Category: Seneca
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Seneca’s advice on making good decisions
The best advice provided by Seneca concerns the method for making decisions. His recommendations are condensing decades of philosophical reflection, and a profound knowledge of Ancient Greek and Roman history. Seneca’s advice is straightforward: Keep going in the right direction and do not dwell on difficulties and setbacks. He had seen too many of his…
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Seneca’s mistake in the pursuit of wisdom
I tend to examine philosophers as closely as I examine their philosophy. Did they preach by example? Did they put their ideas successfully into practice? Did they lead a happy life and inspired their friends and family members? Seneca laboured intensively in the pursuit of wisdom. He devoted four decades of his life to reflecting…
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Seneca’s advice on the pursuit of wisdom
Unlike most thinkers, Seneca (4 BC-65 AD) spent as much time selling philosophy as doing philosophy. The reason is not hard to fathom. In his youth, he had fallen severely ill, only to realize that none of his friends or family members could give him the encouragement he needed. Seneca had listened to their messages…
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Seneca’s advice on dealing with uncertainty
Most philosophical doctrines are worthless for dealing with uncertainty. They fail to recognize emerging threats and, when people wake up, it’s too late to do anything. If we want to have a successful, happy life, we need to know what to do exactly in order to deal effectively with uncertainty. Seneca came up with the…
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Seneca’s advice on setbacks
In history, few philosophers have come with workable, solid advice about dealing with setbacks. Socrates (470-399 BC), Plato (427-347 BC) and Aristotle (384-322 BC) had given little thought to this matter, concentrating their efforts on logic and epistemology rather than on human psychology. Seneca was the first philosopher in history to come up with a…
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Seneca’s formula for achieving tranquillity
The solution to worry must begin by understanding its cause and how it builds over time. Seneca grasped the nature of preoccupations better than most philosophers in history, but his recommendations need to be adapted to our century. Seneca attributed mental strain to the human tendency to go too far, run too quickly, and expect…
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Putting Seneca’s anti-worry recipe into practice
I can understand those who doubt the applicability of Stoic philosophy to today’s problems. Seneca lived a long time ago. How could he possibly foresee the problems we are facing today? Indeed, Seneca’s preoccupations did not resemble ours, but we shouldn’t assume that people in Ancient Rome faced fewer problems than people in our century.…
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Seneca on how to stop worrying
Worry is the quintessential wasteful emotion. It doesn’t help improve our life, but consumes large amounts of energy. The more we worry, the less time we have available for productive, constructive action. Seneca had endured worry and anxiety in his mid-twenties, due to a severe respiratory illness. He thought he was going to die, when…
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Seneca’s ideas on the nature of fate
The concept of determinism was unknown to ancient Greek and Roman philosophers because they regarded the universe as a combination of forces. Gods could influence our lives, but we can request the succour of other divinities. Our future is not written in stone. Seneca lived in a polytheistic environment in which Roman deities embodied concepts…
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Seneca: effectiveness leads to happiness
I have never been impressed by individuals who preach effectiveness, productivity and efficiency for the sake of it. They devote their efforts to finding faster ways of getting from A to B, without explaining why we should want to get to B in the first place. Seneca took the opposite approach. His ideas about effectiveness…
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