Seneca,

Even here in the last part of your letter we find a trace of Aristo’s position, that there are no preferred nor dispreferred indifferents:  merely indifferents.

If in one situation we might “prefer” the harder, then the preference isn’t a natural one, as the standard Stoic position states.  It’s not merely health, wealth, and high birth:  but we might prefer that which trains our souls:  the harder.

I intend to write an essay here before too long on Aristo’s position.  He was a contemporary of Zeno, and his position was subsumed in the standard Zenoian one.

But maybe, he was right.

Farewell.

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