The first movement is involuntary, and it is like a preparation, or a threat, by the passion the second movement is voluntary and controllable, and it consists in thinking that vengeance is necessary, because I have been offended, or that someone has to be punished, because he has offended the third movement is arrogant, it does not want vengeance because it is necessary, but because it wants it, it has already annihilated reason. “I wish to instruct you in how passions get started, develop, and reach the point of exasperation. Alter ille motus, qui iudicio nascitur, iudicio tollitur.” (De Ira, On Anger, II.4.1-2) Primum illum animi ictum effugere ratione non possumus, sicut ne illa quidem quae diximus accidere corporibus, ne nos oscitatio aliena sollicitet, ne oculi ad intentationem subitam digitorum comprimantur: ista non potest ratio vincere, consuetudo fortasse et adsidua observatio extenuat.
“Et ut scias quemadmodum incipiant adfectus aut crescant aut efferantur, est primus motus non voluntarius, quasi praeparatio adfectus et quaedam comminatio alter cum voluntate non contumaci, tamquam oporteat me vindicari cum laesus sim, aut oporteat hunc poenas dare cum scelus fecerit tertius motus est iam inpotens, qui non si oportet ulcisci vult sed utique, qui rationem evicit.
#Et affectus english translation series#
Indulge me for transcribing the Latin version first, with my English translation next (see also my three-part series on Seneca’s essay): It is therefore not by chance that Seneca uses the word again in On Anger. So the Romans used adfectus to refer not to emotions in general, but to the “passions,” i.e., the explicitly negative emotions, such as the above mentioned anger, hatred, fear, envy, and pity. For example, Quintilian, who presents pathos and ethos as two emotional modes that can be used by the orator, says that ‘the Greeks call the one pathos, which we correctly and properly translate as adfectus.’ He goes on to link pathos with tragedy and says that it is almost entirely concerned with anger, hatred, fear, envy, and pity.” (p. “Many if not most post-Ciceronian authors preferred to render pathos by affectus or adfectus. John Fitzgerald, in his Passions and Moral Progress in Greco-Roman Thought, writes about adfectus: This list clearly captures both why Seneca did not mean to cover all of the emotions when he wrote “philosophers of our school reject the emotions,” and why the confusion persists to this day, given the co-existence of positive and negative uses of the word adfectus, as well as of its modern English translations. In the Latin of the Pandects, ability of willing, will, volition. In Seneca and Pliny, low ignoble passion or desire.ĥ. In Lucan and later prose, metonymy for the beloved objects.Ĥ. Love, desire, fondness, good-will, compassion, sympathy.ģ. A state of body, and especially of mind produced in one by some influence.Ģ. The key word here is “affectus,” which Seneca spelled in the archaic fashion, “adfectus.” My Latin-English dictionary says this about it:ġ. Ego non video quomodo salubris esse aut utilis possit ulla mediocritas morbi.” Nostri illos expellunt, Peripatetici temperant. “Utrum satius sit modicos habere adfectus an nullos saepe quaesitum est. Spock from Star Trek!Īh, but of course, appearances are sometimes deceiving, and occasionally one needs to dig deeper, in this case going to the original Latin: I, however, do not understand how any half-way disease can be either wholesome or helpful.” (CXVI.1)īut hold on! “Philosophers of our school reject the emotions”? Are our critics right after all? It seems hard to find a more clear statement of the idea that Stoics really should try to behave like Mr. Philosophers of our school reject the emotions the Peripatetics keep them in check. “The question has often been raised whether it is better to have moderate emotions, or none at all. Seneca begins by contrasting the Stoic position with the Peripatetic (Aristotelian) one:
#Et affectus english translation how to#
The last letter I wrote about is XVIII, on festivals and fasting, but I wish to jump ahead all the way to CXVI, on self-control, because it touches on one of the perennial issues faced by prokopontes (and reliably brought up by critics of Stoicism): how to deal with emotions. The project is to eventually publish posts on most (though not all) of the letters. Occasionally I get back to Seneca’s Letters to Lucilius ( I have commented on 11 so far), because they are one of the most complete and organic sources we have about ancient Stoicism.
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