Sénèque
It is not that we have little time, but that we waste much.
Sénèque (vers 4 av. J.-C. – 65, Rome (Roman Empire), born in Hispania) : stoicism. The only true good is virtue, and it depends on us. Everything else (wealth, health, fame, even the length of life) belongs to fortune. On AskPhilosophy: 5 reconstructed arguments, 6 quotes checked word for word against the original texts, and 4 common beliefs examined; every text carries an authenticity badge (written by the author, posthumous, student notes, reported, apocryphal).
Why he matters
He is the great Stoic author writing in Latin. His Letters to Lucilius have been read without interruption: by the Church Fathers (Tertullian calls him "often one of ours"), then by Montaigne, Justus Lipsius, Descartes or Rousseau. His tragedies served as a model for Renaissance theatre. Today, with Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, he is one of the most widely read ancient authors in the Stoic revival.
His times
Born into a wealthy family of Corduba, he made a career in Rome as an advocate and senator. The emperor Claudius exiled him to Corsica in 41. Recalled in 49 by Agrippina, he became the young Nero's tutor, then, from 54 to 62, his chief adviser together with the prefect Burrus. He was then one of the richest men in Rome, which his opponents already held against him. He withdrew in 62 and wrote his Letters. In 65, accused of taking part in Piso's conspiracy, he received Nero's order to die and took his own life. Whether he was really involved is unknown.
How to read him
His "dialogues" are really essays addressed to someone close, in which an imaginary opponent interrupts him ("you say", "he says"): this is often the objection he is about to refute. He readily quotes Epicurus, the rival school: "whatever is true is mine". At the start of On Tranquillity of Mind, it is his friend Serenus who speaks, not Seneca. We always say so.
His positions
click a row to see the evidenceHe believes in a good god and in a Providence that watches over humans: "God is near you, he is with you, he is within you". But this god is the Stoics' god, a reason present in the whole universe ("this whole is one, and it is God"), itself subject to the fate it wrote. So it is closer to a god-nature than to the creator God of the Bible.
Nature gives us "the seeds of knowledge, but not knowledge itself". Our ideas of the good come from observing repeated acts, compared by reason ("by analogy"): neither pure empiricism nor ready-made innate ideas.
Truth is open to all, but no one owns all of it: "Men who have made these discoveries before us are not our masters, but our guides." He keeps the right to judge for himself, even against the leaders of his own school.
Two vocabularies cross. The Stoic one: the soul is a body, since it acts ("the soul, too, is corporeal"). And one close to Plato: the body is "a weight upon the soul and its penance", and the soul longs to rise back to the divine. Scholars debate how to reconcile them. We place him on the materialist side, since that is his stated doctrine.
Everything happens by fate, but we remain free in how we receive it: "the willing soul Fate leads, but the unwilling drags along." A Stoic compatibilism: freedom is willing what happens.
Fairness and justice were established by nature, not by humans. The only good is a good mind, the only evil a bad one.
Religion must pass the test of reason. He mocks useless rites (lighting lamps for the gods, holding up a mirror to them): "God is worshipped by those who truly know Him", and "would you win over the gods? Then be a good man".
Life has a meaning given by nature: wisdom means not departing from it and shaping oneself on its law. Nature made us kin to one another, parts of one great body.
Humans are born for mutual help, and nothing is more contrary to their nature than anger. But Seneca also has no illusions: "we all are bad", hence the need for mutual indulgence. Good by nature, bad by habit.
We are parts of one great body: we must serve others. If political life becomes impossible or dangerous, one withdraws, but to serve in another way: "suppose that he has lost the status of a citizen; then let him exercise that of a man". His country is the whole world.
An ethics of virtue: "the highest good is a mind which despises the accidents of fortune, and takes pleasure in virtue". His letters are a training of character, day after day.