The Enchiridion (From The Discourses)

I encountered this book recommendation a lot. Mainly, from a youtuber I heavily look up to "Pewdiepie" which he recommended in one of his couple of philosophy videos in which he said that this book is one of the many great books to start philosophy. And so I did... kind of.

Another place I found this book a lot was on Instagram, usually from those accounts who are into self-help, self-improvement, get rich grind hard, etc. Which I personally thought was odd, but I can obviously see the practical implications which is why it was recommended anyways.

The book is quite short. Each chapter contains either a phrase, a few sentences, or a couple of small paragraphs. But one thing that is consistent about inside this book is its content...

Oh, and "Enchiridion" means "Handbook" by the way.

Apologies in advance for my annotations in pencil, so I will type here my annotations in quotations!

The book is quite consistent with the virtues of stoic philosophy being present. And that I've found some of the passages of these chapters to be something I wholeheartedly agree with, I completely disagree with, and some caveats and "in-betweens".

Chapter 10, which is the quote entry I gave on the intro of this blog, is my favorite. It's quite empowering and pretty much just gives you the most direct answer to become antifragile...Le Sserafim reference is crazy.

I would say, that this passage in the 1st chapter, is by itself the testament of what stoic philosophy is as a whole. Which is...

I have quite the predicament with this chapter, and that is that this passage to me seemed inhumane and what is essentially quite the disconnect of one's concern with another human being being practiced intentionally.

The reason why in my annotated critique said that this passage is hypocritical is because of the "Living in accordance to nature"(a quick google search will help) yet a part of living in accordance to our nature is to recognize our faults. That we can feel distraught, we can be vulnerable, we can grieve, we can experience something negative and react negatively because of it.

"But by their own view of the matter." It concerns beyond of what is an individual's own view of the matter on why they might be upset of something that happened, otherwise the argument—in my head—will become so absurd, it's blatantly just gaslighting.

I am going to take an educated guess here and say that no matter how stoic you may seem, with the studies of psychology, neuroscience, etc. In relation to what I wrote, this would result in developmental issues. An example of which is Franz Kafka.

You will hypothetically become a dysfunctional member of society growing up until you finally get help in regulating yourself, especially through therapy.

And the fault is not on the child, since this individual is the subject. However, what is at fault is the treatment to this father.

"He is a father." But what encompasses a father to be properly addressed as a father is different than being an actual father which would naturally be a good one. So, I say that there is no bad father. But rather, someone who took part in procreation to initiate the process of pregnancy of his partner and when the child finally knew of sunlight, the supposed father begun to be an irresponsible individual, undeserving of the responsibility of fatherhood.

Now, I could keep going with the other titles mentioned with many more hypothetical arguments, but obviously that would be a drag...

I would like to first address that my interpretations are open to all forms of criticisms in the comments, and that I may not be right most of the time, especially with more posts like this moving forward, so please comment if you think I'm missing something. Other than that...

Pretty impressive for a "self-help" book made during the Greco-Roman period of world history.

This book is best enjoyed for people who are at the sweet spot of wanting to improve their mentality with the affairs of the things they seem to have given value of and those affairs are of no concern for them.

As well as for people who are compatible with the teachings of this philosophy for various reasons. Truth be told, I had my earlier years of my literary infancy with following stoic teachings before expanding my horizons. And it aligned well with what I was going through mentally during that time period.

Which leads me to say that this book is for everyone to have any opinion, supporting ideas, and other things in which you may describe for you to consume in more ways than just read!