Hello everyone, Justin Vacula here with another episode of the Stoic Philosophy Podcast.

Today's
episode is titled death with dignity.

Visit my website at justinvacula.com where you can find links to my social portals including Facebook,
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I explore the tradition of Stoicism with goals to inform, empower, and help others benefit from
practical wisdom of Ancient Greek, Roman, and modern thinkers including Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius,
and Seneca.

For the Stoics – including Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius -- a main focus is pursuing virtue to
attain a well-examined life through practical applications of Philosophy – acting with good character,
using reason to form accurate careful judgments about the world, and achieving contentment. Stoic
writers focus on many perennial human concerns and urge people to take action applying what they
learn to everyday life. Self-improvement is central to Stoic thought – strengthening and improving
one's mindset.

Alright, on to today's topic. Today's notes were originally used in an August 2017 discussion group I
hosted with the Humanist Association of Greater Philadelphia. I adapted my notes for this podcast
episode.

Suicide can be a tricky and very personal, even harrowing, topic to consider, especially when I talk
about rational cases for ending one's life prematurely, especially in old age and amidst a chronic
medical condition. If you are seriously considering suicide, I'd advise you to seek support from mental
health professionals, share your concerns with trusted people, and call a suicide hotline.

For Seneca, several central thoughts on death with dignity appear through his letters: use your time
well while you still can and don't let life pass you by for life is short and chance can drastically alter or
end your life; we should be prepared to end our lives when reason dictates it; living nobly is more
important than living a long life – quality is more important than quantity; death can offer us freedom
from a life not worth living; and we should do our best to die gladly.

It's important to note that although Stoic writers encourage ending our lives early in some situations,
committing suicide, we should not do so haphazardly; Stoic writers would only encourage suicide in
special circumstances after reasoned deliberation. One can find much encouragement for finding the
will to live as I talk about in an article on modernstoicism.com and a podcast I published titled 'Suicide:
Finding the Will to Live' in which Seneca encourages people to take action to improve their lives;
endure suffering; have a sense of gratitude; have hope for the future; reflect on past accomplishments;
accept chance and inevitability in life; be mindful of thoughts and emotions to have insight motivated
toward change; prepare for hardships; be strong and brave; consider the impact suicide can have on
others; and find meaning in life.

With that disclaimer and introduction, let's move on to passages from Seneca's letters.

Why be concerned with death and think about death with dignity now, especially if we happen to be
young and relatively healthy? Seneca talks about life being a short affair, passing quickly. He writes in
his letter 'On Saving Time,' “the largest portion of our life passes while we are doing ill, a goodly share
while we are doing nothing […] hold every hour in your grasp. Lay hold of today's task, and you will
not need to depend so much upon tomorrow's. While we are postponing, life speeds us by.” Also, in his
letter 'On the true joy which comes from philosophy,' he writes, “But a man cannot stand prepared for
the approach of death if he has just begun to live. […] Some men, indeed, only begin to live when it is
time for them to leave off living.” In his letter titled 'On Despising Death' he writes, “we do not
suddenly fall on death, but advance towards it by slight degrees; we die every day. For every day a little
of our life is taken from us; even when we are growing, our life is on the wane.” Since our life is short
and death approaches, what better time can there be than the present to think about life's end, whether
we'd want to continue living under certain conditions especially when our mode of living may be
severely compromised and we may not be able to think as clearly as we can now? In his letter titled 'On
Old Age,' Seneca writes, “Death, however, should be looked in the face by young and old alike.”

We can begin with thoughts concerning instances in which suicide can be a fitting decision starting
with Seneca's letter 'On the reasons for withdrawing from the world.' He writes, “We should cherish the
body with the greatest care; but we should also be prepared, when reason, self-respect, and duty
demand the sacrifice, to deliver it even to the flames.” In his letter 'On Despising Death,' he encourages
us to make a “becoming exit” from life in not being too attached to living, that fear of death and
unwillingness to end life can rob us of peace. He writes, “For we need to be waned and strengthened in
both directions – not to love or hate life overmuch; even when reason advises us to make an end of it,
the impulse is not to be adopted without reflection or at headlong speed. The grave and wise man
should not beat a hasty retreat from life; he should make a becoming exit.”

As with many other perspectives within Stoicism, Seneca encourages moderation when he is talking
about our attachment to life – we should not be so overly attached to a point of being unwilling to end
our lives in particular situations and also not being so detached from life that we abandon concerns
about our health and safety. Too much attachment or an extreme lack of attachment is ill-advised.

In his letter 'On old age and death,' Seneca writes about learning how to die and, again, not clinging to
life in certain circumstances. “He who has learned to die has unlearned slavery; he is above any
external power, or, at any rate, he is beyond it. What terrors have prisons and bonds and bars for him?
His way out is clear. There is only one chain which binds us to life, and that is the love of life. The
chain may not be cast off, but it may be rubbed away, so that, when necessity shall demand, nothing
may retard or hinder us from being ready to do at once that which at some time we are bound to do.”

Again, in talking about this love for life, Seneca encourages us to not be overly attached to life and be
willing to end our lives when, as Seneca says, “necessity shall demand.” Maybe for you such necessity
would be different than others' choices. Seneca offers some ideas on when people may choose to end
their lives.

In his letter 'On Being,' Seneca writes about what he calls 'the body being useless for service. He asks,
“Why not free the struggling soul?” and abandoning life in old age in certain situations, “if old age
begins to shatter my mind, and to pull its various faculties to pieces, if it leaves me, not life, but only
the breath of life, I shall rush out of a house that is crumbling and tottering. I shall not avoid illness by
seeking death, as long as the illness is curable and does not impede my soul. I shall not lay violent
hands upon myself just because I am in pain; for death under such circumstances is defeat. But if I find
out that the pain must always be endured, I shall depart, not because of the pain but because it will be a
hindrance to me as regards all my reasons for living. He who dies just because he is in pain is a
weakling, a coward; but he who lives merely to brave out this pain, is a fool.”
In his letter 'On the proper time to slip the cable,' he writes, “It is not a question of dying earlier or later,
but of dying well or ill. And dying well means escape from the danger of living ill.” In his letter 'On the
fickleness of fortune he writes, “if circumstances warrant, shall he not take his departure? Of course, is
he can no longer be of service to anyone, if all his business will be to deal with pain.”

Here, we see that conditions later in life when the body breaks down, when our mental faculties are
significantly compromised, the case for ending one's life may be rational.

Let's move on to talk about living a noble, quality life being of more importance than a long life. For
Seneca, when considering life itself and many other aspects of it, quality is more important than
quantity. In his letter 'On the futility of halfway measures,' he writes, “Men do not care how nobly they
live, but only how long, although it is within the reach of every man to live nobly, but within no man's
power to live long.” In his letter 'On the shortness of life,' Seneca writes, “”the good in life does not
depend upon life's length, but upon the use we make of it.”

Returning to his letter 'On the proper time to slip the cable,' Seneca talks about the quality of life, living
well, he writes, “For mere living is not a good, but living well. Accordingly, the wise man will live as
long as he ought, not as long as he can. He will mark in what place, with whom, and how he is to
conduct his existence, and what he is about to do. He always reflects concerning the quality, and not the
quantity, of his life. As soon as there are many events in life that give him trouble and disturb his peace
of mind, he sets himself free. And this privilege is his, not only when the crisis is upon him, but as soon
as fortune seems to be playing him false; then he looks about carefully and see whether he ought, or
ought not, end his life on that account.”

Freedom, on Seneca's view, is an important quality of a life worth living. Ending one's life allows one
to exercise free will and escape from conditions which would make, as Seneca would say, the body
being useless to service.

In his letter 'On taking one's own life,' Seneca talks about concerns of life being incomplete if ended
early through rational suicide. He writes, “...this journey upon which we have set out is one which need
not be followed to the end. An expedition will be incomplete if one stops half-way, or anywhere on the
side of one's destination; but life is not incomplete if it is honourable. At whatever point you leave off
living, provided you leave off nobly, your life is a whole. […] It is with life as it is with a play; it
matters not how long the action is spun out, but how good the acting is. It makes no difference at which
point you stop. Stop whenever you choose; only see to it that the closing period is well turned.”

A long life, then, does not constitute a good life on Seneca's view, instead the quality of life is more
important.

In his letter 'On the futility of planning ahead,' Seneca questions the benefits gained from prolonging
suffering, again encouraging a noble life rather than a lengthy one which may be compromised. He
writes, “...prolongation and extension of suffering; and what does he gain thereby? Merely the boon of
a longer existence. But what sort of life is a lingering death? Can anyone be found who would prefer
wasting away in pain, dying limb by limb, or letting out his life drop by drop rather than expiring once
for all? Can any man be found willing to be fastened to the accursed tree, long sickly, already
deformed, swelling with ugly tumours on chest and shoulders, and draw the breath of life amid long-
drawn-out agony? […] We must get rid of this craving for life, and learn that it makes no difference
when your suffering comes, because at some point you are bound to suffer. The point is, not how long
you live, but how nobly you live. And often this living nobly means that you cannot live long.”
Which form of death should we prefer? When should we want to die? Seneca seems to suggest the
issue should be decided on a case-to-case basis and, again, urges people to carefully think things
through. He writes in his letter, 'On the proper time to slip the cable,' “No general statement can be
made, therefore, with regard to the question whether, when a power beyond our control threatens us
with death, we should anticipate death, or await it. For there are many arguments to pull us in either
direction. If one death is accompanied by torture, and the other is simple and easy, why not snatch the
latter? Just as I shall select my ship when I am about to go on a voyage or my house when I propose to
take a residence, so I shall choose my death when I am about to depart from life. Moreover, just as a
long-drawn out life does not necessarily mean a better one, so a long-drawn-out death necessarily
means a worse one.”

Seneca responds to sentiments about how one should wait for time to pass, die a natural death, or never
inflict harm to oneself or be allowed to die – he casts ending one's life as a suitable exit, freedom, under
dire circumstances. He writes, “You can find men who have gone so far as to profess wisdom and yet
maintain that one should not offer violence to one's own life, and hold it accursed for a man to be the
means of his own destruction; we should wait, say they, for the end decreed by nature. But one who
says this does not see that he is shutting off the path to freedom. The best thing which eternal law ever
ordained was that it allowed to us one entrance into life, but many exits. Must I await the cruelty either
of disease or of man, when I can depart through the midst of torture, and shake off my troubles? This is
the one reason why we cannot complain of life; it keeps no one against his will. Humanity is well
situated, because no man is unhappy except by his own fault. Live, if you so desire; if not, you may
return to the place whence you came.”

Seneca repeats his ideas here about exercising choice and having the ability to end one's life if the
circumstances permit. We can also work to better tolerate life and live well should we wish to continue
living, working to have gratitude and accept our station in life rather than lingering on and
complaining.

Finally, Seneca writes about dying happily. In his letter 'On taking one's own life,' he writes, “It is not
an important matter to live […] but it is important to die honourably, sensibly, bravely.” In his letter 'On
meeting death cheerfully,' he writes, “I am ready to depart, and I shall enjoy life just because I am not
over-anxious as to the future date of my departure. Before I became old I tried to live well; now that I
am old, I shall try to die well; but dying well means dying gladly. […] To have lived long enough
depends neither upon our years nor upon our days, but upon our minds. I have lived, my dear friend
Lucilius, long enough. I have had my fill; I await death.”

Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more content.

Visit my website at justinvacula.com where you can find links to my social portals including Facebook,
Twitter, and Instagram and see past content on Soundcloud, YouTube, iTunes, and Stitcher. Please
share, comment, like, and subscribe.

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