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Seneca to Lucilius: 48, tricks of logic
Logic is one of the three fields of study of the standard Stoic curriculum, together with “physics” (meaning the totality of the natural sciences, plus metaphysics), and ethics — the study of how to live our lives. So it may appear somewhat odd that Seneca trashes logic in his 48th letter to his friend Lucilius. Isn’t logic necessary in order to reason well, which in turn leads us to live a life informed by rationality? And yet, after a short preamble at the beginning of the letter we read:
“That, most excellent Lucilius, is what I want those splitters of hairs to teach me — what I should do for a friend, or for a human being; not how many different ways the word ‘friend’ is used or how many different things ‘human’ can signify.” (Letters, XLVIII.4)
Seneca here, it turns out, is not criticizing the study of logic understood as the discipline that improves human reasoning, but rather what we would today call logic chopping, or hair splitting: indulging in irrelevant puzzles about minutiae, for the sake of impressing others or for pure intellectual enjoyment, with no practical impact on how we conduct our business in life.
Indeed, Seneca gets downright sarcastic:
“‘Mouse’ is a syllable.
But a mouse eats cheese.
Therefore a syllable eats cheese.
Suppose I can’t solve that one: what risk do I incur by not knowing how? What inconvenience even? Sure, I’d have to watch out — someday I might find myself catching syllables in mousetraps! Better be careful — my cheese might be eaten by a book!” (Letters, XLVIII.6)
The syllogism transcribed by Seneca is of course fallacious (can you catch the problem?), and Seneca knew it. But his point stands: what on earth are some logicians doing, engaging in parlor tricks like these? Well, what else should they be doing? We are told shortly thereafter, in no uncertain terms:
“What childish…
