Fetch Selected Letters Compiled By Seneca Presented As Manuscript
Casi cada página contiene una o varias frases dignas de ser enmarcadas, Seneca The Happy Life, The Shortness of Life aka La Vie Heureuse, Conspiracy Theory, Artificial Intelligence
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In the future, Artificial Intelligence will have to play a crucial role in finding the Perfect Philosophy, Political System yes “democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others that have
been tried as Winston Churchill has said, but it needs to be improved, think of America and what has been happening there after the election of the Ultimate Ghoul inand a super intelligent entity will be able to conceive a System that is Flexible for instance, at certain moments of the day, week it will have to be Seneca, at others, based on many parameters, such as the individual having the flu, covid or being in some other altered state it would be Hedonism, with doses of Zen Buddhism Personalized no two philosophies will be exactly the same and though there will be similarities and even times when especially couples if this is a thing of the future and society will not be a sort of collection of free, open relationships, evolving, transcending, involving more than two individuals will have at the same time the same philosophy working in two bodies and minds, creating a Divine Entity
Earlier this morning, an idea came the Conspiracy Theories could be turned on their heads and used with Rational, Philosophical interest in mind at this point, there may be no, change that, it is clear there is no may be more than one billion people that buy conspiracy theories with both hands and believe in them religiously a dramatic revelation stoke me some years back, in the sauna of a rather selective club Downtown, where first one, then another and finally almost all the other clients coming in supported the crazy lies that explain/and other vicious mass murders no matter how absurd they are
From the big Election Lie in America to the monstrous, deadly conspiracy theories surrounding the pandemic, wherein more than a billion would oppose the cure and at the same time resort to the most vile, obnoxious alternative medicine, such as horse medicine and other nonsense these people embrace quacks like Trump, the Brazilian vicious Foul and a multitude of othersergo, why not use AI to create a charismatic prototype, the best formula that such crowds would go for, embrace and support fanatically, take his or her words and put them in practice, only this Prophet will promote only sane rules
He will teach people using among other techniques the Principles of Influence as explained in the classic Influence sitelink blogspot. com/i by Robert Cialdini to be happy, avoid consumerism and its excesses, which can be found in the precepts embraced by Seneca, show them that life is not short, it is long enough and we could add that life expectancy is anyway increasing the problem is we waste time with useless activities, treat often time as if it would be in endless supply, indeed, we even say kill time, there is nothing to do, when we should have a different attitude
If one or a few charismatic leaders, prophetic characters would be pushed forward to promote the Perfect mix of Stoicism and Flow which could be a challenge, for the mere mortal writing this sees a contradiction between Optimum Experience, Maximum intensity and restraint, abstention, albeit Stoicism is often wrongly associated with hermits, no funindeed, Seneca himself was one of the wealthiest men of his time and was all for enjoying life, only not with excesses, debauchery and intoxication then we may reach the point where the toxicity that is now so pervasive might be eliminated
Our stoic vein will be severely tested in the coming days, perhaps hours, for the Small Man in the Kremlin has decided that Ukraine must not be, it is anyway an artificial contraption in his telling, the false history that he rambled on the other night, created by the Soviet Union on a side note, or even connected with this, yes, CCCP aka the USSR that the Small Man so much lingers for somebody should Analyze That and fast, for the fellow is losing it fast and let us consider the possibility that he is suicidal, like those pilots of airplanes that took the machine into the mountain and over one hundred people with themor that chap with Malaysia Airlines who probably did about the same, only crashed into the ocean has altered the republics and given territory that was ours to the Ukraine and added something to the then Soviet Moldova that had not been thereand what are we and others to do with this, take the guns and go for it, or because we do not have the arsenal of the big bear we are to sit and watch it eat, as in the survival of the biggestmy daughter has sent me a video with the Ethiopian ambassador to the UN, who talked about the legacy of empires in Africa, where apparently all states have been artificially drawn by Britain, Portugal and other big countries of the old days and they have to live with this, otherwise the whole continent would be a blood bath and conflict would never cease
At the French news last night, they were talking about gas, the shutting down of North Streamfinally, The German chancellor has put a temporary stop to that project following the recognition as states of rogue territories by Putin by the way, what is insurrectionists, islamists take some land out of his increasingly aggressive, obnoxious and unbearable country and declare themselves independentwhat then as sovereign, following which he has sent troops in, to keep the peace, which is the US through the charming Ambassador to the UN said it is nonsense, and the world waits at the edge of the seat to see what his next move is, and intelligence information and one would say good sense as well would argue that the rambling, mad man is determined to set us on fire and fury
That French program was talking about the price of gas, the fact that in our parts, Eastern Europe depends in large part on fucking Gazprom I was thinking that we should start a network, wherein people in the world would boycott Russia individually and as part of larger networks, this one has me and the couple of macaws that are here recognize Taiwan, respect only that part of China that reneges on communism, refute Xi, recognize Tibet and do so many other ethical, good things, only what about heating the home, and then what happens if the push comes to shove and the economies tumblethe stock markets have fallen and even if we do not own shares here, still, the moves of the subprime markets in America have once sent us down in, when the shit has hit the fan
Phew.
. . this one was quite a slog, I found the language in this one quite difficult to get to grips with, I'm not sure if that is Seneca's fault or the translators, A comparison with other translations may cause me to revise my opinion, I'm giving this one three due to the quality of the introduction and notes which are up to the usual Oxford World's Classics standard, Seneca is personally my favorite writers of the Stoic classics,
This particular translation was pretty good, but defintiely not my favorite, I understand the reasoning given as to why it was only a selection of the letters of Seneca MUCH more than the overly hyped Penguin Classics edition.
. . I think double the number of letters, but I feel that he wroteletters for a reason that we know of/have available, And even if there may be some repitition or similar topics covered from others, allneed to be included,
That said, I still gave the book a fair shot, It was much better of a translation that the Penguin Classics version, but not as good as the much older edition done by Gummere, . . which to me is odd, A book from the early's is an easier read than a much more recent edition That is indeed the case, at least for me, I frequently found myself going back and forth among the two and more often than not, being quite amazed that I prefer the older for its readability.
YMMV however.
For what it is, it is NOT a bad book/translation, If you were given this, or this was all you could find to buy, it will do you well, It's just not my first choice, Too few letters, too much commentary A very unintimidating stoic classic, The translator makes benevolent notes before each letter, But the introduction ruins it all, Seneca the stoic becomes Seneca the hypocrite, These letters seem preachy and feigned, especially coming from a man of such wealth and indulgence in his later years, I suspect they were not written to a reallife subject, and am supported by many in my suspicions, No hay forma de calificar a un filósofo romano, hay mucho que contextualizar antes de decir que se está o no se está de acuerdo con sus postulados.
En este caso, este extracto de las Cartas morales a Lucilo muestra reflexiones acerca de la vida, la sobriedad, la frugalidad, la virtud y la postura frente a la muerte que, como el propio Séneca dice, no son críticas hacia aquello que acongoja a Lucilo, sino lecciones para sí mismo.
Y de aquello que dice salvando extemporaneidades podemos sacar muchísimo, Tal como eso que asegura sobre el viajar para alejarse de lo que mal funciona en la vida: nada se soluciona si el compañero de ese viaje es uno mismo.
Si es el alma la malherida, no hay lugar que pueda aliviarla, Luego, muchas citas a Epicuro, y bastante sobre la base del estoicismo: la vida es un camino hacia la muerte y hay que aprender a morir lo único que necesita el hombre es lo que la naturaleza puede proveer, por lo que no hay que desear lo que no se necesita realmente no hay que anticiparse a la tragedia, porque se sufre por dos hay que prepararse para el dolor y la pobreza aún en el bienestar y la riqueza.
Esto dice Séneca, entre otras cosas cada cual interpretará la conveniencia y verosimilitud de sus palabras, Fue toda una experiencia leer a Séneca en medio del bosque de Neltume, mirando el lago y discutiendo su contenido con amigos queridos y nuevos.
Parece que hay que puro leer los clásicos, Can be enlightening but also very pessimistic, Life was cruel and yet he dealt with things stoically, The notes in this are great! Very informative, Senecas an amiable fellow. Hes friendly, hes unpretentious, and his idiosyncrasies are of the more endearing sort, During his asthma attacks, he reminds himself that he could take his final breath at any moment, that every hour of our past has already been claimed by death that were dying every day.
He lives above a noisy gymnasium for a while and uses the opportunity to improve his concentration and make himself less susceptible to outside distractions, Then he decides to find another place to live because after all, who the hell wants to live above a gym
He plunders nuggets of wisdom from the rival Epicureans, because a philosopher takes everything thats true and makes it his own.
And now, two thousand years later, were still plundering him, though we tend not to share many of his philosophical presuppositions, I doubt he would have minded,
To understand a man, you have to understand what he worships, Senecas religion is a curious amalgamation of naturalistic, pantheistic, and henotheistic elements which are all allowed to hang together, If Stoic ethical teachings can be summarized in one sentence, it would be, “live according to nature” but nature, for a Stoic, is always infused with divinity, to the point that nature and the supernatural paradoxically fold together.
On top of this, Stoics like Seneca had no trouble believing in the traditional GrecoRoman pantheon, though they devoted themselves primarily to the worship of Jupiter, the king of the gods, who they believed to exist outside of space and time and to sustain the being of the world in a manner approximating monotheism.
They believed that the cosmos was periodically consumed in fire, and that the gods themselves sans Jupiter were stacked on top of each other and squeezed into a pinpoint of space, sort of like clothes in those vacuum storage bags.
Then the cosmos started over, In one letter, Seneca expresses a belief in something like reincarnation: he says that as the seasons disappear only to return again the next year, so people live and die, but are reconstituted with no memory of their past existence.
To be a Stoic, for Seneca, is to be a natural man and to be a natural man is to be like the creator of men: the old thunderthrower himself.
Jupiter is free because he doesnt need anything, He exists and acts for its own sake, He relies on nothing and fears nothing, and so a natural man should be the same way, Fear and hope are the great tyrants of mankind by submitting to them, we make ourselves hostage to fortune, and our stability comes to rely upon externalities, making us something less than natural.
But fortunately for us, natures god gave us the means with which to liberate ourselves from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, including its blackest dart, which is death.
This means is called logos the principle of reason which pervades all things and encapsulates the nature of god, and, by extension, the true nature of man.
Through reason, we can recognize our hopes and fears for what they are: irrational phantom images that lie below the level of existence which is the same thing as to say that they are unnatural, which is the same thing as to say that they are ungodly.
Its an interesting way of thinking and to some extent, I find it an appealing one, In the American religionwherein the pope is Oprah Winfrey, the holy spirit is legal tender, and God wants nothing more than for you to indulge in every impulsetheodicy is a subject of much consternation.
When disaster strikes when the calamitous nature of being alive manifests itself above the din of our frivolous chatterings, weve a mind to cast aspersions on a god who greets evil with indifference.
Seneca would reply that god is indeed indifferent to the ups and downs of life and with a little practice, you could be too,
Keep well.
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