Epictetus Role Theory II

 Diogenes of Sinope one of Epictetus favorite examples of excellence.  This photo depicts Diogenes telling Alexander the Great to go pound sand and to please quit blocking the sun.  It's easy to see why 'E' held Diogenes in such high esteem.

The discussion with the CPT's went surprisingly well and I received excellent feedback from both the students and the instructors.  Before I explain how the day went, I need to give you my 25 cent version of ERT.  For those of you who are not philosophy nerds, Epictetus was a Roman Stoic Philosopher and his teachings have greatly influenced everyone from Roman Emperors to forming the bases of modern day cognitive behavioral therapy.  According to Brian Johnson (the modern author who has proposed this notion of Role Theory Ethics), “Epictetus largely set aside the traditional Graeco-Roman talk of virtues such as moderation, justice, courage and wisdom”  (Johnson, 2014, p. 52) and created an ethical system centered around roles.  Johnson notes, "Epictetus makes these roles provide the bedrock justification for ethical action." (Johnson, 2014, p. 52)  Of course to live these roles in an excellent manner requires moderation, justice, courage and wisdom or correct judgement regarding externals and there use.  (Long, 2002) (Stephenson, 2007)  The discourses of Epictetus are filled with numerous ante-dotes of how people succeed or fail in meeting the obligations of their roles.  (Johnson, 2014) (Long, 2002)  Usually resulting from poor judgement or the failure to act in the appropriate virtuous manner, ie., decisions based on fear or placing value on something outside their volition.  (Stephenson, 2007)  According to Long, Epictetus considered the volition or will as the ‘self’ and that we are responsible for the self we create through the actions we take to fulfill our roles.  (Long, 2002, p. 34)  Epictetus considers us all as actors in the Great Poet's play, we don't decide our parts, but we do decide how well we play the part.  (Johnson, 2014) (Stephenson, 2007)  Based upon the work of Johnson, Stephenson, Long and of course Epictetus I had the students attempt to discover all of their roles and the subsequent obligations for fulfilling those roles in an excellent manner.

The students were required to break up into three groups and within those groups determine all of the roles they play in life and the subsequent obligations from those roles.  I did the exercise prior to the class and found the exercise to be extremely difficult.  I never realized how many different roles we play in life and all of the subsequent obligations that come with those roles.  I found that if I really took an honest look at my fulfillment of those roles, I'm less than excellent to say the least.  The students had similar observations and our discussion speculated it was from a lack of awareness.  In other words, unless you actively track meeting these obligations, most of them will fall through the cracks of daily life.  Granted, most if not all of these obligations are self-imposed or imposed by social convention, but it was easy to see how a person could lead a less than an ethical life without some behavior awareness.  The view we took of ethics in this context was excellence.  In other words, what would be the obligation for someone to be an excellent Special Forces Officer or father or sister etc...  The instructors want to continue developing the course and next time provide the students with some read ahead about Epictetus Role Theory and to come class with a list of roles and the obligations for those roles.  The class discussion would center on how the students identified both their roles and the subsequent obligations.  Once we determine that the students have a good grasp of their roles we will then advance to how they will daily track those obligations.  Daily self-monitoring was an important aspect of ERT and after doing this exercise I now see why.  (Long, 2002)  The other part of the discussion will be centered on the conflict between a person's roles and developing techniques to discovering those conflicts.

I'm still not sure how I will conduct my research regarding ERT (for those not aware I’m a Doctoral student and I’m interested in how to develop the ethics of young leaders), but judging from the response of the student there is something there worth exploring.  In future post I will provide some examples of roles, their subsequent obligations and how one could track and create habits that ensure you are fulfilling your role with arête.

References

Johnson, B. E. (2014). The Role Ethics of Epictetus: Stoicism in Ordinary Life. [Kindle]. Retrieved from

Long, A. A. (2002). Epictetus:  A Stoic and Socratic Guide to Life. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Stephenson, W. O. (2007). Stoic Ethics:  Epictetus and Happiness as Freedom. [Kindle]. Retrieved from