Seneca, On Benefits
• An excerpt from Wikipedia about the book:
De Beneficiis concerns the nature of relative benefits to persons fulfilling the role in social exchange of either giver or receiver.[18] This includes benefit-exchange,[19] reciprocity,[20] and giving and receiving,[8] within society. The subject of the work might be thought of as social ethics, and specifically Stoic ethics.[21]
De Beneficiis deals with ethics with regards to political leadership.[22] As such, the work is concerned with the lives of Roman aristocrats, and the nature of their relationships. This is of the form of and etiquette of bond-formation between persons by the giving and exchanging of gifts or services (favours), and is prescriptive [23] of the way in which the aristocrats might behave, for the good of ancient Roman society.[24] [25] Amicitia is the Latin term for friendship in the context of Ancient Roman culture. It represents an ideal. Relationships of this kind would be between elite males of fairly equal social standing.[26]
• We should choose the honourable for its own sake because the reward of the honourable actions is the reward itself
• For Epicureans virtue is the servant of pleasure. Stoics are in conflict with them on this point
• Conferring a benefit is an act of virtue
• A benefit should not take the person's fortune into account
○ Like 'what if I die?'
• If the motive behind conferring a benefit were self-interest gods and
powerful people would bestow nothing
• Nature gave us our needs enough at birth. God conferred benefits that
to see, to hear, to think. Plants, animals, rivers, springs are all the
tributes of nature (god) to us without expecting a return
• Inborn in us are the seeds of all ages, and of all skills: and it is god who,
as our teacher, draws forth from hidden depths our talents
• Fate is a chain of connected causes, and god is the first cause that the
other causes depend.
• It is important to whom we give the benefit because if they are
disreputable it cannot be honourable or benefit. Look at the character
• I shall give in order to do what I ought to do. But what one ought to do
involves choice. “What sort of choice will this be?” you ask
• When you ask what return the benefit gives, I reply, “a good
conscience.”
• Remove fellowship and you will destroy the unity of mankind on which
our life depends.
• God too gives certain gifts to the human race as a whole without
excluding anyone.
• There is nothing shameful about changing a decision when the facts
change.
Seneca wrote about an act of virtue that takes place in daily life: conferring a benefit. There is always an exchange economy of benefits. Although we should not look for a return when we bestow a favour and the motive behind it should not be self-interest, it is important that to whom we give it. God/nature gave us benefits alike at birth without expecting a return.
Keywords: virtue, benefit, exchange, reciprocity, friendship, ethics, honourable, motive, self-interest, character, return, good conscience, God, nature, gift, changing facts, fortuna, unknown, Stoicism
• An excerpt from Wikipedia about the book:
De Beneficiis concerns the nature of relative benefits to persons fulfilling the role in social exchange of either giver or receiver.[18] This includes benefit-exchange,[19] reciprocity,[20] and giving and receiving,[8] within society. The subject of the work might be thought of as social ethics, and specifically Stoic ethics.[21]
De Beneficiis deals with ethics with regards to political leadership.[22] As such, the work is concerned with the lives of Roman aristocrats, and the nature of their relationships. This is of the form of and etiquette of bond-formation between persons by the giving and exchanging of gifts or services (favours), and is prescriptive [23] of the way in which the aristocrats might behave, for the good of ancient Roman society.[24] [25] Amicitia is the Latin term for friendship in the context of Ancient Roman culture. It represents an ideal. Relationships of this kind would be between elite males of fairly equal social standing.[26]
• We should choose the honourable for its own sake because the reward of the honourable actions is the reward itself
• For Epicureans virtue is the servant of pleasure. Stoics are in conflict with them on this point
• Conferring a benefit is an act of virtue
• A benefit should not take the person's fortune into account
○ Like 'what if I die?'
• If the motive behind conferring a benefit were self-interest gods and
powerful people would bestow nothing
• Nature gave us our needs enough at birth. God conferred benefits that
to see, to hear, to think. Plants, animals, rivers, springs are all the
tributes of nature (god) to us without expecting a return
• Inborn in us are the seeds of all ages, and of all skills: and it is god who,
as our teacher, draws forth from hidden depths our talents
• Fate is a chain of connected causes, and god is the first cause that the
other causes depend.
• It is important to whom we give the benefit because if they are
disreputable it cannot be honourable or benefit. Look at the character
• I shall give in order to do what I ought to do. But what one ought to do
involves choice. “What sort of choice will this be?” you ask
• When you ask what return the benefit gives, I reply, “a good
conscience.”
• Remove fellowship and you will destroy the unity of mankind on which
our life depends.
• God too gives certain gifts to the human race as a whole without
excluding anyone.
• There is nothing shameful about changing a decision when the facts
change.
Seneca wrote about an act of virtue that takes place in daily life: conferring a benefit. There is always an exchange economy of benefits. Although we should not look for a return when we bestow a favour and the motive behind it should not be self-interest, it is important that to whom we give it. God/nature gave us benefits alike at birth without expecting a return.
Keywords: virtue, benefit, exchange, reciprocity, friendship, ethics, honourable, motive, self-interest, character, return, good conscience, God, nature, gift, changing facts, fortuna, unknown, Stoicism