Seneca - On The Happy Life

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's work, On The Happy Life

It focuses specifically on he Stoic definitions of the greatest goods that he provides early on in the work.  Seneca writes;

"Happy, therefore, is the life in agreement with its own nature. And there is no other way for this to come about than if the intellect is, first, healthy and in unending possession of its own health; next, strong and energetic; then, enduring most nobly, fitted to the times, caring for its body, and for the things that pertain to the body, without anxiety; then, attentive to the other things that equip life, without admiring any of them, and ready to use the gifts of fortune and not be their slave . . .  

Our good can also be defined in a different way—that is, the same proposition can be grasped with different words. Just as one and the same army is spread out more widely one moment and compacted more tightly the next, and it either arcs with the middle part curving out into wings or is arranged in a straight front, but no matter how it has been ordered it has the same strength and the same will to stand up for the same cause—so the definition of the highest good can sometimes be spread out and extended, and at other times be compressed and collected into itself. 

It will be the same thing, then, if I say, “The highest good is the mind looking down on the things of fortune, joyous in virtue,” or, “the mind’s undefeated strength, well versed in the ways of the world, calm in action, with much humanity and concern for those with whom it has contact.” One may also define it in such a way as to say that that human being is happy to whom nothing is good or bad except a good or bad mind; who is a cultivator of the morally good,” content with virtue; who is neither buoyed up nor broken by changes in fortune; who knows that there is no greater good than that which he can give to himself;  to whom true pleasure will be scorning pleasures. 

One may, if you wish to range further, translate it into one and another form, without endangering or damaging its power. After all, what prevents us from saying that the happy life is a free, upright, fearless, and stable mind, placed beyond fear and beyond desire, to whom the only good is what is morally good, the only bad thing, disgrace, and the rest are a worthless swarm of things that neither subtract anything from the happy life nor add anything to it, coming and going without any increase or diminution of the highest good?"

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Seneca, On The Happy Life - Defining The Greatest Good - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's work, On The Happy Life

It focuses specifically on the distinction between pleasure and virtue as possible means to human happiness.  Stoics think that virtue not only is the means to happiness, but is also one of the main components in human happiness.

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Seneca, On The Happy Life - Pleasure, Virtue, And Happiness - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's work, On The Happy Life

It focuses specifically on the mistaken views the many or the crowd have about the nature of human happiness. Seneca notes that when they make and reproduce mistakes, they don't simply affect themselves negatively, but also other people who end up falling into error. He also notes that many elites, particularly those who are superior to other people in terms of wealth, power, or status, are just as prone to these mistaken views on the happy life, and should also be regarded as part of the crowd

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Seneca, On The Happy Life - Errors Of The Many - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's work, On The Happy Life

It focuses specifically on the joy, tranquility, and happiness that, in his view, result from pursuing, possessing, and acting in accordance with the virtues, as the Stoics understand them.  These states are something distinct from the pleasure that hedonistic philosophical approaches make the measure for human happiness.

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Seneca, On The Happy Life - Joy, Tranquility, And Happiness - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's work, On The Happy Life

It focuses specifically on his qualified defense of Epicurus' version of hedonism, which he views as different in those respects from other forms of hedonism, which often use Epicureanism as a cover for their indulgence. 

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Seneca, On The Happy Life - Epicureanism vs Other Hedonisms - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's work, On The Happy Life

It focuses specifically on his discussion about different kinds of virtues, using an analogy to going uphill or downhill, where some of the virtues require us to make an effort to push upwards against resistance, and other virtues require us to use restraint to keep things from sliding downwards.  For the most part the virtues of the first sort are sub-virtues of the cardinal virtue of courage, and the virtues of the second sort are sub-virtues of the cardinal virtues of temperance and justice

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Seneca, On The Happy Life - Uphill And Downhill Virtues - Sadler's Lectures

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