Part 1

The pursuit and reaching of the higher good as a life according to nature, in accord with nature, brings the real happiness of man - this is the conclusion directly deriving from Seneca's understanding of the most important thing in human life. In nature, however, there are many ways that lead to different paths, and one can mistake the way for happiness and go the wrong way, and the faster he gets, the more he moves away from him. And if he goes in the opposite direction, the speed of the retreat grows even faster. Seneca, therefore, thinks that it is necessary to determine what a person is aiming at and then to look for the shortest path to the goal. But if one follows the shrieking screams and cries, if he follows the flock of sheep in front of him, his life will pass like a moment among the litany, even if day and night he sets for the good of his spirit. That is why Seneca thinks that one has to attract a counselor, an experienced connoisseur of the purpose to which he is headed. This is the first task a person has to put up if he wants to live happily. The biggest trouble a person gets when he is led by the generalist opinion, judging the best seen by the majority and taking the example of most people who live not in accordance with reason but with a foreign model. So no one is wrong only for own harm, but becomes a cause and culprit for the mistakes of another. For Seneca, the cause of the death of people is adherence to the example of others, and if one can break away from the table, he will be saved. But as in the National Assembly against rationality, the crowd protects against its own vices. But if one wants to go forward to the desired goal, he does not have to do what is most often done and approved by the commonwealth, and what is best to do to become the owner of eternal bliss. For Seneca, it is not the eye that distinguishes the truth from deception: it is the spirit that reveals the good in the soul. Here is not looking for something that is good only in appearance, but, more importantly, it is healthy, stable and inwardly beautiful - it has to show itself in the world, to which one must reach out.

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Seneca does not dispute the principle of consensus with nature adopted by all Stoics.Do not deviate from it and comply with its laws and example - it is wisdom. Therefore, happy life is in harmony with nature, and this is only possible if the spirit is healthy and for a moment does not lose its health if it is also brave and vigorous, with excellent stamina, if it complies with the conditions if it takes care of the body you and everything connected with him, but without falling into fear, if you pay attention to all the other amenities in life, but he does not look at them with admiration if he is able to use Fortuna's gifts, not to slavery them. eliminating the cause of excitement or fear, infinite tranquility, free speech because, in the place of pleasure and of everything that is small, transient or harmful, due to its immorality, a great joy arises. Thus, the soul is filled with peace, harmony, and tranquility, that every ferocity is the product of weakness. The definition of a good may have many variants, the same meaning to give in other words. For example, as an army can expand or stretch in a dense line where its strength remains the same, the same remains the decision to resist the cause, and the definition of the higher good can in one case stretch and expanded, and in another to struggle and limit itself. As we go in this line of thought, happy life can be defined as freedom, cheerfulness, endurance, and resistance to the spirit. It is beyond the scope of fear beyond the reach of passion, and for it the only good is morality, and the only evil - immorality. Therefore, if the spirit has such foundations, then it can not follow a continual good mood, a deep satisfaction, or can not fail to feel happy about its property. So, the conclusion here is that when one is free of the power of desires, he will free himself from the pain, and it will surely lift him higher and bring him closer to the knowledge of the truth, which will please man not as a good, but as a child of his own good. Happy is the person who does not feel desires and fears, thanks to his reason The stone and the animal also feel neither fear nor sorrow, but no one would call them happy, because they do not understand their happiness. Seneca to stone and animals should also be placed on people who suffer from natural dullness and ignorance of their own nature. "Between one and the other there is no difference." Mind is decisive here. Is not there a reason, a man goes in a wrong way and damages himself, and who can not get to the truth can not be happy.

Conversely, when a person reaches the truth, "his mind is cleansed and freed from all kinds of trouble." In this case, a person lives according to nature, but whether a person who has a natural nature will prefer to deal with his body and to dump his spirit? Probably not, but a person who has nothing in his soul, he will indulge in pleasure and pleasure, he will lie and grease, and will never understand what happiness is, for happy people will always prefer good to evil. A man is happy when his mind is healthy, and a common sense brings everybody who strives for the useful, not the harmful. Hence happy is the man capable of right judgment, happy is the man who is satisfied with the present no matter what is he who is friendly to his own, happy is the person who accepts his fate in any situation. And those who define the parts of the cross down to the center of the higher good understand how ugly place they have assigned him, and therefore declare that pleasure can not separate from virtue, and claim that whoever lives morally lives and pleasantly "and vice versa . Seneca, however, is indignant at this conclusion and believes that if they are connected, they will not be able to see things that are both enjoyable and immoral; also believes that pleasure is present in the immoral life, and virtue prevents viciousness. Seneca, therefore, believes that misfortune comes not from lack, but from pleasure, and is indignant at the judgment of people that pleasure and virtue go hand in hand. In fact, they are completely opposite. While virtue is something elevated, royal and exalted, pleasure is inferior, slavish and powerless. While virtue occurs in the temple, in the forum, in the courage, all in dust, with hands tangled up, the pleasure sneaks and snows in the dark places around the baths and pubs. While the higher good is immortal, it does not bring us squeeze, no disappointment, pleasure is limited, uncertain, quits when it enjoys the most.

But is there an explanation for the fact that pleasure is inherent in both the good and bad people? Delight is experienced not only by the fool of the fool, but also by the honest man of his wonderful deeds. The answer is given by the old philosophers, according to which pleasure should not be a higher goal, but rather the opposite, it should follow morality, be not a guide but a companion of the moral and properly directed desire. The leader must be our nature: she observes the reason, she is consulted. This means that if one wants to live well, he must live according to nature. This means that if one takes care of his natural impulses and his physical qualities as something temporary, he does not serve them and does not leave himself in the power of a foreign entity, only then will they be useful to the soul. One, according to Seneca, must be incompetent and invincible to the outside world, to look at himself, to trust himself and to be prepared for both the good and the bad, he must guide himself to where his life goes, his belief is in combination with knowledge, knowledge with perseverance; not to make a decision once the decision has been taken, to make no corrections in his regulations . In other words, if one respects all this, he will be harmonious and orderly, friendly and noble in every action.