Lucius Annaeus Seneca (or Seneca the Younger) was born in Cordoba around the beginning of the Christian era. His father was a renowned rhetorician who saw to it that his son was educated (at Rome) in rhetoric; he also received training in the eclectic and synthesizing Stoicism that was popular in the Imperial capitol at the time. Seneca was personally drawn to the ethical preaching of the Cynics and, as J. R. G. Wright has observed, "it is often difficult to distinguish [Cynic ethics] from his orthodox Stoicism because of the community of ideas between them..." (Wright, "Seneca," The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1967), vols. 7-8, 406).
Wright argues that Seneca's "main philosophical aim was to lead men toward virtue, to convey to them the knowledge of the nature of the world and their place in it which would enable them to conduct their lives in accordance with the will of God...Wisdom and goodness demand a conscious harmonization of our own wills with the divine will of the universe. Once this is achieved, we will always choose what is right and reject what is wrong, thus producing actions which are not only right in themselves but which are also chosen for the right motives, a vital feature of true moral action. The man who achieves this state will be a truly godlike creature, utterly immune to the blows of Fortune" (ibid).
Wright continues: Seneca "examines with almost clinical precision the vicious effect of the passions on men and then proceeds to explain how they may be brought under control and finally conquered" (ibid, 407). In this regard he, like the other members of his school, anticipated the psychotherapeutic approach pioneered in the 20th century by Dr. Aaron Beck (i.e., cognitive-behavioral therapy).
"Seneca was a practical moral teacher, a kind of spiritual guide or father confessor to his friends. In a favorite metaphor, he was a 'physician' of the soul" (ibid).
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