Seneca, Letters

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 7, in which Seneca advises his interlocutor, using his own example, that we ought to avid and minimize our exposure to crowds, large groups, and the general public, because unless our characters are entirely secure, we not only put our moral development at risk but often enough backslide, morally speaking.

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Seneca, Letter 7 - Why We Should Distrust Crowds - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 23, in which Seneca tells Lucilius that he wants him to learn how to attain and feel genuine lasting joy, which Stoicism teaches that we can do by focusing on what is actually within the scope of our control and agency, rather than on externals.

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Seneca, Letter 23 - Feeling Joy In Right Things - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 59, in which Seneca distinguishes between the senses that ordinary people and Stoics give to the terms pleasure (voluptas) and joy (gaudium), and discusses why it is that most people go wrong in the views they have about what will produce genuine joy for them, by contrast to the Stoic sage, who is able to enjoy lasting joy.

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Seneca, Letter 59 - Pleasure, Joy, And Wisdom - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 9, in which Seneca discusses why a Stoic would deliberately seek out friends, if it is really the case that virtue is sufficient for happiness. Seneca argues that even the legendary sage or perfectly wise person, while not needing friends for happiness, will still seek out friends when possible

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Seneca, Letter 9 - Self-Sufficiency And Friendship - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 70, in which Seneca discusses whether or not ending one's life deliberately is permissible or not from a Stoic perspective. He considers a number of aspects of the question, arguing that what we should take into consideration is the quality of a life rather than its quantity. He refers to a number of examples of people who, in his view, rightly and even courageously chose to end their lives.

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Seneca, Letter 70 - Ethics Of Choosing Death - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 30, in which Seneca uses the example of an aged friend Bassus who is approaching his own death in a good manner, as an opportunity to set out some ideas about how we can regard and prepare for our own inevitable death in a Stoic manner.

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Seneca, Letter 30 - Attitudes Towards Death - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 47, in which Seneca discusses how masters in the ancient would should regard and treat their slaves, namely in a familiar manner, as fellow human beings, housemates, lowborn friends, and even fellow slaves. He suggests that masters ought to remember that which people happen to be in the position of slaves is a matter of chance not merit, and that masters themselves can easily be slaves.  

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Seneca, Letter 47 - Treatment Of Slaves - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 63, in which Seneca tells a friend who is grieving after the death of another friend that it is reasonable for him to grieve and even to cry tears, but that he should keep from excessively grieving. Seneca provides advice about how to regard and make use of the memories one has of friends, why one ought to value and take advantage of the time one has with friends, why one should have more than one friend, and why replacing a lost friend can be good when grieving

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Seneca, Letter 63 - Grief For Lost Friends - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 66

It discusses how two key Stoic ideas about virtue and goods come together.  One of these is the paradoxical assertion that all goods are equal, and the other is that there are three kinds of goods. Seneca addresses this by arguing that virtue is the highest good which makes other things good, that virtue as such is always equal, never greater or lesser, and that the circumstances or matters in which virtue is exercised can vary, giving us different kinds of goods.

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Seneca, Letter 66 - Virtue And Kinds Of Goods - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 65

It focuses specifically on his discussions of the types of causes understood from Stoic, Aristotelian, and Platonic perspectives.  Seneca enumerates the four Aristotelian causes - material, efficient, formal, and final and adds to these the Platonic model or exemplar.  From the Stoic perspective, none of these, except for the efficient cause - understood as the productive reason (ratio efficiens) or God - is really a cause.

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Seneca, Letter 65 - Platonic, Aristotelian, And Stoic Causes  - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 58

It discusses several important issues in metaphysics, spurred by considering 6 different types of things Plato is said to have considered to be beings or to have being.  Seneca begins with some considerations about the Latin and Greek languages, about about the terms essentia, ousia, to on, and quod est, and then discusses what genera and species are, and how they are arranged in relation to each other.  He then discusses the 6 types of being Plato is said to have distinguished, and why individual material things are not really beings - not only from a Platonic, but also a Stoic perspective.

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Seneca, Letter 58 - Types Of Being - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 33

It focuses specifically on his response to Lucilius, who is asking him for maxims, or what we would nowadays call quotes or sound bites - short and catchy passages from Stoic texts that could be memorized as summaries of the doctrine.  Seneca views Stoicism as a systematic philosophy, unable to be summed up in maxims, and provides several reasons why - although maxims are suitable for children, and complete beginners - one needs to go beyond mere maxims.

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Seneca, Letter 33 - Stoicism, System, And Maxims - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 71

It focuses specifically on his discussion of the supreme or highest good for human beings, which is what is honorable (honestum), or virtue.  Virtue is what renders other things that are good, good - like good actions, good people, and so on.  He also discusses a Stoic paradox, namely that all goods, insofar as they are good, are equal - and how virtue provides a  measure for everything else.

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Seneca, Letter 71 - The Supreme Good - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 74

It focuses specifically on his discussion of the nature of virtue according to the Stoics, and why virtue is the genuine good, the "honorable" (honestum).  According to him, those who view other things like wealth, pleasure, honor, or the body as goods are mistaken and set themselves up for misery by subjecting themselves to fortune.

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Seneca, Letter 74 - Virtue And Goods  - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 89

It focuses specifically  what had by his time become a common way of dividing the discipline of philosophy - into Ethics, Physics, and Logic.  He explains what each of these fields includes.  He also discusses why other schools attempts to add more divisions or to get rid of one or two of the three divisions.  The three fields can be subdivided further, and his treatment of Ethics by breaking it down into three main fields is different from the "three disciplines" that Epictetus distinguishes in his Discourses.

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Seneca, Letter 89 - Divisions Of Philosophy - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 87

It focuses specifically on the Stoic perspective on wealth (including property and possessions), which is that it is not actually a good, but rather just a preferred indifferent.  He examines a number of Stoic and other syllogisms aimed at arguing that wealth is not a good, and provides further explanations of them.

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Seneca, Letter 87 - The Simple Life - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 113

It focuses specifically on his discussions of a common Stoic position which he himself considers mistaken - the notion that the virtues (wisdom, justice, courage, temperance) are themselves living creatures (animalia) within the mind (animus).  He presents and criticizes two common Stoic arguments for this position, and then provides a number of arguments of his own against the position

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Seneca, Letter 113 - Virtue, Life, And Unity Of The Mind - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Stoic philosopher Seneca's Letters, this one looking at Letter 120

It focuses specifically on the Stoic perspective that holds virtue to be the genuine good for human beings, by contrast to other points of view that assert there are other genuine goods.  He also examines where our conception of virtue and moral goodness (the honestum) come from, and argues that it does not arise in us from nature itself, but rather through "analogy", drawn from our experiences and comparisons.  He also cautions about the dangers of mixing up, or fluctuating between virtues and vices.

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Seneca, Letter 120 - Clarifying The Virtues - Sadler's Lectures

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