Despite his extensive philosophising, Seneca never showed a systematic approach to philosophy. His Letters to Lucilius employ hundreds of times the word “virtue,” but do not connect it to metaphysics, epistemology, politics, aesthetics or to the Aristotelian tradition. Seneca was a gifted writer, but not a systematic thinker. His goal was to prevent misery more than to promote happiness. In his works, we are led to assume that he knew the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle, but he does very little to prove this point. How can I then summarise Seneca’s insights? I will do so in seven principles that condense the essence of his philosophical works. These seven ideas are spread all over Seneca’s works. It would take days for anyone to go through all of Seneca’s works and come to these conclusions: Life is to a great extent unpredictable, and philosophy is the best tool for navigating the uncertainty. In his 71st and 88th Letters to Lucilius, Seneca acknowledges that Stoicism views philosophy as the study of virtue, but the study is not a purely theoretical study. The goal of philosophy is to help us make good decisions, especially when we only possess incomplete information. Even if living conditions have improved enormously since the times of Ancient Rome, Seneca’s insights remain true: Every person is going to be confronted, sooner or later, with setbacks, failure and sickness. Wisdom is philosophy in practice. Seneca employs the metaphor of the voyage in the 71st Letter to Lucilius. This Letter prompts me to conclude that, if life is a voyage, then philosophy shows us the goal, and wisdom delineates the path to follow. Wisdom is the skill that we acquire through careful, detailed and sustained study of philosophy. It is a skill that protects our serenity when things turn for the worse. In those Letters to Lucilius, Seneca fails to quote Aristotle (384-322 BC) and his “Nicomachean Ethics” and “Eudemian Ethics,” which also conceived ethics as a practical science, but one that is fully consistent with other branches of philosophy. I miss in Seneca this concern for consistency and integration. Stoicism admits that philosophy also deals with politics, nature, aesthetics and logic, but in practice, pays little attention to those matters. Seneca focused almost exclusively on ethics, just as the prior Stoics had done. The extant works of Cleanthes (330-230 BC), Chrysippus (279-206 BC) and Zeno of Citium (334-262 BC) don’t contain many disquisitions on logic, aesthetics and politics. Peace of mind was their priority and everything else came second. Seneca calls for concentrating our efforts on learning all the intricacies of Stoicism. In the 32nd Letter to Lucilius, he is condemning those who make material abundance their priority because, in doing so, they are unlikely to find happiness. Stoicism, says Seneca in the 32nd Letter, can render us calm, peaceful and satisfied. Later Stoics, such as Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD) and Epictetus (55-135 AD) gave more weight to minimising suffering and increasing our resilience. Philosophy is for practising, not for preaching. Seneca is often coming back to this idea in his Letters to Lucilius and in his essays “On the Constancy of the Wise” and “On the Happy Life.” He views it as a waste of time to try to convince other people to change their ideas and lifestyle. In the 29th Letter to Lucilius, Seneca considers philosophical proselytism ineffective because it is doomed to fail most of the time. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/senecas-philosophy-explained/