Seneca’s warning against Stoicism

Philosophers are all too eager to speak about the benefits of their #ideals , but will seldom mention the drawbacks. I’m afraid that it is up to the readers to figure out the problems and adopt countermeasures. Seneca came up with essential insights about #stoicism and the good life, but also made some dire mistakes. I encourage readers to study his #philosophy carefully, as though it was marked with the notice “Warning: Potential danger.” The fact that #seneca was forced to commit suicide should serve as a warning of severe danger. Considering that Seneca ended up killing himself, it is fair to question the soundness of his philosophy. If Seneca was so clever, why did he end up so badly? If his philosophy was so effective, how come that he killed himself? If Stoicism enables people to find happiness, how come that its cultural influence has diminished? Seneca should have addressed these questions because, by the time he started to write, Stoic philosophy was already three hundred years old. The ideas of #zeno of Citium (334-262 BC) and Cleanthes (330-230 BC) had been put into practice by many generations. Seneca could examine a vast body of philosophical knowledge, and reach accurate conclusions. In his Letters to Lucilius, Seneca deployed serious efforts to examine the practical implications of Stoic philosophy. For a decade, until his fifty-fifth birthday approximately, he lived as he preached and did well. Later on, he went astray and suffered the consequences. Seneca was right in many of his recommendations; when he told us to devote our leisure time to #personalgrowth , he was giving us good advice. In his 79th Letter to Lucilius, he warned us against “empty amusements” twenty centuries before video-games and soap operas. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/senecas-warning-against-stoicism/