into conversation and exploration of it. No preparation or prior knowledge is required.

Session Three: Epictetus on Accepting What We Can’t Control

The philosophy of Stoicism is currently making one of its periodic comebacks, attracting leading figures in business and politics as well as scores of people longing to overcome the anxieties of contemporary life. We’ll explore how the ancient Roman Stoic—and former slave—Epictetus found not only happiness but power and freedom in the acceptance of what we can’t control.

Scott Samuelson is a prominent professor of philosophy, with writing in the Atlantic, Wall Street Journal, and other major outlets. He is the author of Rome as Guide to Life, Seven Ways of Approaching Pointless Suffering, and The Deepest Human Life.

No prior knowledge or reading required. This is your chance to get to know the thinkers and ideasdr

Host or Publisher The Des Moines Lyceum