There is nothing, Lucilius, to hinder you from entertaining good hopes about us, just because we are even now in the grip of evil, or because we have long been possessed thereby. There is no man to whom a good mind comes before an evil one. It is the evil mind that gets first hold on all of us. Learning virtue means unlearning vice.
We should therefore proceed to the task of freeing ourselves from faults with all the more courage because, when once committed to us, the good is an everlasting possession; virtue is not unlearned.
For opposites find difficulty in clinging where they do not belong, therefore they can be driven out and hustled away; but qualities that come to a place which is rightfully theirs abide faithfully. Virtue is according to nature; vice is opposed to it and hostile.
We should therefore proceed to the task of freeing ourselves from faults with all the more courage because, when once committed to us, the good is an everlasting possession; virtue is not unlearned.
For opposites find difficulty in clinging where they do not belong, therefore they can be driven out and hustled away; but qualities that come to a place which is rightfully theirs abide faithfully. Virtue is according to nature; vice is opposed to it and hostile.
—from Seneca, Moral Letters 50
Our current attitudes, fed by certain dogmas of materialist science, assume that a person’s character is determined by genetics, environment, or some combination of these two.
If I am asked the generic “nature or nurture?” question, I tend to say that in one sense it is both, and in another sense it is neither. I’m not trying to be difficult—I’m just trying to be thorough.
We are certainly born with dispositions, and we are certainly influenced by our circumstances, but these conditions, as material causes, are not to be confused with our deliberate choices, as efficient causes. We are provided the settings to work in, even as our own judgments make the final call.
Are we already created as good or bad? We are given the potency to be either, and how we order our own minds and wills, slowly but surely, is the deciding factor. We remove freedom, and therefore responsibility, when we think of ourselves as machines instead of as persons.
Then why does Seneca say we need to work away our vices before we can work in our virtues? Beyond any supernatural concept of original sin, on a natural level the human mind will fall into weakness merely by doing nothing, and it can only begin to improve when it commits to doing something. Inaction breeds lethargy, and action spurs growth.
In other words, we start out by being ignorant, and must then make a conscious effort to become wise; it is easy to rest in vice, while it is difficult to reach for virtue. Just as a newborn must adjust his eyes to see, so a man must discipline his soul to increase in righteousness.
And what does Seneca mean when he says that once we acquire virtue, we are not inclined to lose it? After all, I can think of dozens of instances when my conduct got better, and then it quickly fell back into being worse. For so much work, it didn’t seem to stick!
Let me be careful not to jump the gun. I may have been leaning in the right direction, though I hadn’t taken the decisive step. Where the knowledge is certain, it is not easily dislodged, and when the actions are pure, I won’t be taken in by cheap diversions. The work is still in progress.
For my virtues to be lasting, they must proceed from a profound awareness of my nature, and through such a harmony refuse the intrusion of any conflict. If peace reigns within me, I will no longer have a desire to go to war. Once I have made it my own, no one can take it away.
Our current attitudes, fed by certain dogmas of materialist science, assume that a person’s character is determined by genetics, environment, or some combination of these two.
If I am asked the generic “nature or nurture?” question, I tend to say that in one sense it is both, and in another sense it is neither. I’m not trying to be difficult—I’m just trying to be thorough.
We are certainly born with dispositions, and we are certainly influenced by our circumstances, but these conditions, as material causes, are not to be confused with our deliberate choices, as efficient causes. We are provided the settings to work in, even as our own judgments make the final call.
Are we already created as good or bad? We are given the potency to be either, and how we order our own minds and wills, slowly but surely, is the deciding factor. We remove freedom, and therefore responsibility, when we think of ourselves as machines instead of as persons.
Then why does Seneca say we need to work away our vices before we can work in our virtues? Beyond any supernatural concept of original sin, on a natural level the human mind will fall into weakness merely by doing nothing, and it can only begin to improve when it commits to doing something. Inaction breeds lethargy, and action spurs growth.
In other words, we start out by being ignorant, and must then make a conscious effort to become wise; it is easy to rest in vice, while it is difficult to reach for virtue. Just as a newborn must adjust his eyes to see, so a man must discipline his soul to increase in righteousness.
And what does Seneca mean when he says that once we acquire virtue, we are not inclined to lose it? After all, I can think of dozens of instances when my conduct got better, and then it quickly fell back into being worse. For so much work, it didn’t seem to stick!
Let me be careful not to jump the gun. I may have been leaning in the right direction, though I hadn’t taken the decisive step. Where the knowledge is certain, it is not easily dislodged, and when the actions are pure, I won’t be taken in by cheap diversions. The work is still in progress.
For my virtues to be lasting, they must proceed from a profound awareness of my nature, and through such a harmony refuse the intrusion of any conflict. If peace reigns within me, I will no longer have a desire to go to war. Once I have made it my own, no one can take it away.
—Reflection written in 3/2013
No comments:
Post a Comment