The term “virtue” has become so overused that it is healthy to look at it with suspicion. Unfortunately, it often happens that people will invoke virtue to further their personal interests and then try to portray themselves as ethical paragons. Indeed, we should be sceptical of their high motives.
Seneca had good intentions, but created ethical confusion. Although he routinely portrayed himself as a philosophical guru, he invoked virtue to promote a humble lifestyle. In doing so, he steered large numbers of people in the wrong direction.
Am I exaggerating when I say that Seneca created ethical confusion? Not in the least. In his Letters to Lucilius, he gave the word “virtue” various meanings that are far from identical. Let us review the different meanings employed by Seneca in those letters.
Seneca defined virtue as “living in accordance with nature.” He did so, for instance in his 5th Letter to Lucilius. His explanation of “nature” is equivalent to a lifestyle of simplicity. I would personally translate it as poverty or semi-poverty.
Seneca employed the term “luxury” as opposed to the term “nature.” He must have assumed that a modest lifestyle, one without any luxuries, is the normal destiny of human beings.
I wonder if Seneca had overlooked the fact that humans find “natural” to work and earn money. Why should we categorise our achievements and our wealth as “unnatural”? Why should we favour a lifestyle without any luxuries instead of a pleasant one?
Seneca’s definition of a virtuous life
Seneca also employed the term “virtue” to mean “living in accordance with reason,” but what did he mean by “reason”? I am afraid that he did not mean “logic” or “consistency”?
Seneca was giving rationality a meaning incompatible with the teachings of Aristotle (384-322 BC) in his “Nicomachean Ethics.” While Aristotle had meant “logic” and “consistency,” Seneca made “reason” equivalent to “passive acceptance.”
In his 24th Letter to Lucilius, Seneca praises Socrates (469-399 BC) as virtuous, but is it not true that Socrates had accepted a death sentence calmly and executed the sentence himself.
From this perspective, the rationality of Socrates consists of rationalising the death sentence and carrying it out himself by drinking hemlock. Seneca considered that Socrates had acted ethically, but I have a different view.
Socrates, I posit, had done the complete opposite. Instead of contesting the death sentence, he accepted it passively. He did not seize the chance to escape and go into exile. He gave up far too easily and I do not see any glory in his drinking hemlock.
Seneca’s virtue as inner freedom
Similarly, Seneca uses “virtue” to mean a life deprived of any luxury, but I think he should have called it “delusion” or “insanity.” When a person holds beliefs that are at odds with reality, that is not a sign of foresight or wisdom.
That’s rather a sign of insanity or self-delusion, and I would resist any attempt to present those attitudes as “virtues.” Again, I am not exaggerating. Seneca is definitely promoting a certain level of self-delusion in his concept of virtue.
In his 90th Letter to Lucilius, Seneca expresses a high regard for the lifestyle of Diogenes (412-323 BC), who had subsisted in extreme poverty for years.
According to Seneca, we should categorise Diogenes as a highly virtuous person because of his chosen lifestyle. Seneca is praising the philosophical choices that had enabled Diogenes to suppress all desires for wealth, comfort, and social status.
I fail to see any sign of virtue in Diogenes’ decision to lead a miserable life. In our century, Diogenes would have probably died of starvation. His philosophy would not have earned him a living, and his passivity would have emerged as insanity or self-delusion.
Seneca’s virtue as resilience
Furthermore, Seneca employed the term “virtue” to mean strength and resilience, mostly psychological. His 86th Letter to Lucilius portrays Scipio Africanus (236-183 BC) as a virtuous man because he had achieved prominence, but renounced luxury and retired to live in the countryside.
Similarly, Seneca extolled in his 66th Letter to Lucilius the virtue of Gaius Mucius Scaevola because of his refusal to give way to the threats of King Lars Porsenna, preferring instead to burn his own hand.
Scaevola had lived in the 6th century BC and the anecdote of his burning his own hand is dated by historians around 508 BC when the Roman estate was still emerging.
Indeed, Scaevola’s story is portraying a strong character, but is this the kind of virtue that we want to incorporate in our life? I cannot come up with a single example whether burning one’s own hand or doing something similar would lead to beneficial results nowadays.
Seneca’s virtue as thoughtfulness
Finally, Seneca used the word “virtue” to mean “thoughtfulness” as the opposite of impulsiveness or recklessness. This meaning is the closest that Seneca comes to Aristotle’s “Nicomachean Ethics.”
I badly miss the words “rationality” and “logic” in all stories recounted by Seneca to illustrate this meaning of virtue. Even when he writes in the 83rd Letter to Lucilius about his personal habit of passing review to the day’s events every evening, he is not depicting such review as a search for effectiveness, success and happiness.
Similarly, Seneca recounts in the 12th Letter to Lucilius his morning habit of greeting each new day with gratefulness. Such a morning habit may elicit reassuring emotions, but how can it help us grow in effectiveness, success and happiness?
Thoughtfulness loses all meaning if we decouple it from our lifetime goal of happiness. Seneca gets close to Aristotle’s idea of thoughtfulness as virtue, but fails to praise rationality, logic, and consistency as moral priorities.
The best illustration of virtue given by Seneca is a passage from Homer’s “Odyssey.” In this passage, the hero Odysseus opts for tying himself to the ship’s mast to resist the deathly allure of sirens.
Odysseus makes a logical, rational decision that protects his survival today and his happiness tomorrow. That’s an excellent example to imitate, even if Seneca had failed to recognise the rationality in Odysseus as the primary human virtue.
If you are interested in applying rational ideas in all sorts of situations, I recommend my book “The philosophy of builders.”
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