2: Virtue Or Pleasure?

     In my most recent post on Seneca's first letter, I observed how the quality of his writing makes him a pleasure to read. But in the second letter to Lucilius, Seneca advises his friend to be mindful in reading selections, urging him to focus on quality versus quantity:
          "Be careful, though, about your reading in many authors and every type of book. It may be that there is something wayward and unstable in it. You must stay with a limited number of writers and be fed by them if you mean to derive anything that will dwell reliably with you. One who is everywhere is nowhere."
For whatever it's worth, I have found this to be true in my own experience.
     Interestingly, Seneca closes the second letter with a quote from Epicurus ("Cheerful poverty is an honorable thing"). Among other reasons, this is interesting because Seneca was a self-proclaimed Stoic, whereas Epicurus was the founder of a rival school of philosophy that bears his name. For the Stoics, according to Seneca, virtue -- defined as perfected reason -- was the sole good. The Stoic school of philosophy was founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the third century BC/BCE.
     Also in that century (and also in Athens) Epicurus of Samos founded the school of philosophy that bears his name. According to Epicurus, "pleasure ... is our primary native good".  Although Epicurus argued for "a simple rather than a lavish way of life", even in his own time, critics accused him of promoting hedonism; however, he attempted to clarify that:
          "The pleasant life is not the product of one drinking party after another or of sexual intercourse ... or of the sea food and other delicacies afforded by a luxurious table. On the contrary, it is the result of sober thinking ... ."
     It is noteworthy that -- while the Stoics and Epicureans disagreed about the nature of the greatest good -- this did not prevent Seneca from citing Epicurus when they were in agreement. The quote above on poverty seems to be favorable, as does Seneca's quotation of Epicurus in Letter 4 ("Poverty is great wealth when it adjusts to nature's law"). In fact, near the end of Letter 2, Seneca jokes with Lucilius that he crosses into the Epicurean camp as a spy rather than as a deserter.
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References:

     Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus at 129, page 158, from The Art of Happiness, Translated with Commentary by George K. Strodach and Forward by Daniel Klein (Penguin Classics, London, 2012); see also 131 at page 159 and 132 at page 160. 
     Seneca, Letters on Ethics to Lucilius, Translated with an Introduction and Commentary by Margaret Graver and A.A. Long (University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 2015), Letter 2, 2 and 5, pages 26 and 27; see Letter 76, 10 and 21, pages 241 and 243; see also Letter 4, 10, page 30.

1: Seneca (Was) On Time

     As mentioned in my previous blog post, I am embarking on a series of posts on Lucius Annaeus Seneca, a Roman politician/dramatist/philosopher who lived in the first century AD/CE. Readers of this blog will recall that two of my prior posts pertained to Seneca: one on anger, based on his treatise of the same name (11/9/17); the other on insults, based on his essay On the Constancy of the Wise Person (12/2/17).

     My project has been made easier by a series of new translations of Seneca's works published by the University of Chicago Press. Included in the series is an excellent translation of Seneca's Letters on Ethics to Lucilius, by Margaret Graver and A.A. Long. Gaius Lucilius Iunior -- to whom the Letters are addressed -- was a younger friend of Seneca's who (like him) was a writer who also served in government. Although each of the 124 individual letters begins with a salutation to Lucilius, Seneca clearly intended that they reach a larger audience.

     I believe that what makes a thinker from the past relevant today (among other factors) is whether or not what he or she had to say is still applicable to modern concerns. In recent years, "Mindfulness" has become a popular topic -- just enter the word in your favorite Internet search engine -- spawning books and magazines and websites. Originally an ancient Buddhist teaching, mindfulness in its modern incarnation focuses on paying close attention to, and living in, the present moment. Along these lines, note the following from Seneca's first letter to Lucilius:
          "And so, dear Lucilius, do what your letter says you are doing: embrace every hour. If you lay hands on today, you will find you are less dependent on tomorrow. While you delay, life speeds by. Everything we have belongs to others, Lucilius; time alone is ours. Nature has put us in possession of this one thing, this fleeting, slippery thing -- and anyone who wants to can dispossess us. Such is the foolishness of mortal beings: when they borrow the smallest, cheapest items, such as can easily be replaced, they acknowledge the debt, but no one considers himself indebted for taking up our time. Yet this is the one loan that even those who are grateful cannot repay. "  

     As this passage shows, another thing that makes Seneca worth reading today -- 2,000 years after his death -- is the quality of his writing.
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References:

    Seneca, Letters on Ethics to Lucilius, Translated with an Introduction and Commentary by Margaret Graver and A.A. Long (University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 2015), Letter 1, 2-3, page 25; see also pages 1-3.

Philosophers And Bathroom Attendants

     Just letting my regular readers know that, in the near future, I hope to start what is intended to be a series of blog posts on Seneca's Letters. But this post -- which also discusses a passage from an ancient thinker -- will be more personal than my usual offerings.
     As noted in my 11/26/17 post, Epictetus spent the first part of his life as a Roman slave, but ultimately founded a prominent school of Stoic philosophy in Greece. Epictetus' Discourses, which were transcribed by his student Arrian, include the following passage in Book I, which is relevant to my current job search:
          "For one person it is reasonable to be a bathroom attendant, because he only thinks about what punishment and privation lie in wait for him otherwise, and knows that if he accepts the assignment he will be spared that pain and hardship. Someone else not only finds such a job intolerable for him personally, but finds it intolerable that anyone should have to perform it. But ask me, 'Shall I be a bathroom attendant or not?' and I will tell you that earning a living is better than starving to death; so that if you measure your interests by these criteria, go ahead and do it. 'But it would be beneath my dignity.' Well, that is an additional factor that you bring to the question, not me. You are the one who knows yourself -- which is to say, you know how much you are worth in your own estimation, and therefore at what price you will sell yourself; because people sell themselves at different rates."
     This passage is meaningful to me because I took early retirement about 5 months ago, after almost 29 years in state and local -- mostly local -- government. I am fortunate enough to be receiving a monthly pension, so my family is certainly not in any danger of starving. However, like many Americans, I do need to continue working for the next several years to help cover health insurance for my wife and me as well as university costs for our children. I graduated from law school just before starting my public sector career and have kept a law license current all these years. But I spent most of that career in management and public policy positions, so it has been years since I actively practiced. Thus, most private sector employers have little interest in hiring someone like me: a lawyer "of a certain age" with no clients. By the way, age may likewise be a factor in the length of time it is taking me to find a job, because I have friends and neighbors who are also in their 50's and who are also having trouble finding professional positions.
     To be clear, I am not complaining, which is one of Epictetus' cardinal sins. I am in this situation because of my career decisions, not all of which (in retrospect) may have been prudent. However, the quandary I face is, will I have to end up taking what some people might consider to be a job "beneath my dignity" -- although I do not consider any job that is not illegal beneath my dignity -- or continue to hold out for a professional opportunity that may never materialize?
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References: 
     Epictetus, Discourses and Selected Writings, translated and edited by Robert Dobbin (Penguin Classics, London, 2008), Discourses, Book I, 2, 8-11, pages 8-9.   

What Insults Reveal About The Person Who Makes Them

     In my previous post, I noted that the Stoic philosopher Epictetus is one of the more interesting figures in Roman history. Another fascinating character is Lucius Annaeus Seneca, who I quoted in my 11/9/17 post on anger.
     We moderns like to think that we are the first complicated individuals in world history, but it would be difficult to find a more complicated person than Seneca. Seneca was born in what is now Corduba, Spain -- by then part of the Roman Empire -- to a prominent local family around 4 BC/BCE. He moved to Rome and pursued a career in politics; that career was full of ups and downs, including everything from service in the Roman Senate to banishment from Rome. The Stoic philosophy that Seneca espoused did not value externals like wealth, but he amassed a substantial fortune during his life. Seneca was also a prolific writer, authoring tragedies, philosophical treatises, and a collection of letters that is considered to be the precursor of the modern essay (Seneca was a major influence on Michel de Montaigne, who reinvented the essay in 16th Century France). After being recalled from exile, Seneca was appointed tutor to the young aristocrat who would later become the Emperor Nero. Seneca attempted to inculcate his pupil with Stoic virtues like clemency, but Nero developed into one of the worst tyrants in Roman history. In one of the great ironies of Western history -- given Seneca's public criticism of the tyranny of the Emperor Caligula -- Nero imposed the death sentence on his former tutor and adviser in 65 AD/CE (although Seneca was allowed to commit suicide like his hero Socrates).
     In happier times, Seneca authored a short treatise that has come to be known as On the Constancy of the Wise Person. In this work, based on Stoic principles, Seneca argued to his friend Annaeus Serenus that a sage could not be truly injured or insulted by anyone. James Ker's translation of the essay includes the following noteworthy passage:
          "Besides, the fact that the majority of insults are made by arrogant and insolent men who bear their good fortune poorly means that the wise person has something by which he can reject that inflated emotional reaction: magnanimity, the most beautiful of all the virtues."
     In recent days, Republican President Donald Trump gratuitously insulted Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren by repeating the derisive nickname "Pocahontas" during an event honoring Native American veterans of World War II. (Trump affixed this moniker to her during the 2016 presidential campaign, based on allegations that she incorrectly claimed Native ancestry). So instead of the media coverage focusing on the heroism of the Navajo veterans -- as noted by Warren in her response -- it focused on the President's racially insensitive insult. Rather than being magnanimous after his victory over opponents like Warren in the 2016 elections, Trump instead choose to make a gesture that can only be described as petty and beneath the dignity of his office.   
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References:
     Seneca, On the Constancy of the Wise Person, translated by James Ker, in Hardship and Happiness (University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 2014), 11.1 at page 160; see also pages ix-xi.