Seneca: the world according to nature
Madeleine Jones2013
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Abstract
The dissertation examines the treatment of nature in the tragic and philosophical works of Seneca the Younger. “Live according to nature” was the Stoic injunction, but for Seneca it was impossible to think about the natural world without also considering the limitations of the philosopher’s own mind. Through literary critical study of various complexes of imagery spanning the Senecan corpus, I argue that Seneca regarded the split between the flawed mind of the philosopher and the perfect nature which is the object of his study as a central problem within Stoicism.
Related papers
Philosophy of History and Ecocriticism in Seneca, Epistles 89, 90, 91 (Seneca 2022 International Conference What more can we say about Seneca? University of Lisbon, School of Arts and Humanities October 17-20, 2022)
The development of the philosophy of history from antiquity to modernity has always been characterized in terms of progress. According to Seneca, progress is valuable only if philosophy leads it to wisdom, therefore philosophy is the only way to understand the cosmos and the theory of everything. The ingenium itself, produced by sapientia, is a gift given by the gods, just like philosophy (Sen. Ep. 89; 90), without which men loses their inner balance and get used to contracting bad habits and to exaggeratedly showing their selfish side. History tells the wrong facts (Sen. NQ Praef. 3, 5-10) and Seneca attacks the way of writing historiography, that exalts the great leaders and their atrocities (NQ 3; Ep. 91). While the natural sciences seek to generalize and identify truths of universal validity, historicism aims at individualization. The goal of this paper is to analyse Seneca Epistles 89, 90, 91, through a close reading of selected parts of the letters, focusing on Seneca’s thought on the usefulness of a universal history of mankind only if inserted in the natural and environmental history of the world, which will also be resumed in various passages of the Naturales Quaestiones. Every aspect of the human being, inserted into the macrocosm of nature, the earth, and the universe, serves to rediscover the causes of the events. Moreover, Epistle 90 has attracted much attention and this has often focused on attempts to reconstruct from Seneca’s argument the views both of Posidonius and of the earlier Stoic philosophers, especially through the Quellenforschung and intertextuality. Seneca acknowledges his debt to other thinkers but, at the same time, insists on his originality. My analysis will help to answer these following questions: how are the topics organised in the letters? How much have the traditional patterns of the earlier Kulturgeschichte influenced the structure of the letters, the impressions and the experiences or re-experiences of the readers? In conclusion, I will devote a particular attention on Seneca’s rhetorical strategies of argumentation and on the role and the importance of philosophy in narrating the history of mankind.
Seneca's Natural Questions: Platonism, Physics, and Stoic Therapy in the First Century AD
A doctoral thesis arguing that the form of the Natural Questions is in part determined by Seneca's engagement with contemporary currents of debate between Stoicism and "Middle" Platonism. FULL ABSTRACT: The combination of ethics and physics in Seneca's Natural Questions has frequently puzzled scholars. Although a number of studies have attempted to reconcile the work's ethical and physical parts, others maintain that there is no substantial connection between them. Both positions are problematic. The former glosses over the quite obvious ways in which these vivid accounts of vice are thematically at odds with the physics; the latter results in a bifurcation of the aims of the work. This study argues that the incongruous character of these passages plays an integral part in the work's overall goal: to defend the Stoic account of the 'the good'. This account was under attack from Platonist rivals. The Stoics argue that the good is grounded ultimately in the wellbeing of the cosmos as a whole; Platonists maintain that conceptualising the good as such is impossible because, as empiricists, the Stoics can only account for a subjective understanding of the good, grounded first and foremost in the wellbeing of the body. Seneca's engagement with this debate is indicated by the frequent allusions to Plato in the work, particularly the idea of 'separating soul from body'. Seneca suggests that a carefully structured study of nature can achieve this 'separation'. This process helps agents to overcome the subjective, body-focussed perspective that the Platonists associate with empiricism. Seneca thus demonstrates a therapeutic means through which an empiricist agent could come to conceive of the good as the Stoics envisage it. This same process of separation from one's body, however, also provides an ideal opportunity to reflect critically on the objects that we tend to misidentify as goods. It is here that the moralising passages prove useful. These arresting accounts of vice serve to jar us into critical reflection on where we ground our understanding of the good.
“Seneca’s "Naturales Quaestiones" in Justus Lipsius’ "Physiologia Stoicorum": The World-Soul, Providence and Eschatology” in: Seneca e le scienze naturali, ed. Marco Beretta et al. (Florence: Olschki, 2012), 117-140.
Contents 1. Introduction 2. Seneca's Works in Lipsius' "Physiologia Stoicorum" 3. "Naturales Quaestiones" in "Physiologia Stoicorum" I 4. "Naturales Quaestiones" in "Physiologia Stoicorum" II 5. "Naturales Quaestiones" in "Physiologia Stoicorum" III Conclusions
Studies in the Ancient Reception of Seneca the Younger
2024
The present thesis re-examines the reception of Seneca the Younger within the first hundred years after his death (60s–c. 160s AD), focusing particularly on the late first and early second centuries AD. It is the first concerted study on Seneca’s ancient reception in over fifty years, the first such study in English, and the first, too, to adopt a fully intertextual approach. Not content, that is, to stick with the explicit references to Seneca in the historical record that have already dominated so much scholarly discussion, this thesis unpacks the wealth of allusions – many of which have gone unnoticed – to Seneca’s works and takes these as a crucial part of the story of Seneca’s reception in antiquity. The principal consequence of this is that the period of Latin literature so often simplistically characterised as one of stylistic aversion to Seneca can now be appreciated as one that engaged frequently and closely with the philosopher’s work and thought. A second consequence is broader still: in focusing primarily on the reception of Senecan prose in later prose texts, this thesis functions as an object lesson in the allusive artistry and density of Roman prose. The Introduction sets out the limitations of the scholarship so far conducted on Seneca’s ancient reception before delineating the intertextual methodology that will remedy these limitations. The subsequent three chapters then put this methodology into practice, analysing the rich Senecan intertextuality on show in some of the most important Latin prose texts of this period – chiefly Quintilian’s Institutio oratoria (Ch.1), Pliny’s Epistles (Ch.2), and Tacitus’ (Neronian) Annals (Ch.3), but also Pliny’s Panegyricus (Ch.3.4a), Suetonius’ Nero (Ch.3.4b), and Fronto’s letters (Ch.2.fin.). All of these authors exhibit a hitherto underestimated familiarity with Seneca’s works and often allude to them in a pointed, significant manner, thus using Seneca as a voice to think with, an interlocutor in their own meditations on various ethical and political issues. These interpretive findings are summarised in the Conclusion, which also broaches some further horizons opened up by the thesis: the reception of Seneca’s more technical philosophical writings, and, ultimately, the his reception among more strictly philosophical authors in both Greek and Latin (Epictetus, Plutarch, Dio Chrysostom, and Marcus Aurelius).
Seneca’s Etna: the Epicurean principle of multiple explanations, anti-sublimity and the Stoic sage (Ep. 79)1
Dictynna, 2023
Anderson P. J., Seneca: Selected Dialogues and Consolations. Translated with introduction and notes by Peter J. Anderson. Indianapolis, Indiana: Hackett Publishing Company, 2015. NECJ 43.2, 2016, 121-123.
New England Classical Journal, 2016
ISBN 978-1-62466-369-7) $39.95. Peter Anderson has produced an agile volume containing translations of a significant selection of Seneca's philosophical work. The Latin text is not present and problems concerning the textual transmission are purposely not tackled.
'Commune Ius Animantium (Clem. 1.18.2): Seneca's Naturalism and the Problem of Animal Rights', Phasis: Greek and Roman Studies, 15-16 (2012-2013), pp. 511-550.
The present paper focuses on an intriguing passage of Seneca's treatise 'On Clemency' (De Clementia) dealing with the topic of human and animal rights (1.18.1-2). This is the only passage in which the Latin philosopher employs the juridically and philosophically significant expression 'commune ius animantium', thus referring to a form of nature-based 'animal right'. In Seneca's words, there would be a common right of living beings forbidding to perpetrate certain acts of violence. On the whole, however, the passage seems to aim at maintaining the inviolability of human rights, paying special attention to the pitiful condition of slaves. Given the presence of such a man-centered context, scholars have often overlooked the writer's explicit reference to the moral status of animals, although other meaningful details than the simple mention of a 'ius animantium' point out the importance of this matter to our passage. As I try to show in this paper, Seneca's paraenetic argument succeeds in combining a peculiarly Stoic concern for the respect of human dignity with a more general defense of the natural order. This second aspect of the author's discourse includes an original consideration of the role of animals which appears to echo Sextian-Pythagorean views, but is organically integrated into the framework of Stoic cosmology.
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The philosophical ambitions of Seneca’s Letters
Strategies of Argument: Essays in Ancient Ethics, Epistemology, and Logic, 2014
This chapter offers a new reading of Seneca’s Letters, taking into account both their literary features and Seneca’s philosophical ambitions. The chapter argues that Seneca’s distinction between decreta (the doctrinal apparatus of Stoicism with its supporting arguments) and praecepta (particular ethical prescriptions, exhortations, and advice) is highly relevant both to his project in the Letters and to his self-appraisal as a philosopher. This chapter presents a Seneca who frankly acknowledges, indeed insists upon, the limitations of his own, largely ‘preceptive’ work, while at the same time skillfully manipulating literary form both to argue for and to instantiate in his audience the moral and intellectual efficacy of his chosen mode of instruction.
Seneca on the Nature of Things: Moral Concerns and Theories of Matter in Natural Questions 6, Latomus: Revue d'Études Latines 76/3 (2017), pp. 765-789
It is generally recognized that Lucretius' treatment of earthquakes and pestilences (6.535-607; 1090-1286) exerted great influence on Book 6 of Seneca's Natural Questions. But while a large consensus exists that both authors tend to emphasize the moral value of scientific knowledge, further research is needed with respect to Seneca's “technical” re-use of Epicurean physics and meteorology. In the present paper, I shall address this issue in three stages. First, I will analyze the structure and intellectual goals of Seneca's “doxographic” review of seismological theories (6.5-20). Far from being a doxographic account sensu proprio, such a careful review constructs the inspiring image of an intergenerational community of inquirers engaged in a virtually neverending effort. Second, I will focus on the skilful assimilation of Lucretius' atomism in Seneca's account of post-earthquake plagues (6.27-28). The special interest of this aetiological sub-section lies in its creative manipulation of Lucretius' theories, for Seneca succeeds in readapting the Epicurean explanation of the origin of diseases and its typically atomistic consideration of matter to the Stoic view of physical elements. Third and last, I will suggest that the chapter immediately following the aetiology of plagues (6.29) entails a subtle allusion to the climate of the late Republic – if not to the fate of Lucretius himself.
Sub auro servitus habitat. Seneca's Moralizing of Architecture and the Anti-Neronian Querelle.
Intertextuality in Seneca's Philosophical Writings., 2020
In Ep. 90 Seneca tackles the theme of human progress and, more specifically , the relation between human progress and technological development. The outcome of the analysis is a pessimistic one. The invention of the artes has fueled luxury and moral vices, by concealing, under the false appearance of progress, what is in fact a widening of the gap separating contemporary society from the ideal of bene vivere. The philosophical relevance of the topic provides Seneca with the opportunity to situate his thought within the lore of previous philosophical traditions, more specifically to define his position vis-à-vis the contribution of Middle-Stoicism. 1 The result is an epistle which is rich in doctrinal nuances and highly intertextual. In Ep. 90 Seneca does not conceal his sources of choice; rather, already at par. 5, he introduces Posidonius as his main comparandum. In fact, the text of the epistle constitutes a precious testimony in reconstructing the fragmentary tradition of the polymath from Apameia. 2 Posidonius connects the development of the artes to the Golden Age, the traditional cultural myth predicated on the notion of a forever-lost age of happiness, and situated in a remote and vanished past. Seneca characterizes it as 'the so-called Golden Age', a clear sign of his intent to shift the discussion from the mythical account of the poetic tradition to the systematic reasoning of philosophical debate: Illo ergo, quod aureum perhibent, penes sapientes fuisse regnum Posidonius iudicat. 1 With this well-established label I am referring chiefly to the contributions of Panaetius and Posidonius, who both influenced Seneca in many respects. We only have one extant Panaetian quotation in Seneca's oeuvre (Ep. 116.5), possibly deriving from a later anthology of apophtegmata, but which nonetheless reflects Panaetius' shift of focus from the unattainable perfection of the wise man, to the morals of the average man. Furthermore, following the 1908 pioneering study of Siefert, scholars unanimously acknowledge the profound influence of Panaetius' περὶ εὐθυμίας on Seneca's De tranquillitate animi. As for Posidonius, his emphasis on human emotions greatly influenced Seneca's protreptic method of admonitio, as argued by Setaioli 1985. 2 Cf. Posidon. fr. 284 Edelstein and Kidd which contains the text of Ep. 90, in fact Seneca's epistle is the main text to reconstruct Posidonius' theory of human evolution and culture as observed by Bees 2005, 15 n. 2.
Seneca's Philosophical Predecessors and Contemporaries
2013
This chapter examines the philosophical context in which Seneca thought and wrote, drawing primarily on evidence within Seneca's works. It considers Seneca's immediate teachers, his debt to the Stoic tradition, other Greek philosophical influences, and other contemporary philosophers.
Seneca and the Narrative Self
British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 2023
This paper focuses on the narrative aspect of Seneca’s idea of self- transformation. It compares Seneca’s viewpoint with some modern notions of the narrative self to highlight some parallels and significant differences between the ancient and modern conceptions and it establishes the reading of some parts of De Brev. Vit. in the context of other passages as concerned with the narrative self. The paper argues, amongst other points, that in Ep. 83.1–3, Seneca extends the practice of meditatio (ethically directed self- examination) by incorporating the construction of a narrative self into this process, in dual roles, as examiner and examined. It concludes that Seneca expected us to avail ourselves of a similar self-assessment based on a dialogue with philosophical texts.
Freedom in Seneca: some reflections between philosophy and politics, public and private: Seneca philosophus, edd. M. Colish, J. Wildberger, Trends in classics
Seneca Philosophus, Jula Wildberger, Marcia J. Colish (Eds.) Berlin De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston 2014, 167-188
The Metaphors of Conscientia in Seneca's Epistles
Mnemosyne, 2022
Seneca's masterful application of metaphors often illuminates some Stoic technical terminology in contexts, which render them meaningful and familiar to his Roman readers. In this paper I argue that in certain instances, these metaphors are also used to organize whole systems of concepts that refer to an essential theoretical component of Seneca's philosophy. By studying the literary and philosophical context of these metaphors, I reconstruct Seneca's requirement for moral self-improvement in his Epistles and propose that his conception of conscientia or 'moral conscience'-a notion scattered throughout his writings but which, as the examination of his systematic metaphors will prove, has a consistent, identical function everywhere it appears-points to some novel rational characteristics of the philosopher's conception of the self.
Post-Humanism in Seneca's Happy Life: 'Animalism', Personification, and Private Property in Roman Stoicism (Epistulae Morales 113 and De Vita Beata 5-8)
Classical Literature and Posthumanism, ed. G.M. Chesi and F. Speigel, 2019
Comparison of Seneca's ethics and metaphysics reveals the need for a trope intermediary between personification and reification; while postmodern posthumanism provides a modern context for understanding the political implications of the trope ("animalism"), the very emergence of the trope in Roman Stoic proto-humanism raises questions about the radical claims of posthumanism.
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