Seneca and the art of living

In contrast to most Ancient Greek and Roman philosophers, Seneca remained highly consistent between his writings and his own life. I am referring specifically to his life in Corsica, where he had been exiled by Emperor Nero (54-68 AD).Seneca’s wisdom or “art of living” has maintained its value through the centuries because it responds to a crucial need. It is answering the question “What to do when things fall apart?”Undoubtedly, we face different challenges nowadays than in the early years of the Roman Empire. Seneca did not have to worry about pollution, overpopulation, inflation, traffic jams or unemployment, but he witnessed first-hand the ravages of war, famine, slavery, and judicial arbitrariness.I’m going to articulate Seneca’s art of living around two key insights. Those are spread across his philosophical writings, which consist of essays (sometimes in a quasi-conversational format) and his Letters to Lucilius.Wealth plays an enabling role in human life, but it is just one factor out of many in the formula for happiness. Seneca is the first author in history to argue at length in favour of leading a modest lifestyle, voluntarily limiting our expenditures.The recommendation of a modest lifestyle was not new, but prior authors had never addressed it in detail. I mean “authors” and not only “philosophers.”We can trace back this idea to the Bible, but not as a central theme in the Ancient Testament. The exhortation to embrace a modest lifestyle appears repeatedly in the Gospels, but those were written long after Seneca’s death.Indeed, Seneca was the first author to recommend discipline in expenditures and a modest lifestyle. I haven’t mentioned the Taoist philosophers Lao-Tzu (571-531 BC) and Chuang-Tzu (369-286 BC) because those had taken poverty for granted.Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/seneca-and-the-art-of-living/