Learning from Seneca: a Stoic perspective on the art of living and education

Abstract

There is an increasing interest in publications about the sources of meaning in life; books about the art of living are immensely popular. This article discusses whether one of the ancient predecessors of current ‘art of living’ theories, the Stoa and more particularly Seneca, can be of interest to educators today. Seneca's explicit writings on education are relatively few, but in his letters to his friend Lucilius we find several ideas as to how educators can assist students to become wise and virtuous adults. The main characteristic of the virtuous sage is his ability to maintain tranquillity of mind. While we disagree with the radicalism of Seneca's view on the extirpation of emotions, we have discovered insights that we believe can be a valuable source for educators and students in their reflections on the meaning of education for the business of life.

Keywords:

• art of living
• Stoicism
• Seneca
• education
• wise person

Notes

Notes

1. Alain de Botton's book The consolations of philosophy deals with the views of various classical philosophers aiming to assist people with their questions in life. This book was a best seller around Europe.

2. ‘While it may seem odd to modern readers to claim that an impulse is also a belief or judgment, the view is perfectly intelligible in the context of Stoic philosophy of action and mind. According to the Stoics, both belief and action result from a causal process in which something external makes an ‘impression’ (phantasia) on an animal. The impression is how things ‘appear’ to the animal. For an example, an apple might give me the impression that there is an apple in front of me, or it might give me the impression that I should eat it. The latter is an ‘impulsive impression’ (Sauvé Meyer, 2008, 160).

3. ‘Wishing’ is the good version of desire.

4. We refer to these letters as Ep. (for Epistulae). For the English translation see Gummere (1918–25, 3 vols.).

5. In the Middle Ages the system of the septem artes liberales was used. Prior to a philosophical or rhetorical-legal education, students had to know the trivium (grammar, rhetoric and dialectica/logica) as well as the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy). Amongst the Romans this artes-programme was more an ideal than reality: like the Greeks they stressed the literary skills (according to Diana Bormann, in: Christes, Klein, and Lüth 2006, 108–9).

6. Seneca discusses four: grammar, geometry, music and astronomy.

7. According to Alfred Stückelberger, who wrote a dissertation about the 88th letter (1965), Seneca wanted to demonstrate the lack of value of the artes. Börger (1980, 64–65) disagrees that this was Seneca's aim. He suggests that Seneca used the analysis of the content of education in the arts as an ex contrario argument in order to clarify the nature and value of the sapientia. We believe that both interpretations of Seneca's intention are plausible.

8. It is difficult to deny a relation with the rise of the number of societies that worship the spirit of capitalism.

9. This name (in German: erziehender Unterricht) was previously used by the pedagogue J.F Herbart (1776–1841), who was inspired by neo-humanism and proposed a kind of education that ‘aims not only to make youngsters more capable, knowledgeable and wiser, but also to make them better, decent and virtuous … and he criticises education that aims for knowledge and cognitive development only by reference to the slogan that knowledge is power’ (de Raaf 1903, 58).