Themes
The Pursuit of Wisdom
Seneca spends a considerable amount of time seeking to define the pursuit of wisdom and establish it as the main priority of the philosopher’s life. What Seneca means by wisdom is the study required to become a “wise man” in the Stoic view; this academic side of learning virtue is also known as philosophy. This study has the “single task of discovering the truth about the divine and human worlds” (162). Through engaging in philosophy, one discovers the need to worship what is divine and love what is human, meaning that pursuing wisdom brings one knowledge of the natural laws by which Stoics should live.
That virtue is the only good, and therefore the study of it the most worthwhile pursuit, is an idea central to Stoicism. Seneca stresses the importance of this, frequently emphasizing that learning truth should always be prioritized. In Letter 16, Seneca makes it explicitly clear that the quality of one’s life depends on this, stating, “[N]o one can lead a happy life, or even one that is bearable, without the pursuit of wisdom, and [...] the perfection of wisdom is what makes the happy life, although even the beginnings of wisdom make life bearable” (63). As happiness (or contentment) comes from wisdom, it is solely internal. To prove this, Seneca compares the efficacy of external changes to internal in producing contentment. Health is not sufficient, as he says in Letter 15, because “[w]ithout wisdom the mind is sick” (60), and the body can only have physical strength of the kind “found in persons in a demented or delirious state” (60); physical health alone is not really health at all. Moreover, while physically healthiness will inevitably pass, the wisdom of the mind is lasting. Neither, Seneca says, are activities that are meant to bring distraction the key to a good life. For example, travel cannot bring contentment to a person because “[w]here you arrive does not matter so much as what sort of person you are when you arrive there” (76). Dismissing any external source of contentment, Seneca emphasizes that true happiness only comes from personal betterment with the help of study.
What form this study should take is crucially important to Seneca. He recommends research directed specifically toward the goal of uncovering practically applicable pieces of wisdom. To this end, Seneca advises concerted efforts to understand the writings of select, renown thinkers “whose genius is unquestionable, deriving constant nourishment from them” (33); one should find something each day to improve one’s wisdom. These writers need not all be Stoics, nor does one need to be entirely beholden to the past, as “[t]here has yet to be a monopoly on the truth” (81). As Letter 7 says, discussions with like-minded thinkers can also further the pursuit of wisdom. In fact, there is danger in overreliance on established texts (or others’ opinions broadly): The pursuit of wisdom must ultimately be an individual endeavor, engagement with other thinkers bolstering but not comprising one’s own intellectual speculations.
As these cautions against rote memorization of maxims demonstrate, Seneca not only offers positive recommendations regarding education but also criticisms of methods of study he believes inadequate. These include logical puzzles, which pervert important questions into “whimsies,” and the standard liberal studies of free Romans, which examine the wrong subjects. The common thread is Seneca’s emphasis on wisdom that will lead to a better life for oneself and one’s companions. However, this does not mean avoiding more abstract topics entirely; for example, Seneca at one point speculates at length about the various classes of “causes,” explaining that this kind of inquiry elevates the spirit.
Seneca’s views on the pursuit of wisdom are summarized well in Letter 48. In this, he asks, “Shall I tell you what philosophy holds out for humanity? Counsel” (37-38). The importance of this counsel is that it leads to virtue, the sole good of Stoic ideology. Studies that do not provide counsel to people are either useless or actively harmful because they encourage the wrong interests.
Virtuous Action in an Ethically Complex World
An important component of Seneca’s Stoicism is his recurring concern with the practicality of the ideology. In his letters, he attempts to show how to live virtuously while taking part in society, an inherently ethically complex setting. While Seneca sometimes offers direct ethical imperatives, he more often qualifies his recommendations, acknowledging the various factors that impinge on the Stoic ideal.
Among Seneca’s more absolute and explicit ethical recommendations, his views on violence stand out. Seneca clearly condemns excessive violence as improper, both in reference to the abuse of enslaved people and to gladiator shows. In Letter 8, Seneca describes gladiator matches as “murder pure and simple” that corrupts the morals of all in attendance (43-44). Mistreating slaves is “inhuman behaviour” that degrades humans into “beasts of burden” (91). His advice about abstaining from cruelty is linked to the Stoic idea of a fellowship among all people. As humans living by natural laws do not kill each other, and as all humans are blessed with the divine gift of the soul, cruelty is unnatural and immoral.
However, Seneca’s advice is rarely this categorical. Instead, he emphasizes self-reflection as an important element of virtuous action. In Letters 11 and 28, Seneca recommends considering one’s actions with the goal of identifying and rooting out vices in one’s character. He provides two methods for this: to imagine the presence of a historical role model and act as if they are judging one at all times, or to conduct a mock trial, playing “first the part of the prosecutor, then of the judge, and finally of pleader in mitigation” (78). Here Seneca provides practical methods through which a person can recognize and correct immoral action without providing specific advice on what is moral and what is not—itself a tacit acknowledgment of the difficulty of providing universally applicable advice.
Seneca also charts a middle course on many issues. For example, when discussing the appropriate social activity of a Stoic, Seneca does not require that one avoid participation in society or adopt antisocial behaviors. While in Letter 90 he mentions his admiration for Diogenes (a Cynic famous for his disregard for social standards), Seneca rejects this as the aim of a Stoic. Avoiding crowds is useful because of social pressure’s negative impact, but the wise man “self-contended as he is […] does need friends” (51). In fact, Seneca spends a considerable amount of time describing the importance of friendship across multiple letters, recommending that Stoics take people into their confidence and trust them closely. The detachment that Stoics strive for does not necessitate, or even suggest, loneliness. Pleasurable company is enjoyable, and if a Stoic were forced to live in complete isolation, they might refuse to live. Seneca frames Stoic detachment as the ability to overcome any loss rather than the lack of attachment. Seneca also makes concessions to the possession of wealth (unavoidable given his intended audience of upper-class Romans). In Letter 18, he suggests that the wealthy avoid luxuries and practice living on bare necessities so they recognize that they do not need their wealth. However, he does not consider rejecting wealth outright and calls those who choose excessive poverty “those whose craving is for attention” (37).
Similarly, Seneca suggests that “concessions have to be made to legitimate emotions” (184). The feelings of others may sway the Stoic, who will choose to appease people at times. Seneca’s advice on virtue is encapsulated well in the quote, “One’s life should be a compromise between the ideal and the popular morality” (37). He has great respect for Stoic ideals but does not want the philosophy to be inaccessible.
Contentment and the Acceptance of Fate
Stoicism is essentially deterministic. It holds that everything that will happen has already been predetermined by the divine and is therefore unavoidable. Due to this, for a person to be truly happy they must cultivate an internal state of contentment that is independent of external circumstances, which will change as fate dictates. This central strand of Stoic thought appears frequently in Seneca’s Letters, with contentment often being presented as the goal toward which aspiring Stoics must strive.
Seneca often centers his reflections around how to be content with death, a topic that appears to have occupied his thoughts frequently. He is keen to argue that death is not inherently bad; dying is one of life’s duties, as it inevitably comes for everyone. It does not cut life short because “[e]very life without exception is a short one” (130). Moreover, it cannot be terrible because if death is nonexistence, it must be the same as the experience before one is born. There is no reason to fear the time before one’s birth, so there is no reason to fear the time after one’s death. Further, if an afterlife exists, it may ease many sources of discontent associated with living. For example, Letter 26 argues that death will provide a final judgment on one’s morality, freeing one from worrying about how one’s actions are perceived. Finally, a life spent in fear of death is one fundamentally discontented and therefore fundamentally unhappy. It is in itself a kind of death—a paradox Seneca uses to underscore the futility of worrying about mortality.
Seneca’s insistence on contentment with the idea of death does not mean that a Stoic cannot appreciate life. He says, “[N]o one is so very old that it would be quite unnatural for him to hope for one more day” (58), and in Letter 78 he lists reasons he prefers to live. However, a Stoic must always be ready to die if the time comes. As Letter 12 shows, through accepting one’s inevitable fate, one can meet each day joyfully—as a new gift from divine providence rather than one step closer to life’s end. Seneca uses the analogy of a soldier on the march to show how life should be approached. Fate is akin to the commands of a general; a poor soldier will follow these grumbling, but a Stoic must persevere “cheerfully.” Likewise, when the time comes to die, Seneca insists that a Stoic accept it gracefully, not allowing their love of life to act as a “chain holding [them] in fetters” (72).
In discussing death and other hardships, Seneca emphasizes the need to prepare so that one’s contentment is not disrupted. While this preparation may entail external changes (e.g., simulating poverty), it is fundamentally a mental process. This is in line with Seneca’s belief that contentment can only come from the pursuit of wisdom and so is entirely internal. True contentment cannot be disrupted by external factors such as location or health. Living contentedly is simply living according to nature’s laws. This means that a Stoic should accept that what they have is enough and not covet the possessions of others, as nature has provided enough for all to subsist.
Seneca recognizes the struggles of accepting fate and maintaining contentment. He confesses that a friend’s death has greatly upset him in Letter 63, and he warns against living near too much noise regardless of the theoretical immunity of the Stoic to distraction. As is common in his writings, he supports the ideal of Stoic life while accepting the practical difficulty in achieving this ideal.
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