Posidonius the Dialectician in Seneca's Letters

In this article, which is the fourth and last of a series of papers on some aspects of the relations between Posidonius and Seneca's later epistles, I shall discuss a number of dialectical passages in these epistles, their philosophical source?Posidonius, as I hope to establish?and finally, the philosophical attitude of this source x). In my examination of Seneca's conception of dialectics, I have already stressed his scepticism and distrust of this way of arguing (III). In his earlier letters especially he appears to regard dialectics as a waste of time. More than once he indicates how, in his opinion, the sophisms of the dialecticians ought to be treated, viz. with the help of striking examples from history and every-day life, in the form of rhetorical sententiae. This opinion, however, does not keep him from paying more and more attention to dialectical disputations. He apparently records them from technical, philosophical sources. In Ep. 74, 22 sqq., Seneca gives as his scheme: quid adver sus hos pro nobis responden soleat, ponam. deinde tune adiciam quid praeterea respondendum putem. In our discussion of this passage the philosophical source to whom Seneca alludes here, appeared to be Posidonius [II]. It goes without saying that Seneca borrowed not only the defence, but also the attack, i.e. the whole debate, from this same source

Art · Dialectic · Distrust · Epistemology · Linguistics · Literature · Political science · Rhetorical question · Skepticism · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Law · Organic Chemistry Synthesis Methods · Philosophy