VIRTUE AND REASON

“Virtue is nothing else than right reason.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC – AD 65)

SENECA THE YOUNGER was a Roman philosopher, statesman, playwright and orator, widely considered to be one of the Roman Empire’s most influential intellectuals of the Silver Age of Latin literature. Born into a wealthy family in Cordoba, Spain, Seneca travelled to Rome as a small boy with his aunt to be instructed in philosophy and rhetoric. Whilst in Rome, Seneca was introduced to the Hellenistic Stoic School of Philosophy preached by Attalus.

The Stoic School had been founded in Athens, Greece, three centuries prior to Seneca’s birth by Antisthenes, a student of Socrates. The Stoics’ many areas of philosophical inquiry centred on questions of ethics and virtue, logic and natural law. At the centre of Stoic teachings lies the principle that human goodness is contained within the soul, which is nurtured by knowledge, reason, wisdom and restraint. As virtue was considered to be the correct pathway to happiness, the virtuous could not be harmed by misfortune and were considered morally incorruptible. Therefore, “virtue is nothing else but right reason”. 

To reach a state of virtue and oneness with nature it was necessary to train the mind to become clear of destructive thoughts and feelings that cloud judgement. The four fundamental virtues of the Stoic philosophy are wisdom, courage, justice and temperance, a classical arrangement outlined in the works of Plato. In opposition to these virtues stand the “passions”, namely negative emotions such as hate, fear, pain, anger, envy and jealousy. For the Stoics, the universe and everything contained within it is governed by a natural law of universal reason (or Logos). Logos – or fate – acts upon passive matter in the universe, including the human soul, which was considered part of this passive matter and therefore subject to natural law. The path to a virtuous and righteous life, at one with nature, was to accept with calmness and self-control the perils and pitfalls that fate determines. Suffering is to be endured, accepted, and regarded as a test of an individual’s virtues.

Seneca himself certainly suffered a good deal of misfortune. Rising rapidly through the ranks of Rome’s volatile senate, Seneca was initially in favour as a council to the Emperor Caligula. However, following a sex scandal involving Caligula’s sister Julia, Seneca was banished to Corsica by Caligula’s successor, Claudius. During his time in exile, Seneca wrote his Consolations – a series of philosophical essays and letters outlining the principles of Stoicism.