Virtuous life and happiness in Epictetus, Socrates & Stoicism

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2015
Kahveci, Hülya
In this M.A. thesis, Epictetus’ philosophy about virtuous life and happiness will be investigated. His philosophy is shaped by the thoughts of Socrates and Stoicism, therefore, before his main thoughts Socrates’ and Stoic’s philosophy under the scope of happiness will be analyzed. Firstly, the focus will be on Socrates’ philosophy of happiness, but before that, in order to pull the reader out of the blurry thoughts about historical Socrates and Platonic Socrates dilemma, I will try to prove that Socrates has basic ideas on happiness benefitting from different dialogues and writers. Then, with the Stoic views, the acceptance about passion and pleasures are the blockage of virtue actions will be presented. Finally, I will scrutinize the teachings of Epictetus which will show to the reader that a life which is subjected to passion and pleasures cannot be labeled as happiness.

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Citation Formats
H. Kahveci, “Virtuous life and happiness in Epictetus, Socrates & Stoicism,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2015.