Friday, January 19, 2018

Better Than Food Book Reviews on Seneca's "On the Shortness of Life"

Cliff of Better Than Food Book Reviews (YouTube channel) reviews Seneca's "On the Shortness of Life." I found the review particularly interesting and it was great to hear Cliff reflect on how the essay has impacted how he sees time, aging, and life in general.

I used the same essay in a first-year writing seminar (required of all freshmen at Moravian) that I opted to title, "What is the Good Life?"  The central question was, of course, "What makes a life, a good life?" We used the Hadas Seneca book but the translation was dated enough that in the future when I teach the course I'd probably try to find another. Seneca is, however, particularly compelling for such a seminar and the students enjoyed him immensely.

We also covered Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Epictetus, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and a few others.

While I'm thinking of it, several years ago when this blog first started (wow...it's been nearly seven years!) I wrote THIS piece on ancient ethics.