Seneca: Selected Philosophical Letters - Translated with an Introduction and Commentary by Brad Inwood PDF
Preview Seneca: Selected Philosophical Letters - Translated with an Introduction and Commentary by Brad Inwood
CLARENDON LATER ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS Serieseditors:JonathanBarnes,Universite´deParisIV—Sorbonne andA.A.Long,UniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley SENECA SELECTED PHILOSOPHICAL LETTERS Seneca’s Letters to Lucilius are a rich source of information about ancientStoicism,aninfluentialworkforearlymodernphilosophers,and a fascinating philosophical document in their own right. This selection of the letters aims to include those which are of greatest philosophical interest, especially those which highlight the debates between Stoics and Platonists or Aristotelians in the first century AD, and the issue, still important today, of how technical philosophical enquiry is related to the various purposes for which philosophy is practised. In addition to examining the philosophical content of each letter, Brad Inwood’s commentarydiscussestheliteraryandhistoricalbackgroundoftheletters andtotheirrelationshipwithotherproseworksbySeneca. Seneca is the earliest Stoic author for whom we have access to a large number of complete works, and these works were highly influential in latercenturies.HewasalsoapoliticallyinfluentialadvisortotheRoman emperorNeroandacelebratedauthorofproseandverse.Hisphilosophical acuityandindependenceofmindmakehisworksexcitingandchallenging forthemodernreader. Brad Inwoodis Professorof Classics and Philosophyat the University ofToronto. PUBLISHEDINTHESERIES Alcinous:TheHandbookofPlatonism JohnDillon Epictetus:Discourses,Book RobertDobbin Galen:OntheTherapeuticMethod,BooksIandII R.J.Hankinson Porphyry:Introduction JonathanBarnes Seneca:SelectedPhilosophicalLetters BradInwood SextusEmpiricus:AgainsttheEthicists RichardBett SextusEmpiricus:AgainsttheGrammarians DavidBlank SENECA SELECTED PHILOSOPHICAL LETTERS Translatedwithan IntroductionandCommentaryby BRAD INWOOD 1 1 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxford OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork BradInwood Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished Firstpublishedinpaperback Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Dataavailable TypesetbyLaserwordsPrivateLimited,Chennai,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby CPIAntonyRowe,Chippenham,Wiltshire ISBN––––(hbk) ––––(pbk) Formyparents PREFACE InthecourseofmyworkonthisbookIhaveincurredmoredebtsthanIcan fullyrecall,letaloneacknowledgehere.Itisagenuinepleasuretothank, first and foremost, the Centre for Advanced Study in the Behavioural Sciences for their supportduringa sabbatical leave in –. Without the respite and stimulus provided by that unique institution this book wouldneverhavebeencompleted.IamalsoverygratefultotheCanada ResearchChairprogramoftheCanadiangovernmentandtomyfriends andcolleaguesattheUniversityofTorontoforinvaluableandunstinting support.Ioweagreatdealtothegenerousandcarefulworkofmyresearch assistantsintheDepartmentofClassics,VickiCiocaniandEmilyFletcher. MyinitialworkonSeneca’sletterswasencouragedbyaninvitationfrom theancientphilosophygroupatCambridgeUniversitytoaworkshopon Seneca’slettersinMay.Thediscussionatthatworkshopcontributed a great dealto several of thecommentariesin thisbook.Later,students in two of my graduate seminars (in and ) at the University of Toronto served as willing guinea pigs and ingenious collaborators. A keengroupofgraduatestudentsatNewYorkUniversityprovidedhelpful feedbackonseverallettersduringaseriesofvisitsin;Iamgrateful toPhillipMitsisfortheinvitationtoNYUandforhisencouragementand adviceonSenecaovermanyyears.TonyLonghasbeenbothsupportive ofandpatientaboutthisprojectforaverylongtime.Hisacutecomments and thoseof hisfellow series editorJonathanBarnes haveimprovedthe commentaryandtranslationatmanypoints;nodoubtIshouldhavetaken their advice more consistently. David Sedley’s work on the relationship between Stoic physics and ethics in Seneca’s work (especially in his article ‘Stoic Metaphysics at Rome’, Sedley ) has been a valuable source of stimulus. The need to respond to John Cooper’s challenging discussion ‘Moral Theory and Moral Improvement: Seneca’ (Cooper ) provoked many fruitful lines of enquiry. The ancient philosophy group at the University of Chicago has done a great deal for the study of Seneca during the time when this book was under construction (not leastbyorganizingakeyconferenceinApril)andtheirconfidencein thevalueofSenecanstudiesinacontemporaryphilosophicalsettinghas fosteredagreatdealofworkbymanypeoplefromwhichIhavebeenable tobenefit. viii Some commentaries have benefitted from work on papers originally written for oral presentation and since published separately. The com- mentary on Letter is intimately connected to a paper given at the UniversitiesofBuffalo,BritishColumbia,andAlberta,‘Reason,Ration- alization and Happiness’; it now appears as chapter of Reading Seneca (Inwood ). The commentary on Letter began as a sketch for ‘Getting to Goodness’, delivered to the Princeton Ancient Philosophy Colloquium and at the University of Pittsburgh and now published as chapter of Reading Seneca. The commentary on Letter has been enriched by discussion of an unpublished paper presented at Cornell University,theUniversityofArizona,andUCSantaBarbara. IoweaparticularlyconcretedebtofgratitudetoMargaretGraver,who subjectedthepenultimatedraftofmytranslationtoanexactingscrutiny. HerinfluencehassavedmefrommanyerrorsandinfelicitiesandIhave oftenacceptedhersuggestionsforbetterwording;theremainingblunders aremyownfault.Margaretalsoreadanearlyversionofthecommentaries with a critical eye; her comments and suggestions have improved my commentonalmosteveryletter. Itisnomerecliche´tosaythatwithouttheencouragement,advice,and lovingsupportofmywife,Niko Scharer,I wouldnothavebeen ableto writethisbook.Anevenolderdebtisowedtomyparents,MargandBill Inwood. For many decades they have provided a wonderful education, bothmoralandintellectual.MybrothersandIhadtheprivilegeofgrowing upinahouseholdwherecriticalenquiry,teaching,intellectualchallenge, andapassionforfairnesswereinthefabricofdailylife.Ithastakenme a long time to see how precious a gift our parents gave us. Humbly, I dedicatethisbooktothem. CONTENTS Introduction xi AbbreviationsandConventions xxv TRANSLATIONS 1 Letter Letter Letter Letter Letter Letter Letter Letter Letter Letter Letter Letter Letter Letter Letter Letter Letter COMMENTARY 105 Group(Letters,,) Letter Letter Letter
The list of books you might like
