The old age – a chance or a threat in the moral progress of human being

Małgorzata Siwicka

Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II , Poland


Abstract

The old age in the ancient culture of Greece and Rome, in contrast to popular opinion, appears not to be held in high esteem by everyone. This observation can be illustrated by a lot of sources in the Greek and Roman literature. The old age has been considered as dif­ficult and troublesome both for persons, whose were afflicted by this age, and for their fam­ily, friends and all attendants. This period of human life has been exposed to illness and the other afflictions – weakness of body and mind, less intense clarity and precision of thought. Consequently, the old people would take active part in the social and political life only in this case, when they were in good health, in good physical and mental condition. Because of this in Greek and Roman literature can be found a lot of lamentations and complaints of the old age. Only Plato and representatives of new stoic school – Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius formulated opposite theories about the old age. According to Stoics’ perceiving of the world and the time and cyclical changes of them, the man’s nature and condition from his birth directs inevitably to his death. The whole world is ruled by God and nothing in it happens without his will. So the good and wise man will accept everything, as well the old age, and all its disadvantages. This acceptance off all that happens will bring man peace of mind and protection against whatever he may suffer. The old age – for a lover of wisdom is an occasion to develop and grow up his moral virtues and to improve his character. This intellectual and ethical process issues from human reason, which is a part of divine reason, pervasive all things in the world and all men. The Stoics warn against a danger of a moral decline and in the old age. This corrup­tion would be caused by direction of man’s attention to the shortness of life instead of the improving his character. The number of years of human life appears not to be important for Stoics. They condemn an aim for long life, if it not connected with an aspiration for wisdom.

Keywords:

old age, moral progress

Devallet G., Sénèque et la vieillesse: realia et animalia devant la fuite du temps (Lettres a Lucilius I 12), w: L’ancienneté chez les anciens, Lienhart 2003
Diogenes Laertios, De vitae philoso¬phorum, tłum. W. Olszewski: Żywoty i poglądy słynnych filozofów, Warszawa 2004
Epictetus, Encheiridion, ed. W.A. Oldfather: Epictetus, The Discourses, The Manual, Fragmenta, II, Loeb, Cambridge – London 1959, tłum. L. Joachimowicz: Epiktet, Diatryby – Encheiridion, Biblioteka Klasyków Filozofii 64, Warszawa 1961
Hadot P., Czym jest filozofia starożytna?, tłum. P. Domański, Warszawa 2000
Hadot P., Twierdza wewnętrzna, tłum. P. Domański, Kęty 2004
Hammond N.G.L., Dzieje Grecji, tłum. A. Świderkówna, Warszawa 1994
Hesiodus, Theogonia, tłum. J. Łanowski: Hezjod, Narodziny bogów. Prace i dni. Tarcza, Warszawa 1999
Homerus, Ilias, ed. P. Mazon: Homére, Iliade, Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1937
Homerus, Odyssea, ed. V. Bérard: Homére, L’Odyssée, Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1972
Jaeger W., Paideia, tłum. M. Plezia – H. Bednarek, Warszawa 2001
Krokiewicz A., Zarys filozofii greckiej, Warszawa 2000
Lévy C., Sénèque et la circularité du temps, w: L’ancienneté chez les anciens, Lienhart 2003
Marcus Aurelius, Ad se ipsum, tłum. M. Reiter: Marek Aureliusz, Rozmyślania, Biblioteka Klasyków Filozofii 42, Warszawa 1958
Minois G., Historia starości. Od antyku do renesansu, tłum. K. Marczewska, Warszawa – Gdańsk 1995
Plato, Leges
Plato, Respublica
Reale G., Historia filozofii starożytnej, IV, tłum. E.I. Zieliński, Lublin 1999
Reydams-Schills G., La vieil¬lesse et les rapports humains dans le stoïcisme romain, w: L’ancienneté chez les anciens, Lienhart 2003
Sandbach F.H., The Stoics, London 1975
Seneca, Ad Marciam, ed. R. Waltz: Sénèque, Dialogues, II, Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1923, tłum. L. Joachimowicz, w: L. Anneusz Seneka, Dialogi, Warszawa 1989
Seneca, De brevitate vitae, ed. A. Bourgery: Sénèque, Dialogues, II, Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1923
Seneca, De providentia, ed. R. Waltz: Sénèque, Dialogues IV, Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1927, tłum. L. Joachimowicz: Lucjusz Anneusz Seneka, Dialogi, Warszawa 1989
Seneca, Epistulae, ed. L.D. Reynolds: L. Annaei Seneca ad Lucilium epistulae mo¬rales, Oxonii 1965, tłum. W. Kornatowski: Seneka, Listy moralne do Lucyliusza, Biblioteka Klasyków Filozofii 65, Warszawa 1961
Sophocles, Oedipus Coloneus, tłum. R. Chodkowski: Sofokles, Edyp w Kolonos, w: Sofokles, Tragedie, Lublin 2009

Published
2011-12-15


Siwicka, M. (2011). Starość – szansa czy zagrożenie dla rozwoju moralnego człowieka w ocenie stoików. Vox Patrum, 56, 147–167. https://doi.org/10.31743/vp.4213

Małgorzata Siwicka 
Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II



License

Papers published in Vox Patrum are covered by the Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) licence. Authors and users can use published works licensed under the CC-BY-ND since 2018. For earlier publications, copyrights are available under fair use rights in accordance with the Act of February 4, 1994 on copyrights and related rights.