L’espoir dans les Lettres à Lucilius de Sénèque

Abstract

Hope is a notion of significant interest in Seneca’s Letters to Lucilius, as opposed to the relative scarceness of its occurrences in the fragments of the Hellenistic Stoic philosophers. It is here studied from three complementary viewpoints. First, as a passion of the unwise, it is essentially uncertain and unduly considers indifferent objects as goods in their own right. It is thus condemned as any other passion, though not always so unequivocally. Second, a positive formof hope is integrated into the mental framework of the wise person, within the general context of the «positive affections » . In particular, one may hope for the immortality of the soul, in which case hope aims at something good yet not absolutely certain. Finally, the main field of «good hope » is the moral progression from vice to virtue under the leadership of a master of philosophy. In this case, hope aims at the one and only genuine good, moral goodness, yet remains uncertain, since the final victory over vice is never ascertained until it is achieved, and the Letters display all the many shades of confidence and doubt, both on the side of the pupil and of the master. As a conclusion, some considerations are offered on the possible connections between the reflection on hope and certain trends of thought in contemporary Rome and Roman stoicism.