Seneca : the literary philosopher / Margaret Graver, Dartmouth College.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Graver, Margaret, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, approximately 4 B.C.-65 A.D.

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 305 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 2023.

Summary:

Seneca stands apart from other philosophers of Greece and Rome not only for his interest in practical ethics, but also for the beauty and liveliness of his writing. These twelve in-depth essays take up a series of interrelated topics in his works, from his relation to Stoicism, Epicureanism, and other schools of thought; to the psychology of emotion and action and the management of anger and grief; to letter-writing, gift-giving, friendship, and kindness; to Seneca's innovative use of genre, style, and humor. Recalling Socrates's critique of philosophical writing in Plato's Phaedrus, this volume gives particular attention to Seneca's ideas about the techniques of reading, writing, and study that make philosophy beneficial to the individual and to society. Clear explanations and careful translations make the volume accessible to a wide range of readers.

Contents:

Cover

Half-title

Title page

Copyright information

Contents

List of Figures

Preface

List of Texts, Translations, and Abbreviations

Introduction: Seneca's Philosophical Literature

Part I Recreating the Stoic Past

Chapter 1 The Life of the Mind: Seneca and the Contemplatio Veri

The Arguments of On Leisure

On Leisure and the Stoic Tradition

Tensions within the Argument

Letters on Ethics: The Rule of Genre

Representing the Philosophical Life

Chapter 2 Action and Emotion: Seneca and the Stoic Tradition

Thought, Belief, and Action

Emotion and Eupathic Response

The Theory of Action in Seneca

Seneca on Emotion and Eupathic Response

Chapter 3 The Treatise On Benefits: Real Kindness and Real Agency

Defining a Benefit

Enactment

Persistence

Intersubjectivity and Independence

Specificity of Aim

Autonomy and Freedom

Part II Rival Traditions in Philosophy

Chapter 4 Seneca and Epicurus

Extent and Provenance of Seneca's Knowledge

Physics and Theology

Ethics

Leisure and Contemplation

Maxims and Meditation

Human Nature and the Tactics of the Therapist

Chapter 5 Refuting the Peripatetics: Seneca and the School of Aristotle

Explicit Citations

Implicit References

Letter 92 and Stobaean Doxography ''C''

Seneca's Version of the Tripartite Mind

Distinctive Features of Seneca's Peripatetics

Part III Models of Emotional Experience

Chapter 6 Seneca's Therapy for Anger

Anger Theory in Book 1

Book 2: The Causal History of Anger

The Predicted Therapy

The Therapies of Book 2

The Preface to Book 3

The Therapeutic Program of Book 3

Chapter 7 The Weeping Wise: Stoic and Epicurean Consolations in Seneca's 99th Letter

Mourning without Grief

''A Necessity of Nature''

Eupathic Tears?

An Epicurean Expedient.

Chapter 8 Anatomies of Joy: Seneca and the Gaudium Tradition

The Convergent Stoic Account

Seneca and the Convergent Account

Kinetic versus Static Joy

Mutual Joys

Joys as ''Primary Goods''

Seven Senecan Joys

Part IV The Self within the Text

Chapter 9 The Challenge of the Phaedrus: Therapeutic Writing and the Letters on Ethics

Deficiencies of the Written Word

Speaking across Time and Space

Finding the Right Audience

One Half of a Conversation

Reader Emotions and Moral Progress

Chapter 10 The Mouse, the Moneybox, and the Six-Footed Scurrying Solecism: Satire and Riddles in Seneca's Philosophy

Seneca's Comic Style

Tambourines and Riddle-Syllogisms

The Pilferer in the Garden

''Greek Shoes and Cloaks''

Chapter 11 The Manhandling of Maecenas: Senecan Abstractions of Masculinity

The Condition of the Ingenium

The Nature of the Masculine

The Psychology of Virtus

Peculiar Results

Epilogue: Seneca and the Malagma Moecharum

Chapter 12 Honeybee Reading and Self-Scripting

Reading Like a Honeybee

Techniques of Selfhood

The Meaning of Study

Nourishing a Talent, Creating a Self

Postmortem Survival

The Rule of Reason

Bibliography

Passages Treated

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 23 Mar 2023).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-316-73051-4

1-316-68312-5