Epictetus 1

From Twitter:

“You are not you’re body and hair style,
but your capacity for choosing well.
If your choices are beautiful,
so too will you be.

#Epictetus
(Italics, mine)

The Greek philosopher meant:
a. Mind is better than body.
b. Fashion is choice.
c. Our choices make us.
d. We are mind, not body.

Answer And Explanation
I think the answer is C. I mean–that is the best answer, in my view–because yes d.sounds correct, but I think it isn’t; we are notmind or body; we are both (many philosophers, scientists, and physiologists, these days, think it is true that mind and body are not separate; they are one thing).

Choice a. also could be mistaken for the answer; surely, religion teaches people that “the soul” (really a spiritual word for the mind) is the thing that matters. This is what leads people to think that they are (a spirit or a mind) “riding around in their heads”, as philosopher and neuroscientist Sam Harris says. This also seems wrong. “You,” or your mind, is no more separate from your body than your cornea is separate from your eye.

Choice b. is probably correct, but anyone who thinks that the great and honored philosopher #Epectitus was merely talking about fashion (in this statement) must be missing the point.

Fashion?

From Twitter:
A. (1.)_ your style?
B. Style? Look!
A. That?
B. Do ya (2.) _ western men? If we’re not rappers, gangsters or
A. Wha?
B. Gay (sorry; nothing’s wrong with (3.) _)–we don’t _ up–or for our girlfriends.
A. Why?
B. It’s silly, a waste, girly–not (4.) _.

*confident
*dress
*LGBT
*confidence
*get
*That’s (Added after the tweet was posted–in a comment)
*What’s
(Added after the tweet was posted–in a comment)

Answers And Explanation:
1. What’s
2. get (meaning understand)
3. LGBT (meaning Lesbian, Gary, Bi-sexual, Transgender)
4. confident (Here, confidence would work, but confident is better, because we are using adjectives in the other cases in the sentence–describing the dressers.)

Note: No one should get the idea from this post that the male speaker (B.) is anti-gay or homophobic; although there is a trend in the West and on social media for the neo-liberal-left to criticize, vilify, misrepresent and “cancel” people who make nuanced comments, essays, posts on social media or jokes about or related to vulnerable or sensitive groups (such as religions, cults, age groups, ethnicities, sexual persuasions and nationalities), the truth is that this onslaught on free speech has nothing to do with fairness and is a kind of repression of opinions more than a protection of groups. This trend is a huge cultural, social and political phenomenon detested and resisted by many courageous scientists, philosophers, politicians, pundits and people of all walks of life and is recognized as political correctness, which opponents of it say is ruining communication, language, freedom, institutions and person’s lives. Some even feel it is because of this disingenuous and repressive behavior that a backlash to it played a significant part in achieving the election of Donald Trump. So, think twice before blaming someone before you understand what he or she means.