Abstract

BRAICOVICH, Rodrigo Sebastián. Moderation and asceticism in seneca, musonius and epictetus. Prax. filos. [online]. 2014, n.39, pp.157-169. ISSN 0120-4688.

The ascetic practices proposed by Roman Stoics as ways of access to a virtuous life seem, at first sight, to pose a serious problem concerning the intellectualist conception of human action defended by orthodox Stoicism. Considering the pedagogical function that these practices have in Roman Stoicism, the question about their validity from a doctrinal perspective becomes inevitable, given that they seem to imply the inefficacy of rational argumentation as a means of (self)persuasion concerning Stoic axiology. The goal of this paper we be to analyze those ascetical practices, in order to show not only that, despite their pythagorical-cynic origin, they do not contradict the Stoic intellectualist psychology, but also that they represent a gnoseological device that is central to the dynamic of the process of comprehension as it was developed during the Roman period of the school

Keywords : Roman Stoicism; áskesis; asceticism; intellectualism; assent.

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