Passage Summary: Some people think a student faked a famous philosopher's book, but the author says that's doubtful because the philosopher's views were so well known that a fake would have been obvious to everyone at the time.

Conclusion: It is very unlikely that Arrian wrote 'The Discourses' himself and then lied about Epictetus being the author.

Reasoning: Epictetus's ideas were widely known by his peers, so if Arrian had tried to pass off his own original thoughts as his teacher's, he would have been caught immediately.

Analysis: The argument relies on the assumption that if Arrian were the author, the content would have been different enough from Epictetus's known views to trigger suspicion. To strengthen this, we should look for an answer that confirms Arrian's own views were distinct from Epictetus's, or that the book's content perfectly matches the specific oral teachings contemporaries heard from Epictetus. This closes the gap between 'people knew his views' and 'Arrian couldn't have faked it successfully.'