Seneca,

I do think Epicurus’ point about removing desires is well taken.  That seems in line with Stoic ἀπάθεια and Epicurean ἀταραξία both.

Still, the basic premise that pleasure is a good results in unacceptable consequences.  Epicurus may have been able to subsist on barley and water and find pleasure there, but the modern world is so hedonistic, that such practices are seen ascetic, and dismissed.

I still find Musonius argument, that even were pleasure the highest good, nothing would be more pleasurable than self-control, and if pain the highest evil, nothing more painful than the lack of self-control.

I still very much enjoyed the content of the first half of this letter, from yesterday.  I will write to you again next week.  Thanks.

Farewell.

Part of Michel Daw’s Reading Plan of Seneca’s Letters.