Happiness

According to the great Aristotle: “Happiness depends upon ourselves”, but according to another grand of philosophy Epictetus: “When we remember that our aim is spiritual progress, we return to striving to be our best selves. This is how happiness is won." In this essay I shall observe the rhetorical situations that moved the two rhetoricians to creating their own theories.

Epictetus, like most rhetoricians has a theory that is marked by imperfections, called exigencies. These imperfections are problems that Epictetus found while creating his theory’s ideals. The main exigency for Epictetus and other Stoics was to show their students that philosophy has a practical purpose of “guiding people towards leading better lives.” According to Epictetus everyone is not perfectly happy for much, or even all of the time. He wanted to show his students “that there is a reason for this being the case and most importantly that there are solutions that can remedy this situation.” Another aim of Epictetus’ teaching was to live well to secure for oneself true happiness.

Epictetus’ theory had to fall on the ears of a receptive audience and he found that in the school he formed for upper-class Romans. With students such as Flavius Arrian, and Herodes Atticus, Epictetus was considered “the greatest of Stoics.” Epictetus was said to relate his school to the workings of a hospital where students would come to seek treatments for their ills. In stark reality that was true, people flocked to Epictetus’ schools because it gave them a solvent to the trials of human life and living in society. Every day they were set up with frustrations and obstacles and Epictetus’ goal was to teach people to see the happiness through those situations. The students who learned from Epictetus were easily able to turn the things they were hearing everyday into something they could use everyday. “We have to deal with hostile and offensive people, and we have to cope with the difficulties and anxieties occasioned by the setbacks and illnesses visited upon our friends and relations.” Even people with good fortune had to face the fact of their own death, but that was no reason to not search for true happiness.

As with any theory there are constraints marked as a way to remove the seen problem in Epictetus’ theory. Two types of constraints can be identified in any rhetorical theory, artistic and inartistic proofs. Artistic proofs are defined as those things that are in the speakers’ control. In Epictetus’ theory, various artistic proofs can be identified. The language that he chose to use, the emotion that he conveyed through his message, and the reason that he used to arrive at how to formulate both of these things are all examples of artistic proofs. There are also inartistic proofs in every theory. These things would be all the ideas that are out of the speakers’ control. Examples of inartistic proofs in Epictetus’ theory could be many things, mostly things going on the environment around him and his society. The class status of the students that Epictetus taught would be an inartistic proof. Had Epictetus been directing his speeches at lower class people who had never been schooled, they may have no idea what he was speaking about. The potential students that are attempting to learn have to be on relatively the same level as the teacher. The historical events can also be an example of an inartistic proof. The mindset of the society and the way that they feel about their government, their peers and their noble classes had a huge influence on how they acted in everyday life.

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