Single Idea 22239

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / B. Value / 2. Values / d. Health]

Full Idea

Seneca held that human beings owe the original acquisition of the concept of virtue to an analogy with bodily health and strength

Gist of Idea

Humans acquired the concept of virtue from an analogy with bodily health and strength

Source

report of Seneca the Younger (Letters from a Stoic [c.60], 120.5) by James Allen - Soul's Virtue and the Health of the Body p.76

Book Reference

Adamson,Peter: 'Health: a history', ed/tr. Adamson,Peter [OUP 2019], p.76


A Reaction

This is an unusual view, even for a stoic, but shows how close the concepts of health and virtue were. Notice that it is strength as well as health. Plato just emphasises mental and physical harmony.