Seneca’s moral psychology: the relationship between the disposition of the soul and the happy life
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17851/1983-3636.11.1.89-110Keywords:
Seneca, moral psychology, passions, happy lifeAbstract
The present paper has as its objective to make explicit in which manner the disposition of the soul can set one apart or close to the happy life, in Seneca’s moral philosophy. In order to do so, the analysis and discussion is focused on the 13th epistle of the Moral Epistles (Epistulae Morales), in which the author displays a description of the disgraceful life, that is lead by the one who is stricken by dread – a psychological phenomenon that, due to its consisting in one of the main passions, may incur into an impairment on man’s value attribution skills (whether to himself, whether to what is external to him). On the other hand, and having in mind the written considerations, it is attempted to argue that it is specially the strength of soul of the wise man (sapiens) that seems to place him close to the stoic ideal of the tranquility of the soul (tranquillitas animi).
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