Seneca on the Highest Good (Summum bonum), virtue, & reason

Where we’ve arrived in the Seneca and spiritual direction series

We’ve finally arrived at Part II of Ilsetraut Hadot’s great work, Sénèque, on the great Roman Stoic Seneca (translation in process, #philoponia).

Part I of the book is about contextualizing Seneca, as we’ve seen, within Hellenistic and Roman thought, and within Stoicism. Hadot has then refuted three “myths”: that Roman Stoics like Seneca had no interest in theory, that he was a loose eclectic, and that Stoicism is an egoism.

All of Part II (over 200 pages) is her direct reading of Seneca, now that the path has been cleared.

It is this part which I think is especially ground-breaking for people interested in modern Stoicism, looking for a scholarly text which treats of Seneca as someone all about the philosophy as a way of life. So, #exciting.

The first chapter of this Part is on the objectives of Seneca’s Stoicism, starting with the highest good (this blog entry), but taking in the relationship of the virtues (next time), then the idea of knowledge as a “habitus”, the different parts of philosophy, the role of the liberal arts, finally the key notions of securitas and tranquillitas animi.

The second chapter is on the chances of success of Stoic therapy: the hands-on practice of philosophy as spiritual direction.