Epictetus

Epictetus describes freedom in terms of your desires. He states that when you encounter pleasure, you should not be overcome by it. He also says you should think of how you feel when the pleasure is over. He says after the pleasure you might regret it, and then how would you feel? Epictetus describes freedom, by saying freedom is not being under the power of another person. Freedom also means you own your passions and desires. In other words, if you are free, you will never set yourself up to be hurt by another human being. So, in the example, if you never feel pleasure, or never give into your desires you are not only free, but you will never get hurt. In my opinion, every human being is going to give into pleasure for the simple fact that humans enjoy pleasure, and are not strong enough to never give in to our desires. Humans would drift through life basically lifeless. Pleasure and desires are what we live for. If we were to go through life never feeling pleasure, what kind of world would this be? Epictetus