De Otio

''De Otio'' (''On Leisure'') is a 1st-century Latin work by Seneca (4 BC–65 AD). It survives in a fragmentary state. The work concerns the rational use of spare time, whereby one can still actively aid humankind by engaging in wider questions about nature and the universe.

Dating

No absolute certainty about the date of writing is possible, but since the contents of the work parallel Seneca's own withdrawal into private life near the end of his life it is thought by a majority of critics to have been written around 62 AD or shortly after.R Scott Smith â€
''Brill's Companion to Seneca: Philosopher and Dramatist''
(edited by Andreas Heil, Gregor Damschen) Brill, 2013 etrieved 2015-3-16/ref>

Title and contents

''Otio'' is from ''otium'', this literally translates as leisure, vacant time, freedom from business.

''De Otio'' survives only in fragmentary form. The manuscript text begins mid-sentence, and ends rather abruptly. In the Codex Ambrosianus C 90 (the main source for Seneca's essays) it is simply tacked onto the end of '' De Vita Beata'' suggesting a scribe missed a page or two. The title of the essay, ''De Otio'', is known from the table of contents. The addressee has been erased but appears to have been seven letters long and is assumed to have been Seneca's friend Serenus. ''De Otio'' is thus one of a trio of dialogues addressed to Serenus, which also includes '' De Constantia Sapientis'' and ''De Tranquillitate Animi''. Chronologically, it is thought to be the last of the three.

Themes

Seneca understood the word ''otio'' to represent something more than absolute free-time. He understood it to mean leisure used in service to the community by intellectual activity:

In ''De Otio'' Seneca debates the appropriate life for a Stoic philosopher. Seneca reports the standard position of the school that wise people will engage in public affairs, unless something prevents them. Seneca lists some arguments against engaging in public life such as if the state is too corrupt, or if the wise person's influence is too limited, or if they are ill. Seneca then shows that private life (''otium'') far from being a life of listless retirement can be active from a Stoic point of view. The wise person can choose to engage with the wider universe: by moving one's actions from the local to the cosmic perspective and engage with the fundamental questions of the universe, one can still aid all of humankind.

The superior position the sage (''ho sophos'') inhabits of detachment from earthly (''terena'') concerns, and an according freedom from possible future events of detrimental nature, is a unifying theme of the dialogue.R Bett â€
A Companion to Ancient Philosophy p. 531
(edited by Mary Louise Gill, Pierre Pellegrin) etrieved 2015-3-19(ed. Bett was source of term ''ho sophos'')

References

Further reading

Translations

* G. D. Williams (2003), ''Seneca – De Otio, De Brevitate Vitae (Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics)''. Cambridge University Press.
* Elaine Fantham, Harry M. Hine, James Ker, Gareth D. Williams (2014). ''Seneca: Hardship and Happiness''. University of Chicago Press.
* Peter J. Anderson (2015), ''Seneca: Selected Dialogues and Consolations''. Hackett Publishing.

External links

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De Otio (Latin)
(ed. John W. Basore)

{{Authority control

Philosophical works by Seneca the Younger