SENECA SCHOLARS

Question 1

‘True love is, in many ways,

Answer 1

analogous to an ideal friendship; both arise from mutual, genuine affection; neither is propelled by any ulterior motive.’ – Motto

Question 2

‘focuses on the regulation

Answer 2

of emotions rather than their denial.’ (different from Stoics) – Motto

Question 3

‘Paulina is not simply facilitating

Answer 3

her husband’s journey, she is shaping it.’ – Gloyn

Question 4

‘Stoics did not think eros was

Answer 4

irrational. They defined eros as a wish to create a friendship with another person based on that person’s moral and physical attractiveness.’ - Gloyn

Question 5

‘Marriage is an indifferent but

Answer 5

but it should be grounded in reason.’ – Gloyn

Question 6

‘There is not enough evidence to be sure of what Seneca’s actual position

Answer 6

on homoerotic relationships were; he is far more concerned by behaviour ‘against nature’.’ – Gloyn

Question 7

‘Love in itself is neither good

Answer 7

or bad; its how you use it that matters.’ – Gloyn

Question 8

‘Amor is rational and under

Answer 8

control yet affectus is what must be avoided.’ – Gloyn

Question 9

‘implicit gender

Answer 9

equality.’ – Gloyn

Question 10

Seneca’s view on gender equality

Answer 10

are radical and countercultural, but he is not a proto-feminist since he is not advocating for an overhaul of society
- Gloyn

Question 11

the Stoics believe sex

Answer 11

is the antithesis of reason so should be avoided
- Kreitner

Question 12

due to his political environment

Answer 12

he can’t be a sage but is living a virtuous life
- Edwards

Question 13

marriage is not only a stoic

Answer 13

duty, but a constructive opportunity in which to develop your and your spouse’s intellectual virtue
- Gloyn

Question 14

We can have no more certainty

Answer 14

that Seneca actually followed his own moral teaching than we can have about any person in antiquity
- Fisher

Question 15

the stoics placed

Answer 15

enormous value on human reason
- Wilson

Question 16

love in and of itself is

Answer 16

neither good nor bad; its how you use it that matters. In the case of affectus, where being in love becomes more important than the pursuit of virtue, things have gone badly wrong
- Gloyn

Question 17

Seneca maintained that love

Answer 17

is honourable and should be practiced and shared often.
- Motto

Question 18

unlike most ancient writers,

Answer 18

Seneca often uses the first person and has much to say about the details of daily life and how to live it
- Wilson

Question 19

the drastic tenets of this philosophy

Answer 19

encouraged the jettisoning of the body in favour of the mind and the will
- Bartsch

Question 20

the notion that the human body

Answer 20

is a prison for the soul, or a set of chains around its soul, is a concept more familiar to us from Plato than from Greek Stoicism
- Bartsch

Question 21

when Seneca seems to criticise

Answer 21

homosexuality by saying it is against nature for a man to remain in a state like boyhood past his time, he is more focused on things that are against nature and the natural flow of time than specifically homosexuality
- Gloyn

Question 22

his criticism of Quadra

Answer 22

is less to do with the fact that he enjoys sex with both men and women, and more to do with the fact that he enjoys making things seem unnatural
- Gloyn

Question 23

the Stoic principle is not that

Answer 23

people cannot have relationships and love, but that they must do away with any irrational aspect (affectus) and displays that distract them from virtue - you should only fall in love with someone because of their virtue or potential for virtue
- Gloyn

Question 24

because Stoicism suggests that every human

Answer 24

has an equal potential for virtue, there is a sense of gender equality at the heart of the philosophy
- Gloyn