Reasonable Interpretations

Sections 26-30 of the Handbook of Eptictetus mention cause and effect: how everything happens for specific reasons. Nothing happens for granted, for every action comes as an effect of a cause, which in effect, originates from a chain of previous cause-effect situations. Eptictetus alludes to this ideal as follows: “Just as a target is not set up to be missed, in the same way nothing bad by nature happens in the world (section 27).” By mentioning how a target is not placed to be missed, the text directs our thinking to its purpose: everything has a purpose in life. Even the slightest blow of wind has a purpose and meteorological conditions that set the situation. The second part, mentioning that “nothing bad by nature happens” only compares our flawed judgment with the wise perception of nature. Bad things happen only in our minds as fitting to our judgments, for their essence is never evil-intentioned. To set an example let’s take death: is it really as bad and merciless as we think of it? To our basic mentality a death is a great loss, someone has been taken for good, someone who we may be missing, someone who “didn’t deserve” dying. Now take this ideal and look at it through the lens of nature: death is the basic pillar by which life is enabled. If people didn’t die, new people couldn’t be born into the world, evolution would never take place, evil of mind would be physically immortal, and a wide array of devastating effect would fall upon not one, two or a few, but upon all of us.

As proven, all acts have a reason and an irreplaceable effect which is never bad, only our interpretations and judgments of such are what turns them into bad by ignoring the complete picture as introduced in by Eptictetus: “For each action, consider what leads up to it and what follows, and approach it in the light of that (section 29).” In a sense, he is trying to approach events as mathematical equations: leave behind but one variable, and the end process is erroneous. When judging acts, events, ideas, and pretty much anything you can imagine, first make sure you understand all the variables that lead to that product, which in turn will serve as a variable within another process. We are simplistic beings and tend to forget inconvenient information which, at least to our intentions, seems useless or even counterproductive. That habit of us of shaping every little situation into a personal interpretation, making us martyrs and victims is blocking our capabilities of development and understanding.

I don’t want you to think of me as a defender of Eptictetus as a result of the previous, for I also disagree with many of his ideals, including the fact that we agree upon the positivity of anything. I am not proposing agreement towards all situations, I merely ask for understanding of them. How can one judge and condemn without the facts? To take it all to simple level, I am not agreeing upon what Eptictetus has said, I merely try to understand his intentions, and all that which led to the writing of these words.