Seneca, Moral Letters 17.5

Therefore, one should not seek to lay up riches first; one may attain to philosophy, however, even without money for the journey. It is indeed so. 

 

After you have come to possess all other things, shall you then wish to possess wisdom also? Is philosophy to be the last requisite in life—a sort of supplement? 

 

No, your plan should be this: be a philosopher now, whether you have anything or not—for if you have anything, how do you know that you have not too much already?—but if you have nothing, seek understanding first, before anything else.

 

I understand that my views on education make me markedly unpopular in my vocation, and yet I cannot bring myself to “fit in” by working from the false premise that a man is made merely to obey, produce, and consume. I must still insist that we are teaching backwards, where a training in conformity, profit, and climbing the ladder is at the heart of most any curriculum, and the power to think for ourselves is paid only lip service. 

 

There will be no benefit from having diligent engineers, efficient bankers, or clever lawyers if we don’t encourage people to be caring philosophers first. No, not the academics of the professional sort, who are also just symptoms of the reversed order, but the folks who are driven to make some sense of their humanity before they try to make any sense of a balance sheet. 

 

Seeking power before prudence, ambition before fortitude, luxury before temperance, and privilege before justice is a recipe for disaster, both for the individual and for his community.

 

If I am starting with wisdom as my guide, I will seek virtue for my path, and so I will learn to find the good in any circumstance, regardless of whether I happen to become rich or poor. 

 

If, however, I am starting with worldly wealth as my goal, how can I know how to put it all to good use? Fame and fortune are directionless without a moral compass, and then being deprived of such vanities will only expose how I have been using them as a crutch. 

 

I return to these words of Socrates from the Apology, time and time again, and repeating them to myself has never once been wasted: 

 

I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons or your properties, but chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul.

 

I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man, public as well as private. 

 

Things without meaning. Feelings without awareness. Actions without judgments. Such is the empty life of the man who rejects the task of philosophy, and thereby rejects the calling of his nature to know and to love. 

 

“But I just want to get enough property to be safe and secure, and then I promise I will turn to philosophy.” 

 

I am deeply confused when I say that I want to own just enough, without first having a measure by which I can even determine how much will be enough. 

 

It is like saying I am only interested in the doing, and not in the thinking, when it is the very thinking that allows me to provide a purpose for my doing. 

Written in 7/2012

.