Letters from a Stoic 123 - On the Conflict between Pleasure and Virtue

On the Conflict between Pleasure and Virtue

In my studies of Stoicism, I've learned the summum bonum is eudaimonia - this is the why of philosophy.  And eudaimonia is the state of having a good soul, or if you earnestly believe the Stoics, it means to align your own part of divinity (your daimon) with the Whole - the Cosmos - Nature, hence the motto live according to Nature (Long, 197; Sellars, 122-123).  Or to put it even more bluntly, to align with, choose with, desire with and will with God (Stephens, 59).

And, in my opinion, the goal is not only to achieve eudaimonia once for a brief moment, but to be able to achieve a constant state of flourishing and excellence - to completely grow and progress into the full bloom of a rational, human adult (logikē psuchē, see Sellars 104-105).

The Stoics will say that avoidance of pain, toil and trials and the pursuit of pleasures and ease are not up to us.  And therefore, if we try to avoid the former and pursue the latter in hopes of achieving eudaimonia, we will end up disappointed and fail in our quest.

But, if we place our desires on the pursuit of exercising moral virtues (and this is entirely up to us), then we have a shot at finding and retaining lasting equanimity, serenity and eudaimonia.

Therefore, all that the Stoics try to teach us, is too focus only on what is up to us and to not get caught up in the avoidance of things (pain, toil, trial) not up to us and the pursuit of things (fame, status, wealth, pleasures) not up to us.  These indifferents are mere materials or mediums for us to exercise what is entirely ours: our will; our volition; our character; our morals.

In this spirit, Seneca attempts to explain how, regardless of circumstances, we can find a way to act with moral conviction.  And he will rail against those whose philosophy is to pursue pleasure and ease, not to make himself feel better or to make others feel bad, but on the contrary - to help people understand the reality of the situation, and to help them find an alternative to folly and disappointment.

nothing is heavy if one accepts it with a light heart, and that nothing need provoke one's anger if one does not add to one's pile of troubles by getting angry.

If your expectations do not match reality, your expectations may need an adjustment.  And your attitude of the situation can be immediately adjusted.  If you find some circumstance to be "heavy" you can simply choose to change your attitude about it.  If something upsets you and you are angry, recognize that by being angry, you are piling on more trouble.

I must not eat until hunger bids me; so I shall wait and shall not eat until I can either get good bread or else cease to be squeamish about it.  It is necessary that one grow accustomed to slender fare

The antidote to gluttony is to delay eating until necessary.  When you complain about the food, wait even longer until the coarse bread becomes rich.

To have whatsoever he wishes is in no man's power; it is in his power not to wish for what he has not, but cheerfully to employ what comes to him.

Folly begins when you find yourself always wishing.  Wishing and desiring for things not up to you will lead to disappointment.  But cheerful acceptance is something you can do something about.

Every circumstance is a test of your character and resolve.  Complaining and anxiety are symptoms of an internal misalignment.  Reflect on these and improve.

viewing one's own troubles not only fairly but calmly, not flying into fits of temper or wordy wranglings, supplying one's own needs by not craving something which was really due, and reflecting that our habits may be unsatisfied, but never our own real selves.

We must be leery of desire infection from others.

how much do we acquire simply because our neighbours have acquired such things, or because most men possess them!   Many of our troubles may be explained from the fact that we live according to a pattern, and, instead of arranging our lives according to reason, are led astray by convention.  There are things which, if done by the few, we should refuse to imitate; yet when the majority have begun to do them, we follow along

Seneca goes so far as to advocate shunning certain people because of their "bad habits."

You should avoid conversation with all such persons: they are the sort that communicate and engraft their bad habits from one to another. We used to think that the very worst variety of these men were those who vaunted their words; but there are certain men who vaunt their wickedness. Their talk is very harmful; for even though it is not at once convincing, yet they leave the seeds of trouble in the soul

I would temper Seneca's advice.  If you are just beginning to practice a philosophical life and if you are trying to drink and eat less, for example, then you should probably not talk much with people who would have you join them at the bar or buffet every week.  A bit more distance from them would be in order.  However, if you have established, good habits, then there is no need for avoiding such people.  Rather, you could be an anchor and boon to them, in helping them see a better way.

Seneca would warn us to avoid such people, because we might catch their tune in our head and soon, we would not be able to get it out of our mind.  Thereafter, we would begin to be persuaded by such devious philosophies such as this:

"Virtue, Philosophy, Justice – this is a jargon of empty words. The only way to be happy is to do yourself well. To eat, drink, and spend your money is the only real life, the only way to remind yourself that you are mortal. Our days flow on, and life – which we cannot restore – hastens away from us. Why hesitate to come to our senses? This life of ours will not always admit pleasures; meantime, while it can do so, while it clamours for them, what profit lies in imposing thereupon frugality? Therefore get ahead of death, and let anything that death will filch from you be squandered now upon yourself. You have no mistress, no favourite slave to make your mistress envious; you are sober when you make your daily appearance in public; you dine as if you had to show your account-book to 'Papa'; but that is not living, it is merely going shares in someone else's existence.  And what madness it is to be looking out for the interests of your heir, and to deny yourself everything, with the result that you turn friends into enemies by the vast amount of the fortune you intend to leave! For the more the heir is to get from you, the more he will rejoice in your taking-off! All those sour fellows who criticize other men's lives in a spirit of priggishness and are real enemies to their own lives, playing schoolmaster to the world – you should not consider them as worth a farthing, nor should you hesitate to prefer good living to a good reputation."

These are siren voices; and we ought to take precautions in order to avoid their messages becoming our philosophy.  And be wary of those who profess to be Stoics, but in reality, they are not.

let us retreat from the objects that allure, and rouse ourselves to meet the objects that attack.

...

only those men bring ruin to our ears, who praise pleasure, who inspire us with fear of pain – that element which is in itself provocative of fear; I believe that we are also in injured by those who masquerade under the disguise of the Stoic school and at the same time urge us on into vice.

The sage is wise and knowledgeable in both intent and actions.

No man is good by chance. Virtue is something which must be learned.

Philosophy fights vice.

philosophy ought not to try to explain away vice.

Citations

Long, Anthony A. Hellenistic Philosophy : Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics. London, Duckworth, 1986.

Sellars, John. Stoicism. Berkeley, University Of California Press, 2006.

Stephens, William O. Stoic Ethics : Epictetus and Happiness as Freedom. London ; Oxford ; New York ; New Delhi ; Sydney Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.

Letters from a Stoic 119 - On Nature as our Best Provider

On Nature as our Best Provider

The theme of this letter is: enough; Nature provides with with enough.  People, though, introduce excess.

Seneca writes variations on this them.

it does not matter whether you crave nothing, or whether you possess something. The important principle in either case is the same – freedom from worry.

...

If I am hungry, I must eat. Nature does not care whether the bread is the coarse kind or the finest wheat; she does not desire the stomach to be entertained, but to be filled.

...

Look to the end, in all matters, and then you will cast away superfluous things. Hunger calls me; let me stretch forth my hand to that which is nearest; my very hunger has made attractive in my eyes whatever I can grasp. A starving man despises nothing.

...

The wise man is the keenest seeker for the riches of nature.

...

Would you rather have much, or enough? He who has much desires more – a proof that he has not yet acquired enough; but he who has enough has attained that which never fell to the rich man's lot – a stopping-point.

Lack of contentment is a vice.  It leads to gluttony, luxury and decadence and leads further to others' resentment.

Enough is never too little, and not-enough is never too much.

...

But that which is enough for nature, is not enough for man.  There have been found persons who crave something more after obtaining everything

...

He ... who has arranged his affairs according to nature's demands, is free from the fear, as well as from the sensation, of poverty.

...

Wealth ... blinds and attracts the mob.

...

measure all things by the demands of Nature; for these demands can be satisfied

...

The Builder of the universe, who laid down for us the laws of life, provided that we should exist in well-being, but not in luxury. Everything conducive to our well-being is prepared and ready to our hands; but what luxury requires can never be got together except with wretchedness and anxiety.

...

whatever we want because of sheer necessity we accept without squeamishness.

Letters from a Stoic 116 - On Self-Control

On Self-Control

To topic of this letter whether it "is better to have moderate emotions, or none at all."  Seneca notes two views on the topic of emotions.  The Stoics "reject the emotions" and "the Peripatetics keep them in check."

Seneca imagines someone who argues,

it is natural for me to suffer when I am bereaved of a friend; grant some privileges to tears which have the right to flow! It is also natural to be affected by men's opinions and to be cast down when they are unfavourable; so why should you not allow me such an honourable aversion to bad opinion?

While Seneca agrees that emotions do come from Nature in order to "make the indispensable means of existence attractive to our eyes" we should nonetheless acknowledge that "this very interest, when overindulged, becomes a vice."

Vices start with good reason and with some modestly, but then can grow into a vice.

There is no vice which lacks some plea; there is no vice that at the start is not modest and easily entreated; but afterwards the trouble spreads more widely. If you allow it to begin, you cannot make sure of its ceasing.

Therefore, Seneca advocates for cutting them off before they get a foothold.

resist these faults when they are demanding entrance, because, as I have said, it is easier to deny them admittance than to make them depart.

While a wise man can control himself and his emotions, we who are not yet wise should not trust ourselves to think we can control them so easily.  He quotes Panaetius:

you and I, who are as yet far removed from wisdom, should not trust ourselves to fall into a state that is disordered, uncontrolled, enslaved to another ... Let us not expose this unstable spirit to the temptations of drink, or beauty, or flattery, or anything that coaxes and allures.

Panaetius was referring to the emotion of love but Seneca observes this advice may be applied to all emotions.  He advises strong caution when it comes to dealing with emotions.

let us step back from slippery places; even on dry ground it is hard enough to take a sturdy stand.

Seneca then takes on the claim that the Stoic philosophy is too hard!  One may argue,

Your promises are too great, and your counsels too hard. We are mere manikins, unable to deny ourselves everything. We shall sorrow, but not to any great extent; we shall feel desires, but in moderation; we shall give way to anger, but we shall be appeased.

He thinks humans are perfectly capable of keeping motions in check, but instead our love of our vices is so strong we make excuses for ourselves.

And do you know why we have not the power to attain this Stoic ideal? It is because we refuse to believe in our power. Nay, of a surety, there is something else which plays a part: it is because we are in love with our vices; we uphold them and prefer to make excuses for them rather than shake them off. 

...

The reason is unwillingness, the excuse, inability.

Letters from a Stoic 112 - On Reforming Hardened Sinners

On Reforming Hardened Sinners

According to Seneca, some people are very difficult to reform.

Now this person, concerning whom you have sent me your message in writing, has no strength; for he has pampered his vices.   He has at one and the same time become flabby and hardened. He cannot receive reason, nor can he nourish it.

...

Luxury has merely upset his stomach; he will soon become reconciled to it again.

...

Men love and hate their vices at the same time. It will be the proper season to pass judgment on him when he has given us a guarantee that he really hates luxury; as it is now, luxury and he are merely not on speaking terms.

Letters from a Stoic 97 - On the Degeneracy of the Age

On the Degeneracy of the Age

There are moral vices in any and every era.  Seneca begins the letter with this observation:

You are mistaken, my dear Lucilius, if you think that luxury, neglect of good manners, and other vices of which each man accuses the age in which he lives, are especially characteristic of our own epoch; no, they are the vices of mankind and not of the times.

After describing the various vices through the ages, especially in the era of Cato, Seneca argues that while some may get away with crimes and sins, they will not escape a guilty conscious.  While, generally, I agree with this, we have to recognize legitimate sociopaths.

This bad behavior may subside through fear of punishment, but people will most likely not cease to commit these errors on their own accord.

Such things will be done in the future, as they have been done in the past; and the licentiousness of cities will sometimes abate through discipline and fear, never of itself.

Perhaps on-going education and reminders to people will help, but unless we have some sort of moral framework, people will slip back into pleasure and vice.

We degenerate easily, because we lack neither guides nor associates in our wickedness, and the wickedness goes on of itself, even without guides or associates. The road to vice is not only downhill, but steep; and many men are rendered incorrigible by the fact that, while in all other crafts errors bring shame to good craftsmen and cause vexation to those who go astray, the errors of life are a positive source of pleasure.

He goes on to argue that a good reason to not commit vice is simply for the fact of being able to release yourself of the anxiety of repercussions - the fear of getting caught.  He agrees with Epicurus, who said,

"The reason that it is no advantage to wrong-doers to remain hidden is that even though they have the good fortune they have not the assurance of remaining so."

While this is perhaps not the best reason (if one is trying to 'make progress') to not commit vice, it is a good reason to give to others who are not lovers of wisdom.

For someone who wishes to avoid troubles, fear and anxiety, it's simply best to be good and remain good.  In this way, you easily avoid the feelings of guilt, anxiety and fear stemming from wrong acts.

bad deeds are lashed by the whip of conscience, and that conscience is tortured to the greatest degree because unending anxiety drives and whips it on, and it cannot rely upon the guarantors of its own peace of mind. ... men who hide their sins can never count upon remaining hidden; for their conscience convicts them and reveals them to themselves.

Letters from a Stoic 90 - On the Part Played by Philosophy in the Progress of Man

On the Part Played by Philosophy in the Progress of Man

This is another long letter, in which Seneca provides many similar ideas to make a point.  Let me try to frame it briefly and then proceed with the supporting quotes from the letter.

One of the bigger questions of life is: are we simply to live or are we to live well?

Most will admit that we are to live well.

The next question becomes: how does one live well?

Seneca and other philosophers would state that the practice of philosophy informs us how to live well.  In this scope, philosophy informs us of a great number of things, which I'll get into in this post.  But later in the letter, Seneca notes that Posidonius argued that philosophy "discovered the arts of which life makes use in its daily round" such as the invention of homes, big buildings, farming and clothing.  Seneca disagrees and notes that philosophy solely focuses on living well and wisely, but does not steer into the domain of luxurious living.  Nature has already provided this; but humans - by desiring luxury - have introduced the various arts of life.  In a sense, these other arts are a distraction from the important goal of living well.

And now to the specific ideas and quotes from the letter.

Seneca argues "a good life is more of a benefit than mere life."  For a human to merely live would put us on the same footing as the rest of the beasts.  Our unique nature - rationality - prompts us to discover the good life.  He proposes the following, in the pursuit of understanding the good life.

to discover the truth about things divine and things human ... to worship that which is divine, to love that which is human.

As society evolved, people desired rulers and the first rulers were indeed wise and knew what ought to be done in the conduct of ruling.

the government was under the jurisdiction of the wise. They kept their hands under control, and protected the weaker from the stronger. They gave advice, both to do and not to do; they showed what was useful and what was useless. Their forethought provided that their subjects should lack nothing; their bravery warded off dangers; their kindness enriched and adorned their subjects.

The ruled obeyed because the rulers were wise.

But, "vice stole in" and tyrannies and laws needed to be established.

At this point of the letter, Seneca quotes Posidonius, who claims it was philosophy which lead to the arts of life.

"When men were scattered over the earth, protected by caves or by the dug-out shelter of a cliff or by the trunk of a hollow tree, it was philosophy that taught them to build houses."

Seneca disagrees with Posidonius.

But I, for my part, do not hold that philosophy devised these shrewdly-contrived dwellings of ours which rise story upon story, where city crowds against city.

Seneca goes to the root.  The desire for vice and the failure of rulers to rule wisely, introduced the ideas of protecting oneself against the vice of others.  If all were taught well, and knew not to steal, there would be no need for the superfluous.

Was it philosophy that taught the use of keys and bolts? Nay, what was that except giving a hint to avarice?

And to be more precise, the desire for more (indifferent) things stems from the desire for luxury.

All this sort of thing was born when luxury was being born.

The big portion of the rest of the letter is a variation on this theme.  Why were all these arts of life invented?  Because people desired luxury more than learning to live well.

Seneca seems to contend that the mind busied with these types of inventions is one occupied with making physical living easier, at the expense of spending time on the higher: how to live well.

the sort of men who discover such things are the sort of men who are busied with them. ... They were both invented by some man whose mind was nimble and keen, but not great or exalted; and the same holds true of any other discovery which can only be made by means of a bent body and of a mind whose gaze is upon the ground.

He argues that the wise mine is content with little possessions which support his physical support of life.

The wise man was easy-going in his way of living. And why not? Even in our own times he would prefer to be as little cumbered as possible.

Wise men will abandon a cup, when their hand will do.  He will prove 

to others, as well as to himself, that nature has laid upon us no stern and difficult law when she tells us that we can live without the marble-cutter and the engineer, that we can clothe ourselves without traffic in silk fabrics ... [he will be] content with what the earth has placed on its surface [and that] the care of the body a problem easy to solve ... [and] will need no skilled craftsmen.

With regard to the vice of luxury, Seneca states,

Luxury has turned her back upon nature; each day she expands herself, in all the ages she has been gathering strength, and by her wit promoting the vices. At first, luxury began to lust for what nature regarded as superfluous, then for that which was contrary to nature; and finally she made the soul a bondsman to the body, and bade it be an utter slave to the body's lusts.

He admits that people's reason was put to use for the invention of all these things, but it was not "right reason."

Reason did indeed devise all these things, but it was not right reason. It was man, but not the wise man, that discovered them. ... All this sort of thing has been devised by the lowest grade of slaves. 26. Wisdom's seat is higher; she trains not the hands, but is mistress of our minds.

Wisdom shows us how to live well.

wisdom's course is toward the state of happiness ... she delivers to us the knowledge of the whole of nature ... [she will] inquire about the soul ... [and] has turned her attention from the corporeal to the incorporeal, and has closely examined truth and the marks whereby truth is known.

Furthermore, the wise man, in pursuit of wisdom, teaches us to

not merely to know the gods, but to follow them, and to welcome the gifts of chance precisely as if they were divine commands. He has forbidden us to give heed to false opinions, and has weighed the value of each thing by a true standard of appraisement. He has condemned those pleasures with which remorse is intermingled, and has praised those goods which will always satisfy; and he has published the truth abroad that he is most happy who has no need of happiness, and that he is most powerful who has power over himself.

Seneca later seems to note that putting the genie of vice and luxury back into the bottle will be an impossible task if people constantly and relentlessly pursue more.

no enlargement of our boundaries will bring us back to the condition from which we have departed. ... Care vexes us in our purple, and routs us from our beds with the sharpest of goads; but how soft was the sleep the hard earth bestowed upon the men of that day!

After all this discussion and many examples, he wonders what is to be done.  He advocates learning and training and constant practice of philosophy.

Virtue is not vouchsafed to a soul unless that soul has been trained and taught, and by unremitting practice brought to perfection. 

Letters from a Stoic 83 - On Drunkenness

On Drunkenness

The letter starts of emphasizing the importance of conducting self-retrospectives, so that we may learn from our past.

Seneca advocates transparency and constant introspection.

we should live, – as if we lived in plain sight of all men; and it is thus that we should think, – as if there were someone who could look into our inmost souls; and there is one who can so look. For what avails it that something is hidden from man? Nothing is shut off from the sight of God. He is witness of our souls, and he comes into the very midst of our thoughts – comes into them. ...

I shall keep watching myself continually, and – a most useful habit – shall review each day. For this is what makes us wicked: that no one of us looks back over his own life. Our thoughts are devoted only to what we are about to do. And yet our plans for the future always depend on the past.

Then he delves into the topic of drunkenness.

I've never been drunk and I don't understand the desire for people who drink until they are drunk.  In high school, I generally avoided the crowd that smoked weed and drank.  While I was living in Guatemala, I saw plenty of drunks.  Two examples stand out - one repulsive, the other graphic and tragic.

The first was of a man who was attempting to walk home, but who was so slammed, he passed out in the middle of the dirt walking path, just before a foot bridge.  He was lucky enough to have avoided smashing his head on something hard enough to split his head open.  But, after he passed out, he wet himself and vomited.

The second was of a man who was so smashed, he could not hold onto the metal bar while standing in the back of a truck (jalon).  Therefore, he stumbled backwards, out of the back of the truck, hit the ground and cracked open his head and bled out before help could arrive.

As for Seneca, he makes a good argument, simply stating that the sage will not get drunk.

the sage ... always stops short of drunkenness.

He continues,

if you wish to prove that a good man ought not to get drunk, why work it out by logic? Show how base it is to pour down more liquor than one can carry, and not to know the capacity of one's own stomach; show how often the drunkard does things which make him blush when he is sober; state that drunkenness is nothing but a condition of insanity purposely assumed.

The rest of the letter are the many examples of how drunkenness usually brings out the worst vices in us. 

If you or a loved one suffers from alcohol addiction, seek help.  Here's one resource to consider.

https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/brochures-and-fact-sheets/treatment-alcohol-problems-finding-and-getting-help