This chapter of Seneca's Dialogues and Essay's is a must-read. Any Stoic would find much to interest himself in these pages, and I am sure I will return to them often. The essay is a letter to a friend of Seneca's exhorting him to use his time wisely. Seneca wants the letter's recipient to engage himself in worthwhile occupation - I found the argument compelling.
The beginning of the letter is mainly that time is valuable. It is truly the most valuable commodity of all, being the only one that cannot be acquired. We have a fixed reserve of this resource, though we don't know when it will end. Seneca takes a unique viewpoint, one which I agree with, that time given to others is more or less wasted. I would not describe all time spent this way, such as time spent with one's family, but certainly time spent responding to the demands of others is time wasted. In this way, he makes the claim that an old man may just be a man who has existed for a long time, rather than lived for a long time. Certainly this outlook has important ramifications for personal ethics. However, later in the letter, Seneca writes "For what new pleasure is there that any hour can now bring him? All are known, or have been tasted to the full." This seems to place value on new experiences. I am not yet sure of how this can be reconciled with taking control of one's own time. In my view, many experiences are simply surrendering yourself to others, so that you may see something new. Travel is much like this - surrendering yourself to a new culture in order to broaden your outlook. That is not the same as living every second on your own terms.
In discussing the past, present, and future Seneca tells the reader to take control of all three. Utilize the past and present to shape the future. Only a detailed and honest reflection on the past will allow growth and development for the future. This is quite Stoic, in my opinion. Towards the end of the letter Seneca praises philosophy as the only way to harness the intellectual power of past ages in order to increase the potency of the present. I could write a whole post on only the few paragraphs Seneca writes on this subject, and perhaps someday I will.
The beginning of the letter is mainly that time is valuable. It is truly the most valuable commodity of all, being the only one that cannot be acquired. We have a fixed reserve of this resource, though we don't know when it will end. Seneca takes a unique viewpoint, one which I agree with, that time given to others is more or less wasted. I would not describe all time spent this way, such as time spent with one's family, but certainly time spent responding to the demands of others is time wasted. In this way, he makes the claim that an old man may just be a man who has existed for a long time, rather than lived for a long time. Certainly this outlook has important ramifications for personal ethics. However, later in the letter, Seneca writes "For what new pleasure is there that any hour can now bring him? All are known, or have been tasted to the full." This seems to place value on new experiences. I am not yet sure of how this can be reconciled with taking control of one's own time. In my view, many experiences are simply surrendering yourself to others, so that you may see something new. Travel is much like this - surrendering yourself to a new culture in order to broaden your outlook. That is not the same as living every second on your own terms.
In discussing the past, present, and future Seneca tells the reader to take control of all three. Utilize the past and present to shape the future. Only a detailed and honest reflection on the past will allow growth and development for the future. This is quite Stoic, in my opinion. Towards the end of the letter Seneca praises philosophy as the only way to harness the intellectual power of past ages in order to increase the potency of the present. I could write a whole post on only the few paragraphs Seneca writes on this subject, and perhaps someday I will.
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