Breakfast with Seneca: A Stoic Guide to the Art of Living

INTRODUCTION

A Life Truly Worth Living

SENECA (C. 4 BC–AD 65) WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST and most learned writers of his time. As an unhappy adviser to the ill-fated regime of the Emperor Nero in Rome, he also became one of the richest men in the world. But the reason most people are interested in Seneca today has to do with something else: it’s because he wrote about Stoic philosophy, which has undergone a tremendous, popular revival in recent years.

While the Stoic school started in Athens roughly three hundred years before Seneca was born, the writings of the Greek Stoics are mostly lost. They only survive in brief quotations or fragments. This makes Seneca the first major Stoic writer whose philosophical works have come down to us in a nearly complete form. He had one of the most well-informed and curious minds of his age, and displayed a daring intellectual freedom and open-mindedness in his writings. It is this quality that makes him seem very modern.

In this book, which features fresh translations from his work, I explain Seneca’s key ideas and wise teachings in the clearest way possible. This is also an introduction to Stoic philosophy in general, because it’s impossible to fully understand Seneca’s thinking without understanding the Stoic ideas on which it was based. To further explain and amplify the ideas that Seneca held, I also quote from two later Roman Stoics, Epictetus (c. AD 50–135) and Marcus Aurelius (AD 121–180).

PHILOSOPHY AS “THE ART OF LIVING”: STOICISM AND ITS LASTING APPEAL

The mind would rather amuse itself than heal itself, making philosophy into a diversion when it is really a cure.

—Seneca, Letters 117.33

Before we start exploring Stoicism, we must clear up one popular misconception. Stoicism has nothing to do with “keeping a stiff upper lip” or “bottling up your emotions,” which everyone knows to be unhealthy. While Seneca was a Stoic philosopher, it’s essential to recognize that over the centuries the meaning of stoic has changed radically: the word stoic today, written with a small s, has no relationship with the capital-S Stoicism of the ancient world. While the modern word stoic means “to repress your emotions,” the ancient Stoics never advocated anything along those lines. Like everyone else, the Stoic philosophers had no issue with normal, healthy feelings like love and affection. As the philosopher Epictetus wrote, the Stoic should not be “unfeeling like a statue.” Rather, the Stoics developed a “therapy of the passions” to help prevent extreme, violent, and negative emotions that can overwhelm the personality, like anger, fear, and anxiety. Rather than repress these negative emotions, their goal was to transform them through understanding.

Some important Stoic ideas go back to the Greek philosopher Socrates (c. 470–399 BC), who famously said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” In other words, “Know yourself”: self-knowledge is essential for leading a happy life. Socrates also suggested that in the same way gymnastics is designed to keep our bodies healthy, there must also be some kind of art that would care for the health of our souls. While Socrates never gave this “art” a name, the clear implication was that it is the role of philosophy and the philosopher to “care for the soul.”1

These two ideas—that knowledge is critical for happiness and living a good life, and that philosophy is a kind of therapy for the soul—were essential foundations on which Stoicism was based. As a school, Stoicism originated in Athens around 300 BC, where the philosopher Zeno of Citium (c. 334–c. 262 BC) lectured at the Stoa Poikilē or “Painted Porch”—hence the name of the school.2

Like other philosophers of the time, the Stoics were intensely concerned with the question What is needed to live the best possible life? If humans could answer that question, they believed, we could then flourish and live happy, tranquil lives—even if the world itself seems to be crazy and out of control. This made Stoicism a supremely practical philosophy, and also explains its revival today, because our own time—socially, politically, economically, and environmentally—also strikes people as feeling crazy and out of control.

Even if the world seems out of control, the Stoics taught that we could lead meaningful, productive, and happy lives. Moreover, even in adverse situations, our lives can still be tranquil and characterized by psychological equanimity. It is this strong emphasis on the project of living a good, meaningful, and tranquil life that made Roman Stoicism so popular as a philosophical school during the times of Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius, and it’s also what makes Stoicism popular today, in times that are no less stressful.

This emphasis on living a good life also separates Stoicism from modern academic philosophy, which has given up on such practical human concerns in favor of abstract theoretical issues, most of which are meaningless to others outside of the philosopher’s ivory tower. But as the ancient philosopher Epicurus (340–270 BC) stressed,

Empty is that philosopher’s argument by which no human suffering is therapeutically treated. For just as there is no use in a medical art that does not cast out the sicknesses of bodies, so too there is no use in philosophy, unless it casts out the suffering of the soul.3

Similarly, the Stoics saw philosophy as a way of curing the “diseases of the soul.” They saw it as resembling “a medical art,” and even called the philosopher “a doctor of the soul.” The Stoics also called philosophy “the art of living,” and Seneca described his own teachings as being like “medical remedies.” He found these “remedies” to be helpful in treating his own conditions and wanted to share them with others, including future generations.4

EIGHT CORE TEACHINGS OF Roman STOICISM

As you might expect, Stoic philosophers held different ideas about many topics, but there are several key points that all Roman Stoic philosophers agreed on. That’s what made them Stoics and not members of another philosophical school. These foundational ideas of Stoicism are reflected in the works of Seneca, too, and most of them go back to the earliest Greek Stoics.

While we’ll explore these ideas more deeply in the chapters that follow, it’s worth mentioning these eight main ideas of Stoic thought here, as a quick taste of what is to come. (That said, if you’d rather consider these points later, please feel free to skip ahead to the next section of this introduction.)

1

“Live in agreement with nature” to find happiness.

Like many thinkers that came before and after, the Stoics believed that rationality exists in nature. We can see evidence of this in nature’s patterns, processes, and the laws of nature, which allow nature’s forms to work in an excellent way. Because human beings are a part of nature, we are capable of being rational and excellent too. According to Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism, if we “live in agreement with nature,” our lives will then “flow smoothly.” (Of course, it’s hard to imagine living a happy life if you are constantly struggling against nature.) While living in agreement with nature had multiple meanings for the Stoics, one of the central, most important meanings was that we should strive, as human beings, to develop our own human rationality and excellence.

2

Virtue, or excellence of one’s inner character, is the only true good.

While there are several dimensions to this, I’ll just mention one now: if you lack this kind of inner goodness, you won’t be able to use anything else in a good way, to benefit either yourself or others.

For example, the Stoics did not see money as a good in itself, since it can sometimes be used well and can sometimes be used poorly. If you possess wisdom and moderation, which are virtues, it’s likely that you could use money in a good way. But if someone lacking wisdom or moderation ends up blowing thousands of dollars over a weekend on drugs and other vices, few people would consider that to be good or healthy—or a good use of money either. As Seneca wrote, “Virtue itself,” or excellence of character, “is the only true good, since there is nothing good without it.”5

What makes a virtue like justice or fairness truly good is that it is always or consistently good. By contrast, other things can be used well or badly. They are not intrinsically or consistently good.

3

Some things are “up to us,” or entirely under our control, while other things are not.

For the Stoics, the only things fully under our control are our inner powers of judgment, opinion, and decision making, our will, and how we interpret the things we experience.

To reduce emotional suffering, a person needs to focus on what is under his or her control, while still trying to create a better life and a better world for others. (We will explore this in chapter 6, “How to Tame Adversity” and chapter 8, “The Battle Against Fortune: How to Survive Poverty and Extreme Wealth.”)

4

While we can’t control what happens to us in the external world, we can control our inner judgments and how we respond to life’s events.

This is highly significant to the Stoics, because extreme, negative emotions originate from faulty judgments or opinions. But if we understand and correct the faulty interpretations by viewing things differently, we can also get rid of the negative emotions. (See chapter 3, “How to Overcome Worry and Anxiety” and chapter 4, “The Problem with Anger.”)

5

When something negative happens, or when we are struck by adversity, we shouldn’t be surprised by it, but see it as an opportunity to create a better situation.

For the Stoics, every challenge or adversity we encounter is an opportunity to both test and develop our inner character. Also, to believe that misfortunes will never befall us would be out of touch with reality. Instead, we should actively expect occasional bumps in the road, and sometimes major ones. (See chapter 6, “How to Tame Adversity.”)

6

Virtue, or possessing an excellent character, is its own reward. But it also results in eudaimonia or “happiness.” This is a state of mental tranquility and inner joy.

Eudaimonia has been translated variously as “happiness,” “human flourishing,” “well-being,” and “having the best mindset possible.” But for the Stoics, “having a life that is truly worth living” is probably the most accurate translation. (See chapter 14, “Freedom, Tranquility, and Lasting Joy.”)

In one of their famous “paradoxes” or paradoxical sayings, the Stoics said that a perfectly wise person, a Stoic sage, would possess eudaimonia even while being tortured on the rack! While we couldn’t describe a person who was being tortured as being “happy” in the modern sense of the word, we could imagine that he possessed a life truly worth living, especially if he was being tortured for standing up to an evil tyrant.6 Similarly, many heroic people have given up their lives fighting for the greater good, to benefit society. In other words, living the best possible life, or a life truly worth living, might involve some pain.

7

Real philosophy involves “making progress.”

Philosophy involves critical thinking, intellectual analysis, and trying to understand the world scientifically. But ultimately, for the Stoics, the most important dimension of philosophy is ethics, which has a very practical dimension. The Roman Stoics saw real philosophy as a kind of path in which one makes progress toward virtue or developing a better character. (See chapter 1, “The Lost Art of Friendship.”)

8

It’s essential that we, as individuals, should contribute to society.

The Stoics were the most prosocial philosophers in the ancient world. They taught that humanity is like a single organism, and that we, as parts of that organism, should contribute to the greater good of society as a whole. (See chapter 10, “How to Be Authentic and Contribute to Society.”) Significantly, the Stoics were’t just interested in improving their own lives. They were interested in improving the lives of all humanity.7

SENECA’S LIFE AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF ADVERSITY

This is a book about Seneca’s ideas and not his life. Naturally, though, there’s some relation between the two, so a few details are in order. (For those who would like to learn more about Seneca’s life, I recommend the excellent biography by Emily Wilson.8)

Seneca was born around 4 BC to a well-to-do equestrian family, or family of Roman knights, in what is now the city of Córdoba, Spain. His father, Seneca the Elder (54 BC–AD 39), was a teacher of rhetoric and oratory. Like today, being an excellent communicator was a vital skill for creating a successful career in the Roman Empire, and Seneca’s family excelled at this.

Little is known about Seneca’s life as a child, but his father took him to Rome when he was five years old or a bit older. As an adolescent, he studied with various teachers in Rome, including several philosophers.

Unfortunately, Seneca suffered from some kind of chronic lung disease since childhood, likely a combination of asthma and tuberculosis. When he was around twenty-five, his aunt took him to Alexandria in Egypt in an attempt to quell the disease, which might have been made worse by living in Rome. Surprisingly, he ended up staying in Egypt for ten years, and only returned to Rome around the age of thirty-five. Fortunately for Seneca, his aunt had political connections, and due to her influence he was able to join the Roman Senate, when Rome was under the rule of Caligula.

In the previous century, Rome had been a republic. But with the dissolution of the republic, the newly created Roman emperors possessed, for all intents and purposes, absolute powers, which led, of course, to terrible abuses. The reigns of Caligula (AD 12–41), Claudius (10 BC–AD 54), and Nero (AD 37–68), under which Seneca lived, were corrupt beyond imagination, and filled with examples of murders, poisonings and assassinations, sexual infidelity (including reports of incest), exiling innocent people from Rome, brutal torture, and other terrible acts, many of them based simply on whim. It was like a television soap opera gone bad in the worst possible way, but with deadly, real-life consequences.

As a senator under Caligula, Seneca began to accumulate vast personal wealth, which he would continue to do throughout his life. But these financial rewards were mixed blessings indeed, because as Seneca rose to the pinnacle of social status and power in Rome, his life became increasingly dangerous.

At the height of his career, under the Emperor Nero, it seems that Seneca actually ran the Roman Empire—with the help of Burrus, the leader of the Praetorian Guard. Nero was a mere teenager, only sixteen years old, when he became emperor, and lacked the experience to govern the world’s greatest empire on his own. During the first five years of his reign, Seneca guided him, and things went well for both men and for the Roman Empire. Seneca was also elected consul, which was the highest political office anyone could hold in Rome. However, after that peaceful five-year period, Nero assumed full control and started to act in murderous ways.

Unfortunately, when Seneca wrote his Letters, as an old man, he knew that his life was under threat from Nero, who had a bad habit of killing people he no longer liked. Knowing that his life was in danger, Seneca twice tried to separate himself from Nero, without success.

When Seneca was around forty-three, his troubles first started with Caligula, who wanted him put to death out of jealousy, just because he felt overshadowed by a brilliant speech Seneca had given to the Senate. Fortunately, one of Caligula’s mistresses talked him out of killing Seneca because Seneca was ill, and she thought he would die soon in any case.

Later, when Seneca was forty-five, the Emperor Claudius had him exiled to the island of Corsica for eight years and took half his estate, on trumped-up charges, as an alternative to having him killed. This exile, entailing a total separation from his wife, took place only a few weeks after the death of Seneca’s only son, still just an infant.

After spending eight years on Corsica, where he got a fair amount of writing done (because there was nothing else he could do there), Seneca was finally called back to Rome, but only under the condition that he would become a tutor to the young Nero, who at the time was eleven years old.

Despite Seneca’s efforts to help Nero develop a good character, the project was a total failure. Nero had no interest in philosophy or ethics. He was only interested in self-gratification and power at the expense of others, which turned him into a monstrous tyrant. In the end, Nero had many who surrounded him killed, including his own mother, brother, and wife (whom he found to be boring, compared to his mistress). Nero finally had Seneca killed too, when Seneca was sixty-nine, after a failed conspiracy to remove Nero from power. In this new killing spree, many people lost their lives, including Seneca’s two brothers and his nephew.

But despite these severe hurdles, which would psychologically destroy many people today, Seneca’s Stoic philosophy helped him to endure the hardships and to transform the adversities into something positive. Even when Nero forced Seneca to commit suicide as an old man—which was far preferable to the alternate forms of execution available—Seneca used the occasion of his own death to give a final talk about philosophy to several friends who were present, just as Socrates did when he was forced to drink hemlock poison.

Like a good Stoic, Seneca had prepared himself for death over the course of many years, as part of his philosophical training, and didn’t show a single trace of worry or concern when surrendering his life.

He is reported to have said, quite matter of factly, “Who didn’t know about Nero’s brutality? After killing his mother and brother, there was nothing left but to add the murder of his guardian and teacher.”9 And while Seneca’s last words about philosophy haven’t come down to us, one could imagine him echoing the words of Socrates about his death: “While you can kill me, you can’t harm me.”10 Or, as we might also put it, “While you might kill me physically, you can’t destroy my inner character.”

SENECA’S WORLD IS OUR WORLD

If you read Seneca’s writings, one of the most striking things you’ll notice is how he seems to be precisely describing our present-day world, even though he was writing two thousand years ago.

The wealthy citizens of Rome had developed consumerism into a fine art, and reveled in physical luxury and hedonism. As in our own time, when we can go into a supermarket in the middle of winter and buy oranges and avocados grown halfway around the world, the Romans had developed international trade to such an extent that rare goods, foods, and luxury items flooded into Rome from distant lands.

The upper-class Romans became obsessed with displaying their wealth as a sign of social status. What we now call “keeping up with the Joneses” even existed in ancient Rome. As Seneca describes it,

How many things we acquire only because others bought them and because they are in a good many homes. Many of our problems are explained by the fact that we copy the example of others: rather than following reason, we are led astray by convention. If only a few people did something, we wouldn’t imitate them. But when the majority starts to act a certain way, we follow along, too, as if something should be more honorable just because it’s more frequent.11

The wealthy built seaside villas, crafted out of exotic, imported marble, which featured spectacular views of the ocean, swimming pools and elegant baths, and every luxury imaginable. Some cooled their drinks and swimming pools during the hot summer months with snow and ice, transported over vast distances. Others hosted extravagant feasts, dinners, and parties, often costing astronomical sums of money, with the rarest delicacies imported from around the world, which they then vomited out to make room for more. Whereas the Romans had lived modestly in earlier times, this was no longer the case.

Finally, the high-spending Roman culture of Seneca’s time displayed the same kinds of excesses associated with today’s celebrities, which we read about now in Hollywood tabloids and on celebrity gossip websites. Seneca weighs in:

Self-indulgent people want to be the focus of attention throughout their entire lives. Should the gossip go silent, they feel badly, and will do something new to arouse notoriety. Many of them drop large sums of money, and many keep mistresses. To make a name for yourself in this crowd, you need to combine extravagance with notoriety. In such a busy town, ordinary vices don’t get reported.12

The simple reason these things sound commonplace today is because human nature hasn’t changed. While our culture today is far more advanced technologically, in a psychological sense we are exactly the same as the people of Seneca’s time. We are complex creatures who suffer from greed, ambition, worry, fear, grief, anger, financial anxiety, sexual desire, and addictions—along with a desire to be good people and to make the world a better place.

While Stoicism advocated simple living, it did not prohibit the accumulation of wealth, as long as wealth could be used wisely. But as one of the wealthiest men in the Roman Empire, whose professional colleagues included the top members of the social elite, Seneca had firsthand experience of the consequences of the pursuit of excess luxury. Most likely it was this firsthand experience that made Seneca recognize the emptiness and shallowness of high living, and led him to write against it:

We admire walls veneered with a thin layer of marble, even though we know what defects the marble is hiding. We deceive our own eyes, and when we have bathed our ceilings with gold, what are we delighting in, except a lie? For we know that beneath this gilding lurks some ugly wood. Nor is such skin-deep decoration spread only over walls and ceilings. All those famous men you see strutting about grandly possess gold-leaf happiness. Look inside, and you’ll see how much corruption lies beneath that flimsy veneer of status.13

What makes Seneca unique in the Stoic tradition was his deep psychological insight into the human condition, including human ambition and fears. He was the first person in the Western world who deeply explored the psychology of consumerism. He also made significant contributions to the understanding of the emotions and anger, which are still valid today. In short, Seneca wasn’t an academic theorist, but someone who had “seen it all” in real life: both the best and worst sides of human nature.14 He had firsthand experience of what he wrote about, and a unique ability to understand the inner, psychological motivations of others. This is what makes Seneca such a valuable guide to modern readers, two thousand years later.

In the end, Seneca’s time is our time. He’s our contemporary, and we deeply share the same concerns.