Seneca,

Wow, some of this is difficult to follow in English, if I may say so.  I wonder if the more overtly coded grammar of Latin made it any easier on Luicilius?  As it is, I’m passingly familiar with the specifics of Stoic ontology, and I would probably find this easier to parse if the Greek words were included.  I wrote about Something yesterday in passing, the highest classification of which you are speaking.

From there we break down into corporeal forms which exist, and incorporeals (time, void, space, lekta) which subsist, but don’t exist.  In the modern parlance, they supervene.  Within things corporeal we have the active and passive components, matter and pneuma.

With those broad strokes, we can fill in the specifics of everything from rocks, plants, animals and man.

It might just be that spreading out this letter of a few days is not the easiest method for groking it, and after we’re done, I’ll probably go back and read it straight through.

I’m looking forward to the discussion, though!

Farewell.

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