>You can find men who have gone so far as to profess wisdom and yet maintain that one should not offer violence to one’s own life, and hold it accursed for a man to be the means of his own destruction; we should wait, say they, for the end decreed by nature. But one who says this does not see that he is shutting off the path to freedom.
What did Seneca mean by this?
>>1278783
He is objecting against people who think that it is better to wait out tyrants than to try to overthrow them.
>>1278783
HE MEANT THAT THE CONSCIOUS BEING, BY BEING ESSENTIALLY AGAINST NATURE, MUST STRIVE TO BECOME ITSELF VIA CONSCIOUS DIRECTION OF ITS OWN BECOMING, RATHER THAN LETTING HIMSELF BE DRAGGED BY THE BECOMING OF THE NATURAL, WHICH WOULD BE TANTAMOUNT TO RELINQUISHING HIS CONDITION AS A CONSCIOUS BEING TO THE TORRENT OF NATURE; TANTAMOUNT TO BECOMING AN AUTOMATON.
TRANSCENDENCE OF PRECONDITIONS, BOTH, ONTOLOGICAL, AND NATURAL, IS REQUISITE FOR ACHIEVEMENT OF FREEDOM.
>>1278783
Wise men who condemn suicide are fools. What freedom does a man have if he cannot choose to end the life that belongs to him?
>>1278832
>>1278832
>he believes you can transcend nature
>he thinks alienation from nature is desirable
>he thinks transcendence from nature = freedom
wew
>>1278880
>>he beleives [SIC] you can transcend nature[.]
WHAT IS YOUR "POINT"?
>>he thinks alienation from nature is desireable [SIC][.]
I DO NOT THINK THAT.
THE CONSCIOUS BEING IS AGAINST NATURE, BECAUSE THE PURPOSE OF ITS FUNCTION, AND OF ITS OPERATION, ARE DIFFERENT FROM THAT OF NATURE; THE CONSCIOUS BEING IS ESSENTIALLY AUTARKIC, AND AUTONOMOUS, THUS, IT MUST STRIVE TO ACTUALIZE THAT AUTARKY, AND THAT AUTONOMY, ESCAPING THE PRECONDITIONS OF NATURE, AND OF ITSELF.
THE CONSCIOUS BEING IS DIFFERENTIATED FROM NATURE, BUT NOT ALIENATED FROM IT.
>>he thinks transcendence from nature = freedom[.]
I DO NOT THINK THAT.
TRANSCENDENCE OF NATURE, AND FREEDOM, ARE NOT MUTUALLY EQUIVALENT, BUT TRANSCENDENCE OF NATURE IS A REQUISITE FOR FREEDOM.
IMPROVE YOUR "READING COMPREHENSION".
The Stoics believed suicide to be an acceptable alternative to life. I remember a comparison to a room filling with smoke, wherein it was within your power to either tolerate it or leave the room (suicide), both being considered rational choices.
>>1278835
What freedom does a dead body have?
>>1280013
It's not the dead body that is of concern here. That body is just a product of the living man exercising his freedom, which is the concern here. If we're concerned about the happiness and well-being of the corpse, we can leave it a stick to fend off the animals with.
