THE DISCOURSES OF EPICTETUS.

BOOK I.

CHAPTER I.

Of all other faculties original: "faculties"; here meaning human capacities, skills, or branches of knowledge, you will find none that contemplates itself, and consequently none that either approves or disapproves of its own nature. How far does the proper sphere of grammar extend? It reaches as far as the judgment of language. What about music? It reaches as far as the judgment of melody. Does either of them, then, examine itself? Not at all.

For instance, when you are to write to a friend, grammar will tell you how to write; but grammar will not tell you whether you ought to write to your friend at all. The same applies to music regarding tunes; but music will not tell you whether it is appropriate or inappropriate, at any particular time, to sing or play.

What faculty will tell you then?

That faculty which contemplates both itself and all other things.

And what is that?

The Reasoning Faculty This refers to the "rational faculty" (logikē dynamis), which the Stoics believed was the only part of the human mind capable of self-reflection and making moral judgments.; for it alone is found to consider both itself—its own powers and its own value—and...