Episode Details

Stoic philosopher Seneca was notoriously rich. Yet, in his writings, he never has a good word to say about luxury or riches. This tension between word and deed has been noticed even in Seneca's own time, when Martial gave the philosopher the mocking nickname "Seneca Praedives", or "Super-rich Seneca". In this video we explore a few ways to deal with this accusation of hypocrisy. We take a look at Nicholas Nassim Taleb's chapter on Seneca in his landmark work "Antifragile", as well as Seneca's own defense. Of course, there is an overarching question to be answered too - should we even care about hypocrisy in philosophers? Is it ethical to judge their writings by their deeds?

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