Seneca Essays

The frist essay I chose was "Facing Hardships." Basically what what Seneca is saying is the only things in life that are miserable are the things we make out to be miserable. He expalins that it isnt by chance that hardships occur, its by nature. It is natural for us to encounter hardships in our lives. Troubles are just a part of life. Senecca goes on to say that we must just agree with God's decision to allow this hardships to happen in our life. This idea connects with the concept of Fatalism. Fatalism urges us to just take things as they are/ as they come. To help us succeed with this we can think of how things could be worse, but do not think about how they could be better. Because how can we appreciate the good things in life if we dont experience the bad? This essay also connects to the idea of Dichotomy of Control, this concepts teaches us that we can't control what hardships come our way, but we can control how we react to them (if we choose to make them unbearable or not).

The second essay i choose was "Self Control." This essay ask the question is it better to have moderate emotions or no emotions at all? It is natural for us as humans to be affected by man's opions, to become affected by negative things that happen to us. It is natural for us to have certain desires and pleasures we want fullfilled. But what Seneca is saying is if you allow that desire to begin, you can't be so sure that you will be able to stop it. In other words it is eaiser to deny a desire from the beginning then to make it go away after we let it in. If you cant control the little that you have, it is better for you to aviod it all together. Of course we can't deny ourselves of everything, its okay to feel emotion and to experience pleasure, but only if we can do so in moderation. This essay connects with the idea of Fatalism also, Fatalism teaches us to learn to desire what we already have (and not what we wish to have). It also connects with Self-Denail because this concept tells us it's okay to enjoy pleasures, its okay to experience emotion; but dont abuse them. By practicing self-denial we are gaining a sense of self-control.