Whether we feel held back by our many personal responsibilities or stifled by our work environment, we all harbor a desire for more freedom.
We often bemoan the restrictions that are placed on us.
But what actually is freedom and how do we attain it?
Well, as the Stoic teacher Epictetus once said: “Only the educated are free.”
The education he was referring to was that of philosophy.
Having been born into slavery circa 55 AD and released sometime after 68 AD, Epictetus was well-positioned to speak about freedom.
While a slave, he was permitted to study under the Stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus and his willingness to learn led him to become a teacher of Stoicism in his own right. Over two thousand years later he is still one of the best-known Stoic philosophers to have lived.
While his learning may have contributed to his freedom in a literal, physical sense if he was eventually seen as “over-qualified” for slavery, the freedom he said results from a philosophical education should be seen as an internal, mental one.
Learning new ways of thinking tests beliefs and biases to which we may have become too attached.
With new information, we can develop new theories, improve skills and open up possibilities we didn’t know existed. We never need to be confined to one line of thought.
We have control over our thoughts, intentions, and actions, and through continued learning, we can develop the wisdom to guide these thoughts, intentions, and, actions. We can think for ourselves. That’s freedom.
The Stoic wisdom that Epictetus developed gave him enough internal freedom that he was later able to teach other people (who were also willing to learn) based on his own experience of dealing with a dire situation.
He emphasized to his students the importance of keeping the mind free for learning:
If someone tried to take control of your body and make you a slave, you would fight for freedom. Yet how easily you hand over your mind to anyone who insults you.
When you dwell on their words and let them dominate your thoughts, you make them your master.
So, today, remember to maintain the freedom you have over your own mind. Use the wisdom you’re developing to think for yourself. Do as Epictetus did and be your own master.
The word “philosophy” (Greek: philosophia) literally translates as “love of wisdom”.
We adopt a philosophy of life and practice it every day (like we’re doing now) so that we may follow what the ancient philosophers were trying to do: gain the wisdom to live a good life, to be free.
We may, however, sometimes lose sight of what specifically makes philosophy so important in this pursuit of freedom.
To complete this piece, I’d like to share some useful ideas from experts in the field. So here are five thoughts from philosophers on the importance of philosophical education.
- Philosophy is an essential companion on the journey of life:
A person’s lifetime is a moment, his existence a flowing stream, his perception dull, the entire fabric of his body readily subject to decay… What, then, can escort us safely on our way? Only one thing: philosophy.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.17
- Philosophy frees us by allowing us to think for ourselves:
The work of philosophy is to take responsibility for our own thinking, and in so doing to liberate ourselves from the attachments and misjudgments that otherwise dictate our experience.
Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic
- Philosophy keeps the mind and body strong and healthy:
Without philosophy the mind is sickly, and the body, too, though it may be very powerful, is strong only as that of a madman or a lunatic is strong.
Seneca, Letters 15.1
- Philosophy prepares us for the difficulties we may face:
But what is philosophy? Doesn’t it simply mean preparing ourselves for what may come?
Epictetus, Discourses 3.10.6
- Without philosophy, we would be in trouble:
As a human being, you have no choice about the fact that you need a philosophy. Your only choice is whether you define your philosophy by a conscious, rational, disciplined process of thought and scrupulously logical deliberation–or let your subconscious accumulate a junk heap of unwarranted conclusions, false generalizations, undefined contradictions, undigested slogans, unidentified wishes, doubts and fears, thrown together by chance, but integrated by your subconscious into a kind of mongrel philosophy and fused into a single, solid weight: selfdoubt, like a ball and chain in the place where your mind’s wings should have grown.
Ayn Rand, Philosophy: Who Needs It
