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Emmanuel Awosika
@eawosika
Many of us can learn from Seneca. This was one of the Stoic school's major figures, but somehow, he never thought it strange to speak favorably about philosophers from rival schools--notably, Epictetus from the Epicurean school of thought. Seneca's approach was to "take what works from wherever you find it". A relevant quote from one of his letters to his friend Lucillius: "The thought for today is one which I discovered in Epicurus; for I am wont to cross over even into the enemy's camp—not as a deserter, but as a scout." If you know how much Stoics and Epicureans disagreed on many things, then you know it would have been weird for a leader of the Stoic school to borrow Epicurean ideas. But ideas aren't people; you may not like the person, but that shouldn't influence your decision to accept the idea (esp. if it's valuable). It's a call to be open-minded and more tolerant of opposing viewpoints: we never know what we might learn. Don't take the limits of your vision for the limits of the world.
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Rusty Spoons
@rusty-spoons
someone gave me letters from a stoic years ago. I became obsessed with it. I still have my copy where I marked every letter with the theme at the top eg. friendship, death, regret, wealth, love etc. It was such an exceptional read. I still think about it every day even though I haven't read it in ages.
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Emmanuel Awosika
@eawosika
Seneca is one of the best writers I've read, and that made it easy to consume his philosophy. IIRC I was on the third or fourth set of Letters to Lucillius before I stopped reading. It's a great series.
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