The Stoic Magazine Library

In his Moral Letters to Lucilius (Letter 47), Seneca says that we should treat our slaves like our equals. We don’t have slaves anymore but we have power over others— our family members, our subordinates at work, people who depend on us. Stoic justice asks us to treat them all with humility and respect.

In Stoic usage, sophía is not one virtue among many but the master virtue—the clear-sighted intelligence that directs courage, justice, and self-control.

Stoic courage is not mere bravado or charging ahead despite fear—it’s the deeper courage to stare fear in the eye and erase its roots entirely.