Christopher Hurtado

In The Inner Citadel by Pierre Hadot, three Stoic domains of reality, acts of the soul, and rules of life or disciplines are pointed out in Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations and Epictetus’ Enchiridion. I’ve written about each of them in separate posts, but wanted to bring them all together in one post.

Image copyright Christopher Hurtado

When I wrote about the three Stoic domains of reality in Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, the three Stoic acts of the soul and exercise themes in Epictetus’ Enchiridion, and the three Stoic rules of life or disciplines in Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, a reader suggested a visual. Here’s the visual.

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In his Meditations, Marcus Aurelius thanks his teacher, Junius Rusticus, for lending him Epictetus’ Discourses. The three Stoic rules of life or disciplines in Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations come from Epictetus. They are inner attitudes related to the three Stoic acts of the soul in Epictetus’ Enchiridion. Thus they are the key to unlocking both works.

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I discovered the three Stoic acts of the soul in Epictetus’ Enchiridion right after I discovered the three Stoic rules of life or disciplines in Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations in The Inner Citadel by Pierre Hadot. Though Hadot mostly cites Epictetus’ Discourses, the Enchiridion is an epitome of the Discourses, and Hadot does cite Enchiridion I, 1.

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