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Part of the book series: Michel Foucault ((MFL))

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Abstract

I WILL TRY QUICKLY to read with you chapter 22 from Book III of Epictetus’ Discourses. It is an extremely interesting text inasmuch as it is well and truly the description of the Cynic mission. Following what I have just been saying, if we accept that the reversal of the theme of the sovereign life in the Cynics leads to the assertion that, on the one hand, the Cynic is a king, and that, on the other, he has a hard mission to fulfill, we find the second aspect (the mission) developed in Epictetus, whereas Dio Chrysostom lays more stress on the theme of Cynic kingship (Fourth and Eighth Discourses). So Epictetus is interesting for this definition of Cynic sovereignty as mission.

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Authors

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Frédéric Gros François Ewald Alessandro Fontana

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© 2011 Graham Burchell

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Gros, F., Ewald, F., Fontana, A. (2011). 21 March 1984. In: Gros, F., Ewald, F., Fontana, A. (eds) The Courage of the Truth (The Government of Self and Others II). Michel Foucault. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230309104_16

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