Full size book cover of How to Do the Right Thing: An Ancient Guide to Treating People Fairly}

How to Do the Right Thing: An Ancient Guide to Treating People Fairly

Seneca, Robert Kaster

3.7(149 readers)
How ancient Stoicism can help teach us to treat others--and ourselves--more fairly and mercifully

There are times when we've all felt that we haven't been treated as we deserve--that we've been misjudged, short-changed, or given a raw deal. And, at one time or another, other people have probably felt that we've treated them just as unfairly. How to Do the Right Thing draws on the principles of ancient Stoicism as articulated by the Roman statesman and philosopher Seneca to help readers better navigate one of the most important practical questions of daily life--how to do right by others.

Starting from the virtue of magnanimity--the opposite of small-mindedness--How to Do the Right Thing draws together lessons from Seneca's writings that stress the importance of calm and clear thinking, of judging oneself fairly before judging others, and of cutting people slack, with a bias toward mercy--all delivered in crisp and lively new translations, and with the original Latin on facing pages.

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Publication Date

6/20/2023

ISBN

9780691238647

Pages

288

Categories

About the Author

Portrait of author Seneca
Seneca
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (often known simply as Seneca or Seneca the Younger); ca. 4 BC – 65 AD) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero, who later forced him to commit suicide for alleged complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to have him assassinated.

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