Beyond Philosophy

Seneca concludes his epistle exhorting Lucilius to choose needs over wants, divine nature over human luxury (which fosters an insatiable appetite for more than we can ever use or appreciate properly). He notes that what makes us great, as humans, is the power of our minds: he is referring not to the intellect per se, the part of the mind that notices & parses information, but to the will, the part of the mind that fosters righteous, good, and generous behavior. He says that righteous, good, and generous minds can be found in all stations of contemporary Roman life—among the noble knights, the common freedmen, & the lowly slaves. Anyone can rise to become a peer of the gods, no matter how unfortunate or impoverished he, or she, might appear. Quaerendum est quod non fiat in dies eius, q ui non possit obstari. Quid hoc est? animus, sed hic rectus, bonus, magnus. Quid aliud voces hunc quam deum in corpore humano hospitantem? Hic animus tam in equitem Romanum quam in libertinum, qua...

Marcus here addresses himself on the subject of life and death. He wants to live, but life for him is a process of moving on, a journey that requires us always to be leaving things behind. Among these things, for Marcus, is the personal self, the self that remains aware of its own being apart from the being of the universe that makes it (and then blows it away like dust, in the cosmic wind). Rather than consider himself something solid and permanent, he views it as ephemeral, something to relinquish gratefully when the time for release arrives. He wants death to find him happy and at peace, doing the work that nature has given to his animal species. Contrast this with Unamuno's feelings. Ὡς ἐξελθὼν ζῆν διανοῇ, οὕτως ἐνταῦθα ζῆν ἔξεστιν· ἐὰν δὲ μὴ ἐπιτρέπωσι, τότε καὶ τοῦ ζῆν ἔξιθι, οὕτως μέντοι ὡς μηδὲν κακὸν πάσχων. καπνὸς καὶ ἀπέρχομαι· τί αὐτὸ πρᾶγμα δοκεῖς; μέχρι δέ με τοιοῦτον οὐδὲν ἐξάγει, μένω ἐλεύθερος καὶ οὐδείς με κωλύσει ποιεῖν ἃ θέλω· θέλω δὲ ἃ κατὰ φύσιν τοῦ λογικοῦ κα...

Unamuno describes how loss and death and shared suffering produce a kind of love that is different from the love has not lost, died, or suffered together with another. Esta otra forma del amor, este amor espiritual, nace del dolor, nace de la muerte del amor carnal; nace también del compasivo sentimiento de protección que los padres experimentan ante los hijos desvalidos. Los amantes no llegan a amarse con dejación de sí mismos, con verdadera fusión de sus almas, y no ya de sus cuerpos, sino luego que el mazo poderoso del dolor ha triturado sus corazones remejiéndolos en un mismo almirez de pena. El amor sensual confundía sus cuerpos, pero separaba sus almas; manteníalas extraña una a otra; mas de ese amor tuvieron un fruto de carne, un hijo. Y este hijo engendrado en muerte, enfermó acaso y se murió. Y sucedió que sobre el fruto de su fusión carnal y separación o mutuo extrañamiento espiritual, separados y fríos de dolor sus cuerpos, pero confundidas en dolor sus almas, se dieron los ...

Nature has prepared you for life. Use her gifts to become like the gods, who live without being attached to money or clothing or reputation. The beauty and strength they serve, natural beauty and strength, is greater than ours, which is mortal and must fade. Quomodo inquis isto pervenitur? Non per Poeninum Graiumve montem nec per deserta Candaviae; nec Syrtes tibi nec Scylla aut Charybdis adeundae sunt, quae tamen omnia transisti procuratiunculae pretio: tutum iter est, iucundum est, ad quod natura te instruxit. Dedit tibi illa quae si non deserueris, par deo surges. Parem autem te deo pecunia non faciet: deus nihil habet. Praetexta non faciet: deus nudus est. Fama non faciet nec ostentatio tui et in populos nominis dimissa notitia: nemo novit deum, multi de illo male existimant, et impune. Non turba servorum lecticam tuam per itinera urbana ac peregrina portantium: deus ille maximus potentissimusque ipse vehit omnia. Ne forma quidem et vires beatum te facere possunt: nihil horum pa...

Marcus advises himself to avoid resenting or reacting badly to others' bodily odors. The rational faculty of our minds should show us that perceiving bad smell is not in itself a cause for behaving badly, or taking offense (as though the stinkers among us were always trying to insult us with their presence). Τῷ γράσωνι μήτι ὀργίζῃ, μήτι τῷ ὀζοστόμῳ ὀργίζῃ; τί σοι ποιήσει; τοιοῦτον στόμα ἔχει, τοιαύτας μάλας ἔχει, ἀνάγκη τοιαύτην ἀποφορὰν ἀπὸ τοιούτων γίνεσθαι. «ἀλλ’ ὁ ἄνθρωπος λόγον ἔχει,» φησί, «καὶ δύναται συννοεῖν ἐφιστάνων τί πλημμελεῖ.» εὖ σοι γένοιτο· τοιγαροῦν καὶ σὺ λόγον ἔχεις, κίνησον λογικῇ διαθέσει λογικὴν διάθεσιν, δεῖξον, ὑπόμνησον· εἰ γὰρ ἐπαΐει, θεραπεύσεις καὶ οὐ χρεία ὀργῆς. Οὔτε τραγῳδὸς οὔτε πόρνη. The stinker and the mouth-breather: each annoys you, right? But why? Having a mouth and pits means leaking from those parts, occasionally. “But human beings have reason,” someone will say, “and so can comprehend with understanding when something about their expression...

Unamuno continues to reflect on the ambiguous nature of love, in its most basic form (of sexual intimacy). On the surface, his reading will appear traditionally Catholic, offering a division of good and evil that not everyone can easily or even safely accept. But if you look beyond the Catholicism, those who cannot or will not embrace it, what he offers has a wider and still compelling significance. He observes, correctly, that there is something inherently selfish in our intimate relations (especially those that involve some kind of sex): left to drift aimlessly in such relations, we often arrive at very selfish positions, reducing other people to objects serving our own gratification. If we treat others this way, we must necessarily expect the same from them, and so our eros, our love, becomes eternally tainted. In such situations, celibacy does become a more attractive choice (recommended by our desire to escape the game that makes us tyrants and slaves, the sort of people who domin...