While all recognize the former as a degenerate condition, the latter may be mistaken for strength of character. The failure to cultivate reason puts one out of harmony with oneself and with nature, and thus one begins to demand that the order of things be different from what it is and can be. Most of us dread the deadening of the body and would resort to any means to avoid such a state, but about the deadening of the soul we care not at all. . . . We should go to receive instruction, not in order to change the constitution of things, for this is neither vouchsafed us nor is it better that it should be, but in order that, things about us being as they are and as their nature is, we may for our own part keep our wills in harmony with what happens. The metaphysical recognition of cosmic harmony and the therapeutic nature of philosophical discourse together imply that the consistent use of reason has a strong ethical dimension.
Understanding begins with oneself and then reaches out to embrace the external world.
Your moral purpose. This is why the ancients gave us the injunction, 'Know thyself'. The first step is to become indifferent to the unavoidable and mindful of what may be altered, and this can be tested. If you wish to realize how careless you are about the good and the evil and how zealous you are about that which is indifferent, observe how you feel about physical blindness on the one hand and mental delusion on the other, and you will find that you are far from feeling as you ought about things good and things evil. . . . Epictetus strictly adhered to the principle that philosophy cannot secure external possessions of any kind for human beings, but it promises its devotees increasing harmony with nature.