³⁴Epictetus takes a rather different viewpoint on self. According to Graver (2021), for Epictetus “it is the volition [i.e. prohairesis, or will] that is the real person, the true self of the individual”. Interestingly, Epictetus explicitly claims that such a conception of self is useful for mental training: “It is a universal law (...) that every creature alive is attached to nothing so much as to its own self-interest. (...) Wherever ‘me’ and ‘mine’ are, that’s where every creature necessarily tends. If we locate them in the body, then the body will be the dominant force in our lives. If it’s in our faculty of will, then that will dominate.” (Discourses, II.22.15 and 19; see also III.1.40). It is precisely the will that is the target of Stoic mental training, so according to this logic, it it useful to think that the will is my self.