Bioethical reflections on the old age from the stoicism of Seneca

Abstract

The article exposes how the analysis of certain works of Seneca, show us a thinker who sees old age as a state worth living. As Seneca conceives it, it can be valuable and wise according to what the individual desires, but there are no-unavoidable or «essential» negative characteristics of old age as presented, for example, by Aristotle. To achieve this in the first section of this work, the concept of old age as a decline is exposed, as it was sometimes conceived in Greek and Roman ancient times. In sections 2 to 5 using two stoic categories presented by Seneca: the relativity of time and submission to reason, in combination with key issues of an old-age ethics: work, death, finitude and autonomy, the study of Old age value is analyzed in the work of this author. In the conclusions, it is stated that the study of the texts show that Seneca considers old age as worthy and valuable in itself, it remains in the fields of reason and defends so that old age is not necessarily the decline of people, although bodily functions decrease.