The Ethics of the Family in Seneca PDF Download

Author: Liz Gloyn
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781316508947
Category : Families
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
This book explores the vital role played by the family in Stoic ideas of moral development found in Seneca's philosophical writing.

Author: Liz Gloyn
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107145473
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
Model mothers -- A band of brothers -- The mystery of marriage -- The desirable contest between fathers and sons -- The imperfect imperial family -- Rewriting the family

Author: Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393004595
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
A selection of essays and letters by the 1st century Roman philosopher.

Author: Carey Seal
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190493216
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
"Today philosophy's promises to enhance the lives of those who study it are couched, like justifications for the humanistic disciplines more generally, in circumspect terms. In the ancient world, however, philosophy commonly claimed for itself the status of an exclusive guide to happiness. Through philosophy's characteristic practices of argument and rational inquiry, its advocates believed, human beings could learn what was really good for themselves and free themselves from illusion. In the process, they would necessarily come to lead happier lives. This link between learning and action meant that philosophy was often regarded as an entire way of life, in which intellectual activity and practice were closely associated and mutually interdependent. Nowhere else in ancient literature is this ideal given such full and nuanced exposition as in the prose writings of Seneca, in which we can see a philosopher and literary artist of the first rank exploring in detail the dilemmas posed by the confrontation of the idea of the philosophical life with the historical and cultural specificity of the first-century CE Rome in which he wrote. His vast prose oeuvre defends, elaborates, and aims to make appealing this ideal of a life guided by disciplined thought. He is unequivocal about the necessary centrality of philosophy to any attempt at living a good life: philosophy, he writes, "shapes and forges the mind, it puts life in order, it directs actions, it points out what is to be done and what is not to be done, it sits at the helm and steers a course through the hazards of the waves" (animum format et fabricat, vitam disponit, actiones regit, agenda et omittenda demonstrat, sedet ad gubernaculum et per ancipitia fluctuantium derigit cursum, Ep. 16.3). A successful life, for Seneca as for many other ancient philosophers, is governed by, indeed constituted by, the practice of philosophy. His rich and varied corpus, I argue, presents us with a unique opportunity to learn how one reflective and well-informed ancient philosopher reconciled this ideal of philosophical living, and all the aspirations to independence and universality that come with it, to the fact that he and his readers were living in a sociopolitical setting with its own set of norms and customs. These customs, and the claims of community more generally, stand in potential contradiction with the practical guidance philosophy aims to supply. For Seneca, as we will see, this tension was a prodigiously fruitful one. Recent work has rehabilitated Seneca's standing as a major philosopher"--

Author: Brian E. Johnson
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739179683
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
The Role Ethics of Epictetus: Stoicism in Ordinary Life offers an original interpretation of Epictetus’s ethics and how he bases his ethics on an appeal to our roles in life. Epictetus believes that every individual is the bearer of many roles from sibling to citizen and that individuals are morally good if they fulfill the obligations associated with these roles. To understand Epictetus’s account of roles, scholars have often mistakenly looked backwards to Cicero’s earlier and more schematic account of roles. However, for Cicero, roles are merely a tool in the service of the virtue of decorum where decorum is one of the four canonical virtues—prudence, justice, greatness of spirit, and decorum. In contrast, Epictetus sets those virtues aside and offers roles as a complete ethical theory that does the work of those canonical virtues. This book elucidates the unique features of Epictetus’s role based ethics. First, individuals have many roles and these roles are substantial enough that they may conflict. Second, although Epictetus is often taken to have only a sparse theory of appropriate action (or “duty” in older translations), Brian E. Johnson examines the criteria by which appropriate action is measured in order to demonstrate that Epictetus does have an account of appropriate action and that it is grounded in his account of roles. Finally, Epictetus downplays the Stoic ideal of the sage and replaces that figure with role-bound individuals who are supposed to inspire each of us to meet the challenges of our own roles. Instead of looking to sages, who have a perfect knowledge and action that we must imitate, Epictetus’s new ethical heroes are those we do not imitate in terms of knowledge or action, but simply in the way they approach the challenges of their roles. The analysis found in The Role Ethics of Epictetus will be of great value both to students and scholars of ancient philosophy, ethics and moral philosophy, history, classics, and theology, and to the educated reader who admires Epictetus.

Author: Massimo Pigliucci
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 9781541644533
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In the tradition of How to Live and How Proust Can Change Your Life, a philosopher asks how ancient Stoicism can help us flourish today Whenever we worry about what to eat, how to love, or simply how to be happy, we are worrying about how to lead a good life. No goal is more elusive. In How to Be a Stoic, philosopher Massimo Pigliucci offers Stoicism, the ancient philosophy that inspired the great emperor Marcus Aurelius, as the best way to attain it. Stoicism is a pragmatic philosophy that focuses our attention on what is possible and gives us perspective on what is unimportant. By understanding Stoicism, we can learn to answer crucial questions: Should we get married or divorced? How should we handle our money in a world nearly destroyed by a financial crisis? How can we survive great personal tragedy? Whoever we are, Stoicism has something for us--and How to Be a Stoic is the essential guide.

Author: James Romm
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0385351720
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
From acclaimed classical historian, author of Ghost on the Throne (“Gripping . . . the narrative verve of a born writer and the erudition of a scholar” —Daniel Mendelsohn) and editor of The Landmark Arrian:The Campaign of Alexander (“Thrilling” —The New York Times Book Review), a high-stakes drama full of murder, madness, tyranny, perversion, with the sweep of history on the grand scale. At the center, the tumultuous life of Seneca, ancient Rome’s preeminent writer and philosopher, beginning with banishment in his fifties and subsequent appointment as tutor to twelve-year-old Nero, future emperor of Rome. Controlling them both, Nero’s mother, Julia Agrippina the Younger, Roman empress, great-granddaughter of the Emperor Augustus, sister of the Emperor Caligula, niece and fourth wife of Emperor Claudius. James Romm seamlessly weaves together the life and written words, the moral struggles, political intrigue, and bloody vengeance that enmeshed Seneca the Younger in the twisted imperial family and the perverse, paranoid regime of Emperor Nero, despot and madman. Romm writes that Seneca watched over Nero as teacher, moral guide, and surrogate father, and, at seventeen, when Nero abruptly ascended to become emperor of Rome, Seneca, a man never avid for political power became, with Nero, the ruler of the Roman Empire. We see how Seneca was able to control his young student, how, under Seneca’s influence, Nero ruled with intelligence and moderation, banned capital punishment, reduced taxes, gave slaves the right to file complaints against their owners, pardoned prisoners arrested for sedition. But with time, as Nero grew vain and disillusioned, Seneca was unable to hold sway over the emperor, and between Nero’s mother, Agrippina—thought to have poisoned her second husband, and her third, who was her uncle (Claudius), and rumored to have entered into an incestuous relationship with her son—and Nero’s father, described by Suetonius as a murderer and cheat charged with treason, adultery, and incest, how long could the young Nero have been contained? Dying Every Day is a portrait of Seneca’s moral struggle in the midst of madness and excess. In his treatises, Seneca preached a rigorous ethical creed, exalting heroes who defied danger to do what was right or embrace a noble death. As Nero’s adviser, Seneca was presented with a more complex set of choices, as the only man capable of summoning the better aspect of Nero’s nature, yet, remaining at Nero’s side and colluding in the evil regime he created. Dying Every Day is the first book to tell the compelling and nightmarish story of the philosopher-poet who was almost a king, tied to a tyrant—as Seneca, the paragon of reason, watched his student spiral into madness and whose descent saw five family murders, the Fire of Rome, and a savage purge that destroyed the supreme minds of the Senate’s golden age.

Author: Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022626520X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 633

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“An exceptionally accessible” new translation of “the lively and urgent writings of one of classical antiquity’s most important ethicists” (Choice). The Roman statesman and philosopher Seneca (4 BCE–65 CE) recorded his moral philosophy and reflections on life as a highly original kind of correspondence. Letters on Ethics includes vivid descriptions of town and country life in Nero’s Italy, discussions of poetry and oratory, and philosophical training for Seneca’s friend Lucilius. This volume, the first complete English translation in nearly a century, makes the Letters more accessible than ever before. Written as much for a general audience as for Lucilius, these engaging letters offer advice on how to deal with everything from nosy neighbors to sickness, pain, and death. Seneca uses the informal format of the letter to present the central ideas of Stoicism, for centuries the most influential philosophical system in the Mediterranean world. His lively and at times humorous expositions have made the Letters his most popular work and an enduring classic. Including an introduction and explanatory notes by Margaret Graver and A. A. Long, this authoritative edition will captivate a new generation of readers.

Author: Lucius Annaeus Senenca
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022678309X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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A selection of Seneca’s most significant letters that illuminate his philosophical and personal life. “There is only one course of action that can make you happy. . . . rejoice in what is yours. What is it that is yours? Yourself; the best part of you.” In the year 62, citing health issues, the Roman philosopher Seneca withdrew from public service and devoted his time to writing. His letters from this period offer a window onto his experience as a landowner, a traveler, and a man coping with the onset of old age. They share his ideas on everything from the treatment of enslaved people to the perils of seafaring, and they provide lucid explanations for many key points of Stoic philosophy. This selection of fifty letters brings out the essentials of Seneca’s thought, with much that speaks directly to the modern reader. Above all, they explore the inner life of the individual who proceeds through philosophical inquiry from a state of emotional turmoil to true friendship, self-determination, and personal excellence.

Author: Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Conduct of life
Languages : en
Pages : 492

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