Seneca on Virtue and the Stoic Sage: Letters 120 and 66
Preliminaries
These two letters of Seneca the Younger are concerned with some of the more technical aspects of virtue in Stoic philosophy: what it is ontologically(where it has its being), and what it is by definition (if we are to give an account of what this thing, virtue, is).
These letters are partially advice, and partially a discussion of the subtleties of philosophical discourse. Without the former, we would never possess virtue; without the latter, even if it seems at times tedious or dry (if not utterly banal), we would not know what virtue is.
Epistle 120 is concerned with how we learn what virtue is, and epistle 66 with how there can be one overarching thing we call “virtue,” when it seems to take many forms in many situations.
Epistle 120
Virtue is Established by Analogy and Cultivated by Imitation
The central question of epistle 120 is how a knowledge of what is good and honorable can be obtained[1].
Seneca begins this letter with an account of what the other philosophical schools believe, some attaching particular qualities to the good (i.e. that it is useful), others claiming that the honorable is something else (e.g. right conduct)[2]. Seneca claims that a division along these lines is superfluous, as they are really one and the same (i.e. that which is good is also honorable)[3]. The good and the honorable, being synonymous, he asserts to be virtue.
How to Become Virtuous: Observe or Infer
Nature has planted the seeds of virtue, in addition to its corresponding knowledge, in each human being[4]. Each human being, then, has an innate grasp of virtue, a disposition toward it which has been endowed by nature, but not virtue itself. How virtue is understood, he continues, is principally by three means: by analogy, and by observationand inference[5].
These means are particularly important in the consideration of the Stoic sage. Seneca utilizes them to make claims about the nature of virtue, but, by extension, about the nature of the Stoic sage, who is perfectly virtuous.
Analogyis used to establish the nature of a thing by comparing it to the nature of something else, creating a similarity between the two.
For example, good is to evil, as black is to white. Two opposite moral states are compared with two opposite colours, in order to create and elucidate the contrast between the two. The particular thing which Seneca cites is a health of the soul, which he claims is arrived at through analogizing the health of the body[6].
Analogyfinds its roots in observationand induction. It is observed, for instance, that there is a thing which is called “health”. There is also a thing which is observed to be sickness, and it can be deduced, from prior experience and from logic, that the two are diametrically opposed. As body and soul are both physical (and living) entities[7], the health of the body lends credence to the idea that there is a health of the soul. The same use of analogy can be found elsewhere in the Stoic literature, e.g., the claim that there is an art of living, just as there is an art of flute-playing[8]. When Seneca posits this health of the soul, he makes it synonymous with virtuous action[9].
The result is that virtue is understood through three means: analogy, observation and deduction.It is obtained by a different means.
Observe Your Betters
Though not explicitly stated, Seneca makes it clear that virtue is obtained through the imitationof men and acts which are virtuous.
When discussing the courageous deeds of one Horatius Cocles, he writes:
“these things, and actions of that manner, have shone the image (imaginem) of virtue to us”[10].
The nature of virtue is reflected in actions which partake in it, themselves seemingly a matter of intuition (as opposed to clear definition); Seneca seems to have in mind a very traditional conception of virtue (that it is just conspicuous, setting aside some of the subtleties of philosophical discourse).
Just as the virtue of courage can be found in the deeds of Horatius, so can deeds seem virtuous and yet not be. Seneca advises that the resemblance of the latter to the former is misleading, and so one ought to take care when imitating deeds.
There is, however, a kind of man in whom virtue can be found. He is compassionate with friends, restrained with enemies, able to endure all hardship, strives to pay all debts, and acts as a soldier and citizen of the universe[11].
Seneca says of this kind of man, who is always the same kind of man (and never anyone else), that “we have understood in him that perfect virtue exists”[12].
In this sort of man a perfect virtue exists which colours all of his actions, and exhibits its separate qualities as regards each situation. At one time he is courageous, at another industrious, at another his desires are restrained, his proper actions arranged. In each instance, he is still the same man, through whom virtue shines out like a light in the darkness[13]. This is the man that Seneca would have the sage-aspirant imitate, both in his deeds and thoughts.
Epistle 66: Perfect Reason
The central question of epistle 66 likewise concerns the nature of virtue, but focuses moreso on how singular virtue is manifest in many forms.
What is the Good? Well, Virtue
Seneca begins by recounting a series of conversations enjoyed with a former schoolmate of his, a man named Claranus [14]. It is with Claranus that Seneca investigates how Stoic goods (which are of three gradations), can all be equal[15]. To understand these three goods, Seneca asks that the summum bonum be reconsidered[16].
Virtue is Perfect Knowledge
He describes a soul which penetrates the entirety of the world by its perception, and seeks to understand it via its reason. It is a soul which rises above all difficulty, and contemplates the source of itself, preoccupied with its own nature[17].
Of this kind of soul he says, “such a soul is virtue”[18].
Virtue is that state of perfect knowledge when one is able to fully comprehend the phenomena of the world, to look on it with a loftiness and impartiality that mimics nature. Using it as a guide, such a soul possesses virtue.
A Somewhat Platonic Stance
This metaphysical virtue manifests in a multifarious way, yet does not degrade, nor does it increase or decrease[19].
It is always one metaphysical form of virtue which is participated in, transforming the actions of he who partakes of it. It is always perfect virtue, making all things equal, striving towards the same end as nature, finding itself in nature.
Virtue is obtained when reason is perfected, both through an analysis of the actions of others, and of nature itself.
Footnotes:
[1] Seneca the Younger, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, trans. R. M. Gummere. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1917–1925), Perseus Digital Library. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0080%3Aletter%3D120%3Asection%3D1 (accessed December 17, 2017). Section 1.
[2]Seneca the Younger, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, section 2.
[3]Seneca the Younger, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, section 3.
[4]Seneca the Younger, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, section 4.
[5]Seneca the Younger, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, section 4.
[6]Seneca the Younger, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, section 5.
[7]Arius Didymus, Epitome of Stoic Ethics, 21.
[8]Arius Didymus, Epitome of Stoic Ethics, 25.
[9]Seneca the Younger, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, section 14.
[10]Seneca the Younger, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, section 10. “Haec et eiusmodi facta imaginem nobis ostendere virtutis.”
[11]Seneca the Younger, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, section 10.
[12]Seneca the Younger, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, section 10. “Intelleximus in illo perfectam esse virtutem.”
[13]Seneca the Younger, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, section 11.
[14]Seneca the Younger, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, trans. R. M. Gummere. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1917–1925), Perseus Digital Library. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0080%3Aletter%3D120%3Asection%3D1 (accessed December 17, 2017). Section 1.
[15]Seneca the Younger, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, section 5.
[16]Seneca the Younger, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, section 6.
[17]Seneca the Younger, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, section 6.
[18]Seneca the Younger, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, section 6.“talis animus virtus est.”
[19]Seneca the Younger, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, section 7.