Beata est vita conveniens naturae suae, the completion of self-knowledge as fulfillment of the educational process, two cases in Seneca’s Naturales Quaestiones
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25145/j.fortunat.2022.35.08Keywords:
Seneca, stoicism, education, ethics, reasonAbstract
The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that the study of nature and its secrets is highly relevant to complete the human’s educational process, according to Seneca the Younger. Therefore, two passages of Naturales Quaestiones will be analyzed here in which Seneca’s interest to living in compliance with human nature is clear, i.e., that we must pursue the seeking of wisdom, achieving knowledge, and reasoning. Thus, our educational process won’t be fulfilled if we forget, as humankind, to live according to our own nature; if we don’t act with moral rightness and if we refuse our soul’s completion and commonweal.
Downloads
References
BOBZIEN, Susanne (1999): Determinism and freedom in Stoic philosophy, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
BOERI, Marcelo Diego (2013): «Natural law and world order in Stoicism», en Gabriela ROSSI (ed.), Nature and the Best Life. Exploring the Natural Bases of Practical Normativity in Ancient Philosophy, Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim, pp. 183-223. https://repositorio.uc.cl/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11534/22379/Natural_Law_and_World_Order_in_Stoicism.pdf.
COLISH, Marcia L. (1990): The Stoic Tradition from Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages: Stoicism in Classical Latin Literature (vol. 1), Brill, Leiden.
DIOGENES LAERTIUS (2001): Vitae Philosophorum, vol. I, libri I-X, ed. Miroslav MARCOVICH, Teubner, Sttutgart - Leipzig.
GARCÍA-BORRÓN, Juan Carlos (1956): Séneca y los estoicos (una contribución al estudio del senequismo), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas - Instituto Luis Vives (Estudios, 6), Barcelona.
VON GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang (2002): Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Werke Kommentare und Register. Hamburger Ausgabe in 14 Bänden, Bd. 13, Naturwissenschaftliche Schriften I, Verlag C. H. Beck, Múnich.
HAHM, David E. (1977): The Origins of Stoic Cosmology, Ohio State University Press, Ohio.
INWOOD, Brad (2005): Stoic Philosophy at Rome, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
KIDD, Ian G. (1978): «Moral Actions and Rules in Stoic Ethics», en John M. RIST (ed.), The Stoics, University of California Press, Berkeley - Los Ángeles - Londres, pp. 247-258.
LETTA, Cesare (1999): «Attualità e riflessione politica nelle ultime opere di Seneca: dalle Naturales Quaestiones alle “Lettere a Lucilio”», Journal for the Promotion of Classical Studies [= The Journal of Classical Studies] 7: 93-139.
LONG, Anthony A. (1978): «Dialectic and the Stoic Sage», en John M. RIST (ed.), The Stoics, University of California Press, Berkeley - Los Ángeles - Londres, pp. 101-124.
ROSENMEYER, Thomas G. (2000): «Seneca and nature», Arethusa 33(1): 99-119.
SENECA, Lucius Annaeus (1900): De Beneficiis. L. Annae Senecae Opera Quae Supersunt, vol. 1, Fasc. 2, ed. Carl HOSIUS, Teubner, Leipzig.
SENECA, Lucius Annaeus (1965): Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, vols. 1-2, ed. Leighton D. REYNOLDS, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
SENECA, Lucius Annaeus (1977): L. Annaei Senecae Dialogorum Libri Duodecim, ed. Leighton D. REYNOLDS, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
SENECA, Lucius Annaeus (1996): Naturalium quaestionum libri, ed. Harry M. HINE, Teubner, Leipzig.
SÉNÈQUE (1929): Naturales Quaestiones (Sénèque, Questions Naturelles), vols. 1-2, ed. P. OLTRAMARE, Les Belles Lettres, París.
STOUGH, Charlotte (1978): «Stoic Determinism and Moral Responsibility», en John M. RIST (ed.), The Stoics, University of California Press, Berkeley - Los Ángeles - Londres, pp. 203-232.
WATT, William S. (1994): «Notes on Seneca’s Epistvlae and Natvrales Qvaestiones», The Classical Quarterly 44 (1): 185-198.
WILLIAMS, Gareth D. (2012): The Cosmic Viewpoint: A Study of Seneca’s Natural Questions, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right to be the first publication of the work as well as license it under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with acknowledgment of authorship of the work and initial publication in this magazine.
Authors may separately establish additional agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in the journal (for example, placing it in an institutional repository or publishing it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
