The Stoic Three Disciplines as a Framework for Explaining Philosophy

Stoicism is famous for its Three Disciplines: the disciplines of desire, assent, and action. Epictetus describes these as:

There are three things in which a man ought to exercise himself who would be wise and good. The first concerns the desires and the aversions, that a man may not fail to get what he desires, and that he may not fall into that which he does not desire. The second concerns the movements (toward) and the movements from an object, and generally in doing what a man ought to do, that he may act according to order, to reason, and not carelessly. The third thing concerns freedom from deception and rashness in judgement, and generally it concerns the assents. (Discourses, III.2)

As described by Epictetus, the Three Disciplines are a framework for approaching Stoic practice. This framework, however, is not Stoic, per se, but a general framework that can be used for other philosophies. To demonstrate this we will briefly consider how the framework can be applied to Buddhism and Epicureanism, and then apply the framework in detail to Pyrrhonism.

Buddhism

The Four Noble Truths present Buddhism in a framework similar to how Epictetus presents Stoicism via the Three Disciplines. The Four Noble Truths are:

The problem is that we experience dukkha.

Dukkha is caused by craving (i.e., intense desire) and disturbing emotions, conditioned by ignorance.