The Misery of Choice:

Two Ancient Perspectives

John Sellars

Origin: Static Issue 03
Content: Text

"This article comprises two brief notes on the relationship between choice and suffering in ancient philosophy. The first is devoted to the Stoic philosopher Epictetus; the second is concerned with the Pyrrhonian scepticism that we find in the works of Sextus Empiricus. In both the Stoic and Pyrrhonian philosophies we shall see arguments for the claim that the way to avoid suffering is to avoid making choices."

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Contributor:

John Sellars is a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford, and a member of the teaching faculty of The London Consortium. His latest book, Stoicism (Acumen and U of California P, 2006), has just been published.

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