Seneca the Younger

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, also known as Seneca the Younger, was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist. Born in Hispania and raised in Rome, he lived from 4 BC to 65 AD. He was sickly most of his life, and emperors and the Senate tried to kill him three times. 

In Rome, he trained in rhetoric and philosophy. He was also a tutor and advisor for the emperor Nero. 

He died because he was forced to take his life; people thought that he was complicit in the emperor's assassination conspiracy. It took three tries for him to kill himself. Ironically, it was his sickness that prevented his death the first two times. 

His death was very calm and stoic and has inspired a lot of artwork. 

Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic Philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in the 3rd BC. Hellenistic Philosophy is was a period of western philosophy that started from Aristotle and ended at the beginning of Neoplatonism. There are many schools of thought in Hellenistic Philosophy, Stoicism, in particular, drew from the teachings of Socrates.

There is also a philosophy called Stoic Physics which was adopted from the Stoic philosophers to explain the natural processes at work in the universe. But that is a little out of scope for this.

Stoicism is the philosophy of personal ethics that is derived from a system of logic and the natural world. They believe that we as social beings should not be driven by our desire for pleasure or by the fear of pain. They believe that happiness in humans is found by being in the moment, trying to understand the world around us, do our part in Nature's plan, working together, and treating others fairly and justly.

Stoicism philosophers are known for the idea that "virtue is the only good" and that all other things are not by good or bad by themselves.

Back to Seneca. His philosophical writings consist of a dozen philosophical essays and one hundred and twenty-four letters about moral issues. A lot of his work was on ethics and there was one about the Physical World called "Naturaled Queastiones."

Funnily, Seneca did not practice what he preached, like he praised the private life while he was involved in the public one. And that we should live good, but he was in the center of Roman scandal a lot.

The school of thought that Seneca belonged to was used as a political framework for ethics by Romans elites and politicians.

Senecas writing has left a lasting contribution to the School of Stoicism. His works played a vital role in the revival of Stoic ideas in the Renaissance.

His ideas were not at the forefront for several centuries, but recently his ideas have started to resurface and some call it the second revival of Sencan thought.

One work of Seneca ss called "On the happy life" which was an essay written to his brother when Seneca was 62 years old. The main idea behind this essay is that only using reason throughout your life can lead to happiness.

He starts off the essay by saying "All men, brother Gallio, wish to live happily, but are dull at perceiving exactly what it is that makes life happy: and so far is it from being easy to attain the happiness that the more eagerly a man struggles to reach it the further he departs from it, if he takes the wrong road." All people want to have a happy life, but most don't even know what that means to them.

Seneca says that contrary to popular belief, happiness cannot be attained through pleasure, but rather through virtue. A person should realize that there is no good and evil other than the mind and that a person himself creates the greatest good.

He also believes that a good life cannot be attained by imitating others. A truly happy name is one that makes his own independent judgment; there is no relying on others.

The difference between pleasure and virtue is that pleasure emerges after virtue with control. Virtue cannot be given up form pleasure because it would make happiness unreachable.

He argued that anger and other emotions were dangers to virtue and that to live a good life we had to live simply.

Most of what Seneca talks about makes sense. He says that everyone wants to be happy, but most don't know what that means. People chase after happiness because they see that other people who have it are happy.

For example, a lot of people chase fame because they believe that it will lead to happiness. These people are relying on others to find happiness, which is something that prevents happiness.

There are also a lot of people who chase after pleasure without virtue, and end of drowning themselves. Extravagantly rich people have so much wealth, so they have access a lot of pleasure. But a lot of these people are not happy because they went for pleasure and not a virtue.

These people are under the impression that constant pleasure leads to happiness, which Seneca disagrees with.

Most of what Seneca states makes sense to me because he arrived at what he did through a system of logic.

Quiz:

1. What is the main idea of stoic philosophers?
2. Whose teachings did stoicism draw from?
3. From what to what was the age of Hellenistic Philosophy?
4. What are the main tools used to derive personal ethics in Stoicism?

Discussion Questions:

1.  Do you think we should all try to find our own way of happiness or is there a framework to follow?
2. Are emotions dangers to virtue?
3. Is everything good or evil or is everything really neutral other than our mind?