Seneca on Anger and Tranquility of Mind

Comments and review on some of Seneca's texts

07.05.2020

by Alchemist <alchemist@sdf.org>

Back to index

Introduction

Today I want to talk a little about a recent read of stoic texts I finished. It is a book containing translations of some texts by Seneca the Younger. It is divided in two parts, with an extensive and interesting introduction which contextualizes Seneca's textual format for writing and argumentation.

Note that most of the text below is directly translated from my book notes, originally written in Portuguese, so you might find some inconsistencies on my writing.

These parts compose a total of four books, being all of them written in the format of letters. The first three books correspond to De Ira, which talks about the vice of anger, being directed to Seneca's elder brother Novatus. The last book correspond to the text De Tranquillitate Animi, which concerns the state of mind with respect to many daily aspects of life.

About Seneca

So who was Seneca anyway? Well, Lucius Annaeus Seneca, "the Younger", was a philosopher of Stoicism born between 4 b.C. and 1 b.C., and lived until he met his end at year 65.

He was, by profession, a politician, being present as consellor or friend of the family of important emperors and princes of the Roman Empire back then, such as Caligula, Claudius and Nero -- and he was also a great criticizer of Caligula, expressing it explicitly on some parts of both texts. That rendered him some problems which ultimately branded him as traitor, causing his execution at the end.

On Anger

As stated before, this text is divided into three books.

On the first book, Seneca describes, to his brother Novatus, the vice of anger, where it comes from, and interprets it as a "brief insanity", and so he stats that anger must be completely removed from a person's life. Here, Seneca also makes clear his divergency with the Peripatetics (namely, Aristotle) and the Epicurists, on the usefulness of anger: to Seneca and the stoics, there is no such thing as a use for anger, being it an evil.

Anger is then interpreted as an exclusive product of volition. The person affected by anger, before developing into that vice, first identifies an insult as his interpretation for a situation or an action. The interpretation comes from many motives, being primarily involuntary, even if it is possible to avoid misinterpreting a situation, a saying or an action as insult.

This identification of an insult then renders a feeling of need for revenge, which can then turn into anger or sadness. Seneca says that, at this point, one has the option to proceed to get antry (or get sad) or to suppress or reinterpret said action/saying/situation. The angry person is, then, that which does not stop his need for revenge with respect to the perceived insult, be it an actual insult or the fruit of misinterpretation.

On the second book, Seneca restates everything said before about anger, characterizing it again as a "brief insanity", and describes therapeutical prectices so that it can be suppressed. These practices describe pedagogical practices that may be applied on childhood, and some others can be applied on adult age, when the latter wants to stop his or her own anger.

Seneca also makes an interesting interpretation basing on greek Physics, basing on the four elements of nature, to state that some people might have an innate inclination to anger. This is also extended to environmental precepts too (for example, high temperature).

On the third book, Seneca develops even more arguments on therapeutical practices that can be used to placate anger, and also to avoid incide and reincidence of anger. He also describes some exercises of autoanalysis for liberation from anger. At last, he mentions some practices to moderate the angry other person.

On Tranquility of Mind

This last part is a sole text, smaller then a fifth of the rest of the (actual) book, and it is written as a correspondence of letters between the friends Serenus and Seneca.

The book begins with the writings of Serenus, describing his day and his appreciation for the simple things, going through complaints of anxiety, worry and disgust, and asking for a way to keep his own sanity, given that Serenus himself dealed every day with the temptations of vices, such as wealth and mansions, very common to politicians.

Seneca then reassures his friend, citing each of the evils described by him as someone giving a diagnosis. Then, he shows that what Serenus wants is something very close to a state of mind of a god or a sage; the greeks called it "euthymía", while Seneca calls it "tranquility". Then, he describes some practices -- "remedies" -- which may be applied to placate the vices, whenever they torment the tranquility of Serenus.

Through the description of the remedies, Seneca describes several aspects of life which are very contemporary, such as isolation with respect to the social and political activities, which he advises only when there is a need or vocation for that, but never in a sudden, and also instructs that even the activities done in isolation -- like practicing otium, for example -- must be done under the premise of a social purpose.

Seneca also talks about self-evaluation and the evaluation of others: the activities of an individual, the activities of others, and the evaluation of others given their companions. These aspects are not fully reprimanded in the sense of considering these practices as wrong things, but there is always the comprehension that while judgement is part of human nature, it must be done in a moderate way and with a clear vision of things around it. There is, then, a limit for self-criticism and for criticizing others, which must be identified so that no pain is caused to the one performing said evaluations, since they might concern aspects that are external to that person (such as the opinion of others on his regard, and the actions of others).

Seneca talks, too, about property, and how an individual is supposed to act regarding that aspect of life -- more specifically, managing prooperty, without the worries and the restlessness that come from attachment to external things.

Conclusion

It is very important to remember that whatever demonstrations that come from stoic philosophers are based on an assumption that they must be practiced, with temperance, and that "tranquility" will not be confused with "apathy", since those might often be confused.

This is a very good book, and I recommend it as though it might look like specific topics on very specific things, the discution ends up touching a lot of subjects and may help on daily life.

Below I've attached a link to the Amazon page of the book in question -- it is in Portuguese, but it is very easy to find translations to other languages, though they might not have the excellent introduction I mentioned before.

Link to book page on Amazon