Seneca and Stoic Apatheia: Ethics, Physics, and the History of Emotions

Abstract

This volume situates itself at the intersection of two research areas which have yielded fruitful results over the past few decades: the investigation of Seneca’s reception of the Stoic tradition and the comparative study of the history of the emotions as culturally constructed phenomena. Modern handbooks agree in regarding impassiveness (apatheia) as the ultimate goal of the Stoic therapy of the emotions – as a distinguishing mark of the Stoic wise man, who, by acting rationally, extinguishes all emotions (pathe) except the ‘good’ ones (eupatheiai). Yet, although Seneca’s self-conscious adherence to Stoic philosophy and its doctrine on emotions is undisputable, no comprehensive study has ever been undertaken to assess the role of the notion of 'apatheia' in the Senecan corpus in light of its connections with individual and social ethics, the physical constitution of the mind and the world, and the therapeutic task of philosophical writing. The contributions gathered in the present volume, written by a team of international scholars with recognized expertise in the area, aim to fill this remarkable gap by offering a fresh and critical overview of all of Seneca’s works, both in prose and in verse.