Seneca,

Your letter today has a sobering message.  Rather than the “intellectual masturbation” of handling certain logical problems, our focus on ourselves, and thence our aid to others, is about our manner of life.

Does handling The Liar instil self-control?  Not by itself.  I can see a case in which such sorts of academic works could be a spiritual discipline of sorts however that doesn’t often seem to be the case.

Thank you for letter.  I’m thinking on it quite a bit this morning.

Farewell.

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

Seneca,

“I propose to value them according to their character, and not according to their duties. Each man acquires his character for himself, but accident assigns his duties.”

There is an important lesson here.  One which, as I think I mentioned yesterday about people who are rude to table servers.

““He is a slave.” His soul, however, may be that of a freeman. “He is a slave.” But shall that stand in his way? Show me a man who is not a slave; one is a slave to lust, another to greed, another to ambition, and all men are slaves to fear.”

I’m hung up on “may be that of a freeman.”  It’s my own position that every human has the soul of a freeman.  While there is perceived security or safety sometimes under the yoke, every heart yearns to be free.

Farewell.

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

Seneca,

The idea that the manner and style of the way we discourse or dialogue is an important one for philosophers.  It is not easy to bridge the gap between the specificity of, say, an academic style all the while maintaining and approachability of common conversation.

A useful reminder.

Farewell.

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

Seneca,

Your letter bring up an interesting point today, or rather the second part of the letter from yesterday.  First, that the convoluted and hypothetical twists of certain logical problems, while interesting, don’t do much if anything to help us towards virtue.

A point does need to be made, as is implicit even here in your letter, however.  That while the paradoxes and riddles are not helpful in and of themselves, we still need to be proficient in the use of logic.

Your statement against the paradoxes is an argument:  one a good philosopher needs to be able to parse, weight, judge, and either assent or refute.  For a philosopher, Logic is indispensable, as your own argument here today proves.

Farewell.

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

Seneca,

Your point about choosing a single path is one which until my recent studies I might have disagreed with.  The idea of philosophical eclecticism is sort of trendy.  Not syncretism, mind you, of which Stoicism is arguable a good example, but there mere plucking and  keeping of what seems pleasant or favorable.

It seems then we should choose path partly based on where it leads.  Stoic philosophy has never (and hopefully never will) claim to be ‘the one true path.’  It is in part this humility and uncertainty that I find attractive.

The question then of the Sage arises, whether it be achievable, or a mere measure.  I suppose whether the Sage can ever exist is a moot point; since we know for sure we can endeavor to be one.

Farewell.

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

Seneca,

Today’s letter is set about to remind us of both the humility of all humans, as well as the heights to which they may rise if they so will and so work.  Philosophy does not care for the titles, lands, and class of the people who come to her.

Surely, we can compare Diogenes and Plato (as history often does), and see that it is not their wealth or status which pits them against each other, but their minds, their virtue, and their philosophy.

Generally, we privilege academic titles, world success, fame, and all of the accoutrements of the world.  Seneca reminds us today that the common conception bears no force in the concerns of philosophy.

Farewell.

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

Seneca,

“Do not, however, deem yourself truly happy until you find that you can live before men’s eyes, until your walls protect but do not hide you; although we are apt to believe that these walls surround us, not to enable us to live more safely, but that we may sin more secretly.”

Privacy is a funny thing.  There are folks close to us for whom the idea is barely existent, and others for whom even the mildest interjection is an affront.  The advice is good nonetheless, that we should live as if every act we take is witnessed by some great person whom we should admire.  Whither that be the Sage, God, or merely the person we wish we were and are striving to be.

Farewell.

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

Seneca,

I find the idea that we ‘spend ourselves’ in acquiring things an interesting.  We usually use dollars to measure the value the thing, but we rarely tally the cost to minds and souls.

Epictetus does this, actually, come to think of it.  When he speaks of the thief that stole his lamp, his price was to become faithless – to become a thief.  A high cost indeed.  All Epictetus lost was  lump of shiny metal.

Thank you for the interesting thought.

I bid you farewell.

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

Seneca,

“If you see a man who is unterrified in the midst of dangers, untouched by desires, happy in adversity, peaceful amid the storm, who looks down upon men from a higher plane, and views the gods on a footing of equality, will not a feeling of reverence for him steal over you, will you not say: “This quality is too great and too lofty to be regarded as resembling this petty body in which it dwells? A divine power has descended upon that man.” “

The western conception, I think, has been muddled by a couple of millenia of Abrahamic context.  It’s hard to imagine this divine, holy man you describe and not think of him as a saint or prophet of some sort.  Maybe saint isn’t too far off, I don’t know.  The religious nature of the Stoics is on the face apparent.  Yet, there’s a lot to un-learn to grok it as it was intended, I suspect.

“The lion with gilded mane, in process of being trained and forced by weariness to endure the decoration, is sent into the arena in quite a different way from the wild lion whose spirit is unbroken; the latter, indeed, bold in his attack, as nature wished him to be, impressive because of his wild appearance, – and it is his glory that none can look upon him without fear, – is favoured in preference to the other lion, that languid and gilded brute.”

This idea that the lion, or man, is made great by what is his own and not by any sort of additition or ornamentation is a good reminder.  It’s very easy to see wealth, power, influence, property, social rank, etc. and use those as our common measure.  But as you say, Fate can sweep these away without so ever much as a ‘by your leave.’  Indeed, he gets to keep one thing and one thing only.  And this, is even on loan for a short time.  His character.

Farewell.

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

Seneca,

It’s hard to believe that we’re almost through with ten weeks and forty letters.  I guess that puts us almost a fifth of the way through.  Tempus fugit, eh?

“Besides, this sort of speech contains a great deal of sheer emptiness; it has more sound than power. My terrors should be quieted, my irritations soothed, my illusions shaken off, my indulgences checked, my greed rebuked. And which of these cures can be brought about in a hurry? What physician can heal his patient on a flying visit?”

Stoic rhetoric is an interesting critter.  By all accounts, the writings of Chrysippus were more akin to technical manuals for an engine, than the prose we’re used to consuming today.  It was the writings of Hierocles, Cicero, and Seneca which brought the highly technical language down to a more common plane.

It’s sometimes hard to bridge the gap of needing to be incredibly specific with the meaning of words as a philosopher must, but also not to lose the ability to reach one’s audience.  I’ve written before about the steep learn curve of acquiring Stoic jargon, and mitigating that with the sorts of moral exhortations which the Stoics were known for.

In this project, and most of my others, I usually try to adopt a more conversational tone; something easy to read, and pleasant to think about.  There’s a good bit of highly technical philosophical treatises out there on Stoicism, and there’s a good bit of popular fluffery as well.  The lack, it seems to me, lies in handling the actually philosophy in a less academic way.

Even though I had not heard your advice, Seneca, until today.  I think I’ve been following it well.  Thank you for the letter.

Farewell.

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