Request personal videos on Cameo - [ Ссылка ]
My Listenable Course: Basics of Stoic Philosophy and Practice - [ Ссылка ]
Get Seneca's On The Happy Life - [ Ссылка ]
Support my work here - [ Ссылка ] or Buy Me A Coffee - [ Ссылка ]
Philosophy tutorials - [ Ссылка ]
This is a video in my new Core Concepts series -- designed to provide students and lifelong learners a brief discussion focused on one main concept from a classic philosophical text and thinker.
This Core Concept video focuses on Seneca's work On The Happy Life, and specifically on the Stoic definitions of the greatest goods that he provides early on in the work. Seneca writes;
"Happy, therefore, is the life in agreement with its own nature. And there is no other way for this to come about than if the intellect is, first, healthy and in unending possession of its own health; next, strong and energetic; then, enduring most nobly, fitted to the times, caring for its body, and for the things that pertain to the body, without anxiety; then, attentive to the other things that equip life, without admiring any of them, and ready to use the gifts of fortune and not be their slave . . .
Our good can also be defined in a different way—that is, the same proposition can be grasped with different words. Just as one and the same army is spread out more widely one moment and compacted more tightly the next, and it either arcs with the middle part curving out into wings or is arranged in a straight front, but no matter how it has been ordered it has the same strength and the
same will to stand up for the same cause—so the definition of the highest good can sometimes be spread out and extended, and at other times be compressed and collected into itself.
It will be the same thing, then, if I say, “The highest good is the mind looking down on the things of fortune, joyous in virtue,” or, “the mind’s undefeated strength, well versed in the ways of the world, calm in action, with much humanity and concern for those with whom it has contact.” One may also define it in such a way as to say that that human being is happy to whom nothing is good or bad except a good or bad mind; who is a cultivator of the morally good,” content with virtue; who is neither buoyed up nor broken by changes in fortune; who knows that there is no greater good than that which he can give to himself; to whom true pleasure will be scorning pleasures.
One may, if you wish to range further, translate it into one and another form, without endangering or damaging its power. After all, what prevents us from saying that the happy life is a free, upright, fearless, and stable mind, placed beyond fear and beyond desire, to whom the only good is
what is morally good, the only bad thing, disgrace, and the rest are a worthless swarm of things that neither subtract anything from the happy life nor add anything to it, coming and going without any
increase or diminution of the highest good?"
If you'd like to support my work producing videos like this, become a Patreon supporter! Here's the link to find out more - including the rewards I offer backers: [ Ссылка ]
You can also make a direct contribution to help fund my ongoing educational projects, by clicking here: [ Ссылка ]
If you're interested in philosophy tutorial sessions with me - especially on Seneca's thought and works - click here: [ Ссылка ]
You can find the copy of the text I am using for this sequence on Seneca's On The Happy Life here - [ Ссылка ]
My videos are used by students, lifelong learners, other professors, and professionals to learn more about topics, texts, and thinkers in philosophy, religious studies, literature, social-political theory, critical thinking, and communications. These include college and university classes, British A-levels preparation, and Indian civil service (IAS) examination preparation
(Amazon links are associate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)
#Stoicism #Seneca #Happiness #Philosophy #Lifestyle #Virtue #Prudence #Priorities #Enjoyment #Ethics #PersonalDevelopment
![](https://s2.save4k.ru/pic/vVxWOcgmyUQ/maxresdefault.jpg)