Letter 47 (Seneca)

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proslavery apologia, as well as in the light of the Stoic philosophical idea that "all men are slaves".[1]

Historical Stoicism believed in human equality by natural law, but also recognized positive law.[2] It was in disagreement with Aristotle's earlier concept of natural slavery.[3][4] As such, Seneca made objection to behavior seen as particularly degrading such as corporal punishment and sexual exploitation of enslaved people, but not to the overall social system.

Influence

As a Roman letter expressing ambivalence about slavery from the 1st century, it has been compared to the early Christian writing in Paul's Epistle to Philemon.[5] And Gregory of Nyssa in the 4th century condemns slavery outright, in rhetorical terms that may draw from Seneca, but that go beyond him.[6][7]

In support of his argument, Seneca references the proverb totidem hostes esse quot servos ("as many enemies as you have slaves"), cited by many Europeans in the early Atlantic slave trade as a caution against slave rebellion.[8]

Hegel's

master–slave dialectic in The Phenomenology of Spirit of 1807 picked up the philosophical theme, later commented on by Jean-Paul Sartre in the 20th century.[9][10]

Jean-Jacques Rousseau's sequel to the 1762

Life in Earnest, and Seneca's Morals, and requested their examination.[18]

References

  1. ISBN 978-0199282081
    .
  2. ISBN 978-1317958734
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  3. ISBN 978-0874368857
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  4. ISBN 978-9811627422
    .
  5. ISBN 978-0521574334
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  6. ISBN 978-0198777274
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  7. ISBN 978-1441233677
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  8. ISBN 978-1526122247
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  9. ISBN 978-1317493914
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  10. ISBN 978-1317675839
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  11. ISBN 978-1351967570
    .
  12. ISBN 978-1783488803
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  13. ISBN 978-0823257317
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  14. ^ Wilberforce, William (1807). A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade: Addressed to the Freeholders and Other Inhabitants of Yorkshire. T. Cadell and W. Davies. p. 130.
  15. ^ Cochin, Augustin (1863). The Results of Slavery. Translated by Booth, Mary L. Boston: Walker, Wise and Company. p. 343.
  16. ISBN 978-1788315791
    .
  17. ISBN 978-0252078538
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  18. ^ "Image 4 of Frederick Douglass' paper (Rochester, N.Y.), April 13, 1855". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2022-02-07.

External links

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