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Fashions in morality. How the overall moral judgments have shifted! The great men of antique morality, Epictetus60 for instance, knew nothing of the now normal glorification of thinking of others, of living for others; in the light of our moral fashion they would have to be called downright immoral, for they strove with all their might for their ego and against feeling with others (that is to say, with the sufferings and moral frailties of others). Perhaps they would reply to us: 'If you are so boring or ugly an object to yourself, by all means think of others more than of yourself! It is right you should!'
60. Epictetus (c. AD 55-135): Stoic philosopher who himself wrote nothing but whose ideas were memorialized in The Discourses of Epictetus and the Encheiridion. He urged absolute trust in divine providence and indifference to external circumstances, i.e. those circumstances beyond one's control.
