Seneca gives us yet another, and much simpler, definition of "what is best" or "what gives you happiness" in today's reading. He says, "...a happy life consists in a mind which is free, upright, undaunted, and steadfast, beyond the influence of fear or desire, which thinks nothing good except honor, and nothing bad except blame, and regards everything else as a mass of mean details which can neither add anything to nor take anything away from the happiness of life, but which come and go without either increasing or diminishing the highest good?"
So he takes what he's said already and boils it down even further. He thinks a happy mind is "free, undaunted, and steadfast." So it's not enslaved (like to addictions and vices), it's not "daunted" meaning nothing is preventing it from the full exercise of its power, and it is "steadfast", meaning it doesn't fluctuate or vacillate between different conflicting ideas and goals. Again we see "honor" as the greatest good for us to think, and "blame" as the evil that we should avoid. Everything else, he says, is just a fluctuating sea of distraction which doesn't make our lives any worse or any better, and should be ignored.
What do you think about that? Does he value "honor" too highly? Let's see if he gives us a fleshing out of the meaning of "honor" in future writings.
See you tomorrow!
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