Speaker
Description
Title: Thinking and Dwelling: Does the milieu in which we philosophize influence the manner in which we think philosophically? Reflections from the life and work of Seneca the Younger (4BCE-65BCE).
Description: In the following presentation I propose to consider salient aspects of these rival conceptions of philosophy by way of an examination of the ideas of the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca the Younger. What is so fascinating about Seneca’s contributions to numerous philosophical debates, especially those in moral psychology and normative ethics, is that they were advanced in the context of a very public political life – Seneca was a very well- known political figure in the age of the Roman Emperors Claudius and Nero – and it is intriguing to ask the question whether the political and cultural contexts in which he dwelt had a fundamental bearing on the development of his philosophical thought. This question is made all the more pressing by virtue of Seneca’s own philosophical allegiances to an established philosophical school, Stoicism, and his idealization of historical figures from ancient philosophy such as Socrates and Plato. To this end, the example of Seneca will be used to illustrate the complexities of the relationship between ‘thinking’ and ‘dwelling’ , as well as providing an opportunity to clarify the idea that while philosophical thought lends itself to multiple expressions, it so often depends upon the cultural and historical milieu in which it takes place.
The talk will be offered as a PowerPoint presentation, the slides of which will be made available to the conference participants.
Speaker: Mr. Stone studied classics, biblical languages, and philosophy at the universities of Cambridge, Paris and London. He also holds a PhD in philosophy from the University of London. He has taught philosophy, ethics and classics at EEB1 since 2012.
