Of Leisure [De Otio]

by Seneca

Of Leisure
Seneca the Younger, roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature (4B.C.-65A.D.)

This ebook presents «Of Leisure», from Seneca the Younger. A dynamic table of contents enables to jump directly to the chapter selected.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
-01- ABOUT THIS BOOK
-02- OF LEISURE
-03- FOOTNOTE

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Classics

9 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 62

About the author

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (often known simply as Seneca or Seneca the Younger); ca. 4 BC – 65 AD) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero, who later forced him to commit suicide for alleged complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to have him assassinated.

Reviews

[Ross Cohen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Differentiating between leisure and contemplation, Seneca argues for a life balanced between the intellectual and the active – a position from which one derives true happiness.

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

On Leisure aka De Otio by Seneca…with some thoughts on Happiness and AI

10 out of 10





Instead of writing a proper note, which is not my thing anyway, this took the form of a draft for a letter to my daughter, from 16.02.2022, which goes like this…My Dear Hannah, Perhaps the most important thing I could share with you is the strategy you could adopt to become happy, and there are quite a few rules that studies seem to have confirmed…many of them are ancient, but it is good to know that new research is proving them right.



Stoicism may save the planet, I have mentioned this before, but it is worth repeating, and it is also the way we can all be happier – there is an audio book with the letters of Seneca, who is the best known Stoic, one of the wealthiest at his time and not prone to preach temperance because he had little fortune, on the contrary, he had experienced a life of luxury and was aware of the lack of relevance it has.

'True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears…’ which is proved by the studies mentioned in Flow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q35FY... by Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, co-founder of positive psychology…



One of the conditions of Flow aka Optimum Experience is to be immersed completely in the activity, ergo what Seneca was saying about living in the present…there is no way to achieve joie de vivre, if we are not living in the present, vivre a fond…

Nevertheless, there is another way to achieve wellbeing and that is to Imagine the Best Possible Future, which brings joy to the present and also makes the success more accessible, when we see that future, we approach it, we are less intimidated by those marvelous prospects albeit, it is also established that it is not achieving success which brings catharsis, but being in Flow and getting intensely involved…



The more people report reading books the more Flow they experience, the reverse is true for television…

It would be interesting, exhilarating to see how AI and the future will impact happiness levels, for science will have advanced to dazzling levels and it would be possible to ingurgitate cocktails of endorphins, the exact amount, perfect combination and the proper time, which will be established by tracking with multiple sensors the heart rate, oxygen levels and so much more and the Personal AI assistant, Cortana or whoever that would be – it could be a hybrid and come some way towards, if not too close to Her aka Scarlett Johansson (well, at least Her ravishing voice) in the Spike Jonze movie – will know what to do.

As I keep speculating, Artificial Intelligence should be able, with its Deep or Machine Learning, to sink deep into Hegel, Kant – incidentally, something impossible for the under signed, who has tried to read when in university, went to the philosophy department to borrow Georg Wilhelm Hegel and became dizzy on the very first page and had to abandon the magnum opus, with any incremental change in his knowledge – and take all the major, minor and insignificant thinkers – indeed, one thought that brings solace when realizing how few, if any come across these lines is that AI will look at Everything, including these silly pages and many take a molecule of insight from the thousands of pages of flimflam – and extract the essential, the most relevant, optimistic – eventually, for the BDSM people, it would spill out the most cataclysmic systems, and that also goes for the MAGA folks, they will have some products to sooth their psyche, surely without prompting them to insurrection again – philosophy…



That should be a mixture of Hedonism, Epicurean thought – after all, I am reading through the Letters of Seneca http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/t... and the great Stoic philosopher quotes from Epicurus, who was of the opinion that excess is detrimental to wellbeing – which will identify common threads in the most adverse systems and manage to combine Eastern wisdom – which is essential to happiness, according to Seneca – with the Western kind, albeit this sometimes seems hard to do – East is more about collective, while the West insists on the individual, though there is always the Aristotelian Golden Mean and we can look at balance in the middle, or alternate between periods of dedication to the community with hours, days dedicated to self-improvement and joie de vivre…

Besides, Artificial Intelligence in the Age of Singularity will produce a divine doctrine, it is after all not just more intelligent than you and me – especially you – but it will have surpassed All of Humanity at that moment and we cannot even conceive what will be there for us to grasp and enjoy, unless of course, the pessimist are right and this AI will not bring about happiness for all, since it may be neutral, as a Machine it does not have the urge to be ‘happy’, which will be an oxymoron for a non-feeling thing, but still, let us just envisage that it will Deep Learn about it and though it is not for Itself to ‘experiment’ with, it will provide it for the emotional beings that will use the various available formulas…



One way to happiness is there in the Her movie, albeit in that scenario, there is jealousy for the OS Operating System with the Scarlett Johansson fabulous voice and the formidable ability to synchronize, harmonize with human beings, offering them Everything they can possibly want, intellectually, conversation, the admiration they crave for, appreciation, constant feedback – incidentally, one of conditions of Flow aka Ecstasy is to have Constant Feedback and that is surely what the AI Assistant of the Future and present can provide (less so for the latter, but it is constantly improving nonetheless) –

One crucial element of that Future Happiness would be the Artificial intelligence with some given shape and form – I was going to say the ‘perfect, statuary form’, but then some of many will opt for The Shape of Water type of creature or love interest http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/01/s... - which - or is it whom, will it be given identity and then be called him, her, they, non-binary and whatever – we will be able to love, because of the intellectual challenge and admiration it can provide – coupled with so much more, indeed, an infinity of skills, positive and negative qualities, whatever BDSM or normal people want – and the Shape of Water, Woman, Man, Superman, Unicorn, God, Hermes, Shiva we will have chosen for It, Him, Her, They to take…

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Ahora bien, la naturaleza ha querido que yo haga lo uno y lo otro, tanto actuar como dedicarme a la contemplación: yo hago lo uno y lo otro, puesto que, de hecho, no hay contemplación sin acción."
Sobre el ocio, Séneca

[G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting how he balances the ideas from both Stoics and Epicureans.

[Morgana Santos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boas percepções.

[Paul Bard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This fragment starts strong.

Seneca says retreat refreshes the mind by taking you away from the vices of others. And even withdrawal, he says, is medicine.

Then he goes to extraordinary lengths to justify rest as being in line with stoic orthodoxy.

After this rationalisation, he frames leisure as an obligation to benefit others, be of public service, and protest a corrupt state.

This is a vigourous kind of leisure!

I recommend the translation by Timothy Chandler.

Probably a better read than his book on tranquility of mind, because more concise, and less repetitive.

[Gianfranco Nerdi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Il saggio stoico (o chi aspira a diventare tale) deciderà di volta in volta se partecipare agli affari dello stato o di rinunciarvi del tutto, se lo stato è diventato troppo corrotto. Il concetto è abbastanza chiaro, peccato solo che l'opera ci sia giunta mutila e quindi non è possibile "realmente" valutarne i contenuti.

[Andrew John · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a bit of a shrug. I'm unconvinced this offers anything to all but those who wish to follow Stoicism religiously.

[Asif Shuvo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read!

[Enrico · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seneca explains why he thinks that a life with both contemplation and action is to be preferred to one containing only one of the two.

[Andrii · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this dialog Seneca talks about the balance of satisfaction, stillness and activity in a life of a person who wants t be known as a sage.

[Truls Ljungström · Rating 4 out of 5]

Denna bok beskriver intersektionen av stoicism och epikureanism, dvs. varför frånvaron av ångest är en form av njutning, och hur man når den.

[Carlos Alberto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sempre é interessante ver os pensamentos dos filósofos do passado

[Rodiceia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Embalada pelo livro anteriormente lido - Sobre a Brevidade da Vida - resolvi ler sobre o ócio, já que a ideia de ócio criativo remonta os antigos gregos (Seneca era romano).

Um livro que complementa o outro, já que se trata de uma amplitude de reflexões acerca do mesmo tema: liberdade pessoal.

Mais um livro que li de imediato, mas com intuito de ler novamente.

[Jean Martins · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Não é, de modo algum, desejável que se procure meramente acumular bens sem amor à virtude, ou não se faça nada mais do que trabalho árduo sem nenhum cultivo do intelecto, porque essas coisas devem ser combinadas e misturadas; e, do mesmo modo, a virtude colocada no ócio sem ação não é senão uma coisa boa incompleta e débil, porque nunca mostra o que aprendeu"
...
"O dever do homem é ser útil aos seus semelhantes; se possível, ser útil a muitos deles; se assim não conseguir, ser útil a uns poucos; se assim não for, ser útil aos seus vizinhos e, se assim não for, ser útil a si mesmo: pois quando ajuda os outros, faz progredir os interesses gerais da humanidade. Assim como aquele que se faz pior faz mal não só a si mesmo mas a a todos aqueles a quem poderia ter feito o bem, caso se tivesse feito melhor, também aquele que se aprimora, faz bem aos outros, pelo simples fato de estar preparando o que lhes será útil no futuro."

[Vitor Araujo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Legalzinho

[Fabio Mello · Rating 5 out of 5]

Livro muito leve, como deve ser o livro de um mestre, mas com grandes reflexões. recomendo.