Did Seneca practice the art of memory?

[bjoern.gumboldt]

@QiJitsu

Right before the quote I gave Seneca was discussing how the “liberal arts” don’t teach virtue, and one could argue that an education in the liberal arts was unnecessary for such.

Exactly… actions, not words.

@QiJitsu

he is making an analogy with what some, at the time, may have believed that writing makes our memories weaker (since he was just discussing “letters”).

Wait, do you mean as in A, B, C, etc.? I think I know where the problem is now…

@QiJitsu

Out of curiosity, how would you personally translate the quote to English?

I wouldn’t… and I’ll show you why…

https://lettres.sorbonne-universite.fr/faculte-des-lettres/la-faculte-des-lettres

…in this case I’d translate “Lettres” as “Arts and Humanities”… also compare with this

Arts and letters

So as far as an English translation of Seneca, I wouldn’t… there are way too many things to consider given that the text is 2,000 years old. You probably need a paragraph to explain each sentence. There are certain style aspects to consider, such as saying “roofs” instead of “houses,” which is called a pars pro toto (“a part for the whole”). We kind of have it today still in the expression “have a roof over your head” which of course also includes the rest of the house.

Then you got the opposite, totem pro parte, where I can refer to the US by saying America, even though that’s not a country but in the context of countries you can refer to the US (part) as America (total). Obviously, it’s not literally raining “cats and dogs” when somebody says that… and many, many more issues. But to avoid the specific problem:

@QiJitsu

one who is ignorant of letters

Google translate offers “uneducated” as an alternative; however, that is not quite right either… because you are referring back to the liberal arts of course (that the person is “ignorant” of). The rest of the automated translation is nonsense by the way.

Anyway, to sum it up… you see how he doesn’t mean literal “letters” that somehow mean

@QiJitsu

he is making an analogy with what some, at the time, may have believed that writing makes our memories weaker (since he was just discussing “letters”).

That’s what I already tried to say earlier…

@bjoern.gumboldt

All he’s basically saying here, is that “it may be true” that a formal education in a certain subject may be more hinderance than help. That is what is meant by “no support outside itself”.

…hope this makes more sense now. “no formal education” = “uneducated” (Google) = “ignorant of letters” (your quote)