Anyone who regularly peruses the philosophy sections of bookstores (as I do) will undoubtedly have noticed that one particular facet of the Socratic Movement--Stoicism--has become something of a cottage industry in recent years. As a self-identifying Socratic Fifth-Columnist, I welcome the revival of interest in this Hellenistic interpretation of the Master's teachings, but I also see in it a sign or symbol of our present stage of political consciousness: for the Stoics rose to prominence first in the aftermath of Macedonian imperialism (the conquests of Alexander the Great) and then again as the Roman republic gave way to the Roman Empire. The Roman Stoics (most notably Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and Seneca) have been receiving the lion's share of publishers' attentions. And why not? The analogies to present political realities seem most apt. Hegel insightfully noted in his Preface to Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts that as every individual is "a son of his time," so "philosophy also is its time apprehended in thoughts." Sensitive thinking people living in the U.S. in the year 2010 and reeling from the blow that the Obama Administration daily delivers to the hopes for change that Candidate Obama had raised, feel their political disempowerment (not to say disembowelment) most keenly, and seek refuge in an ancient wisdom tradition--one born of the pressing need to cope with similar sources of disillusionment. One can hardly blame them.
This, then, is the politico-cultural context in which we welcome the University of Chicago Press's announcement that it is publishing the Complete Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, newly edited by Shadi Bartsch, Elizabeth Asmis, and Martha Nussbaum.
As the publisher notes in the advertisement which appears in the June 24, 2010 issue of the NYRB: "...this engaging collection restores Seneca to his rightful place among those classical writers most widely studied in the humanities"--and does so right in the nick of time.
This should occasion no surprise: after all, what capitalism worthy of the name would fail to capitalize upon current angst? Besides, one could do much worse...
