Epictetus on Love and Affection: A Stoic Paradox

'Is Stoicism as cold and indifferent as it seems?'

Gregory Sadler at Practical Rationality.

"Invariably, perhaps because it is early on in the [Enchiridion's] text, so it catches the eye of a reader not yet wearied, section three catches their attention, or at least the end line of it.

'If you kiss your child, or your wife, say that you only kiss things which are human, and thus you will not be disturbed if either of them dies.'

"...Epictetus’ actual position is caricatured in the last line of that section — or rather in our inferences from it — but one would only know that by reading one’s way into his Discourses, rather than by confronting that passage with another chosen from the Enchiridion."

See Epictetus, The Enchiridon, in Gateway to the Great Books (10 Vol., 1963) volume 10; The Discourses, in Great Books of the Western World (first edition, 54 Vol., 1952) volume 12, (second edition, 60 Vol., 1990) volume 11.