Welcome back to my Sumo to Sumo talk.

Today's question is, "The Stoic Seneca Was Rich, How Could He Preach Against Wealth?"

Now, there are 2 big misunderstandings here.

First, not all major Stoics are wealthy. (Let's get Stoicism out of the way quickly.)

Seneca preaches mostly the same things as other Stoics, and Epictetus was born a slave. Zeno, the founder, came to it after being financially ruined. Let's not forget Seneca himself was banished as well.

Attraction to Stoicism is irrelevant to wealth possession. Nor is Stoicism some coping mechanism provided to the poor so they never strive for more.

Second, Seneca was never exactly preaching against wealth. (We can get back to Seneca now.)

The misunderstanding likely comes from -

"It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor." - Seneca

People assumed Seneca "sounds like a monk" so he must be against material possessions, and that he likely owned nothing.

It's not their fault. Seneca does have a monk feel in many of his works.

"Set aside now and then a number of days during which you will be content with the plainest of food, and very little of it, and with rough, coarse clothing, and will ask yourself , 'Is this what one used to dread?' It is in times of security that the spirit should be preparing itself to deal with difficult times" - Seneca

But no, Seneca was a wealthy man in Rome and Seneca, never pretended to be a flawless sage.

"I am not a wise man, and I will never be. I am only a man striving to be better."

And, notice what he is really preaching here. He isn't against possessions.

"It is a great man that can treat his earthenware as if it was silver, and a man who treats his silver as if it was earthenware is no less great."

One has to treat earthenware with respect, the other has to treat silver like an object it is meant to be, not his master. He considers both of them as great people, both have an entirely different test to give as well.

(A quick note: The Emperor of Rome, Marcus Aurelius, also a Stoic, did have the challenge of handling his position and staying uncorrupted. Not all stoics are dealing with wealth and material possessions.)

"We should not keep silver plates within lays of solid gold, but at the same time we should not imagine that doing without gold and silver is proof that we are leading the simple life." - Seneca

Seneca claimed philosophers should live lives people will wish to live. Something between normal and ideal. He was against putting restraints that made one "torture themselves", specially staying dirty.

One might say "living an expensive life is an ideal life, so he wished to live an expensive life?"

People do not wish to live extravagantly. Most of the population looks down on "the rich" and dislikes them. So they don't fit Seneca's ideal life.

Seneca didn't preach abandoning or hoarding possessions, but not being a slave to any lifestyle or comfort. Whether it be a rich lifestyle or poor.

Wealth, in his view, was neutral like fire. It can warm your home or burn it down.

What mattered was whether you could walk away from it at any moment.

This is why he wrote:

"A wise man is neither elated by prosperity nor depressed by adversity."

In fact, Seneca might have thought running away from wealth was a sign of irresponsible personality.

“Finding wealth an intolerable burden is the mark of an unstable mind.”

But the main point here is, wealth is irrelevant.

"We do not find virtue in a man by the quality of his circumstances, but the quality of his actions."

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