Naturales quaestiones#Subject
{{short description|Latin work of natural philosophy by Seneca}}
{{italic title}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Natural Questions
| title_orig = Naturales quaestiones
| translator =
| image = SènecaQuestionibusNaturalibus.jpg
| image_size = 200px
| caption = 13th-century manuscript made for the Crown of Aragon
| author = Lucius Annaeus Seneca
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country = Ancient Rome
| language = Latin
| series =
| subject = Natural philosophy
| genre = Philosophy
| publisher =
| pub_date = AD 62–64
| english_pub_date =
| pages =
| isbn =
| oclc =
}}
Naturales quaestiones (Natural Questions) is a Latin work of natural philosophy written by Seneca around AD 65. It is not a systematic encyclopedia like the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder, though with Pliny's work it represents one of the few Roman works dedicated to investigating the natural world. Seneca's investigation takes place mainly through the consideration of the views of other thinkers, both Greek and Roman, though it is not without original thought. One of the most unusual features of the work is Seneca's articulation of the natural philosophy with moralising episodes that seem to have little to do with the investigation. Much of the recent scholarship on the Naturales Quaestiones has been dedicated to explaining this feature of the work. It is often suggested that the purpose of this combination of ethics and philosophical 'physics' is to demonstrate the close connection between these two parts of philosophy, in line with the thought of Stoicism.
Date
The earliest date (terminus post quem) for writing is AD 60,J. Tracy cross-references Hine (2006) in {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kPpkBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA104|author=Jonathan Tracy|title=Lucan's Egyptian Civil War|page=104|publisher= Cambridge University Press|year=2014|isbn=978-1107072077| access-date=2015-03-18}} and it is generally thought to have been written around AD 62 to 64.
Contents
The Naturales Quaestiones is addressed to Lucilius Junior:{{cite book|url= http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/3115.html|author= George Long (ed.William Smith)|title= Seneca, L. Annaeus|publisher= Little, Brown and Company Boston 1867|access-date= 2011-10-21|url-status= usurped|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110606012034/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/3115.html|archive-date= 2011-06-06}}
{{cquote|I am not unaware, Lucilius, excellent man, of how great is the enterprise whose foundations I am laying in my old age, now that I have decided to traverse the world, to seek out its causes and secrets, and to present them for others to learn about. [Book 3] HM Hine (translator) [http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/servlet/org.oclc.lac.ui.DialABookServlet?oclcnum=642208470 On Terrestrial Waters] Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2010. [Retrieved 2015-3-17] {{oclc|642208470}}}}
The work originally had eight books, but the book on the Nile (book 4a) is missing the second part, whereas the book concerning Hail and Snow (book 4b) is missing the first half.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-ptoAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1|author=GD Williams|title=The Cosmic Viewpoint: A Study of Seneca's 'Natural Questions'|publisher= Oxford University Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0199742516| access-date=2015-03-17}} These two books have been joined by tradition to become book 4.
The contents of these seven books are as follows:
- meteors, halos, rainbows, mock suns, etc.
- thunder and lightning. (theory of thunderstorms Posidonius, Ian Gray Kidd - [https://books.google.com/books?id=UWinZkVHRR0C&pg=PA503 Posidonius: The commentary. Vol.2 (p.503)] (Cambridge University Press, 1988) {{ISBN|0521354994}} [Retrieved 2015-3-18])
- water; this book also contains the description of the Roman heat exchangers, which were called "dracones", or "miliaria"; and a description of the deluge.
- the Nile (4a); hail, snow, and ice (4b). (theory of hail Ian Gray Kidd - [https://books.google.com/books?id=UWinZkVHRR0C&pg=PA510 p.510] [Retrieved 2015-3-18])
- winds.
- earthquakes and the sources of the Nile.
- comets.
The original order of the books is a matter of scholarly disagreement.[https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/12081 Limburg, F. J. G., 2007, Doctoral thesis, p. 10-11. Leiden University]M von Albrecht - [https://books.google.com/books?id=vjk4rkpr-SAC&pg=PA1193 A History of Roman Literature: From Livius Andronicus to Boethius : with Special Regard to Its Influence on World Literature (p.1193)] Editor GL Schmeling (BRILL, 1997) {{ISBN|9004107118}} [Retrieved 2015-3-17] Several scholars consider an original order, as used by Harry M. Hine, being Book 3 (firstly), then Book 4a, 4b, Books 5-7 then Books 1, and finally Book 2.Open Library at The Internet Archive - [https://openlibrary.org/books/OL23712892M/Natural_questions (shows) Table of Contents of Natural questions translated by Harry M. Hine] Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2010 {{ISBN|0226748383}} [Retrieved 2015-3-16]{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kPpkBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA250|author=Jonathan Tracy|title=Lucan's Egyptian Civil War|publisher= Cambridge University Press|year=2014|isbn=978-1107072077| access-date=2015-03-17}}
Themes
The work is a study on questions of physics and meteorology.J Sellars - [https://books.google.com/books?id=D7jCBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA13 Stoicism] (Routledge, 5 Dec 2014) {{ISBN|1317493915}} [Retrieved 2015-3-16] It is one of the few Roman works which deals with scientific matters. It is not a systematic work, but a collection of facts of nature from various writers, Greek and Roman, many of which are curiosities. Moral remarks are scattered through the work; and indeed the design of the whole appears to be to find a foundation for ethics in the knowledge of nature. There is an incontrovertible intertwinement of an ethical concern with the questions of nature (physics) in the work.[https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/12081 Limburg, F. J. G., 2007, Doctoral thesis, p. 1-2. Leiden University]
Stoics from early in their history considered the telos (goal) of their efforts to be kata physin (according to nature).{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3WfpHBOececC&pg=PA40|author=D Mehl|title=The Stoic Paradoxes according to Cicero (in) Vertis in Usum|page=40|editor1=C Damon|editor2=JF Miller|editor3=KS Myers |publisher=Walter de Gruyter|year=2002 |isbn=3598777108| access-date=2015-03-19}} Thus for Seneca, virtue in a human was dependent on behaving in a natural way.{{cite book |url=http://dspace.ubvu.vu.nl/bitstream/handle/1871/34006/222931.pdf?sequen|author=Groenendijk, Leendert F. and de Ruyter, Doret J.(2009)|title= 'Learning from Seneca: a Stoic perspective on the art of living and education', Ethics and Education |pages=81–92 |doi=10.1080/17449640902816277 |s2cid=143758851| access-date=2015-03-17}} The highest good or virtue is to live "according to one's own nature" (secundum naturam suam vivere in Ep. 41:9, Ep. 121:3); referring to both nature in general and one's own innate nature.
Seneca had been the imperial advisor during the early part of Nero's reign before falling out of favour, and Seneca compliments Nero four times in Naturales quaestiones. A more indirect allusion to his former role can be found in book 2 when during a discussion of lightning bolts (Book 2.43), Seneca breaks off to urge rulers to always take counsel from their advisors.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kPpkBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA251|author=Jonathan Tracy|title=Lucan's Egyptian Civil War|pages=246–251|publisher= Cambridge University Press|year=2014|isbn=978-1107072077| access-date=2015-03-18}} Seneca thought that promoting an active interest in science to Nero would be beneficial to the emperor's morality.
{{quote|What is most important? Not to admit bad intentions into your mind, to raise pure hands to heaven...to raise your spirits high above chance occurrences .... for these reasons the study of nature will be helpful.....we shall leave behind what is sordid.... separate the mind, which needs to be elevated and great, from the body ... when we have exercised our intellect on hidden obscurities, it will be no less effective on matters in plain view|NQ3 Preface (Quote taken from G.D. Williams p. 1-2 )}}
Contemplation of nature for Seneca "unchains the mind" enabling a person to transcend evil, and by experiencing the totality (totum) of nature, develop a consciousness and being more compatible with direct experience of God, by elevating one's moral nature.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-ptoAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA3|author=GD Williams|title=The Cosmic Viewpoint: A Study of Seneca's 'Natural Questions'|page=3|publisher= Oxford University Press|year=2012 |isbn=978-0199742516| access-date=2015-03-17}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VI3ebybOl0oC&pg=PA260|author=MS Bjornlie|title= Politics and Tradition Between Rome, Ravenna and Constantinople: A Study of Cassiodorus and the Variae|pages=527–554|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2013|isbn=978-1107028401| access-date=2015-03-18}}
God is in all things natural (is intramundaneM Vassányi - [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZtfOVk5zz1YC&pg=PA219 Bayle's identification of Spinozism with the World-Soul theory (3rd paragraph of p.219) in Anima Mundi: The Rise of the World Soul Theory in Modern German Philosophy: The Rise of the World Soul Theory in Modern German Philosophy] (Springer Science & Business Media, 16 Nov 2010) {{ISBN|9048187966}} (Volume 202 of International Archives of the History of Ideas) [Retrieved 2015-3-18]), for Seneca:G Reydams-Schils - [https://books.google.com/books?id=lgsz_s0NBGwC&pg=PA205 Seneca's Platonism (in) Ancient Models of Mind: Studies in Human and Divine Rationality (p.205)] (edited by A. Nightingale, D. Sedley) Cambridge University Press, 11 Nov 2010 {{ISBN|1139489763}}[Retrieved 2015-3-18]
{{quote|quisquis formator universi fuit sive ille Deus est potens omnium, sive incorporalis ratio, ingentium operum artifex, sive divinus spiritus, per omnia, maxima, minima, aequali intentione diffusus
Whoever was the former of the universe, whether God almighty, whether incorporeal Reason, whether the divine Spirit, diffused equally through all things, the greatest and the least.R Lynam - [https://books.google.com/books?id=ViY9AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA94 The British Essayists: Lucubrations, or Winter evenings. General index (p.94)] J. F. Dove, 1827 (original copy from Harvard University)[Retrieved 2015-3-18] (ed. this reference provides the English language translation)}}
Achieving an existence in keeping with the correct manner of living (that is being ethical) depends on a person fulfilling that existence in accordance with the principles of the natural law or ius naturae (p. 258 ) of the divine universal order (Seneca - Ep 76.23 as shown at p. 84-5 ), inherent in the totality of nature. To make one in agreement with nature (όμολογουμένως τῇ φύσει).J Wildberger - [https://books.google.com/books?id=9jqOAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA315 Brill's Companion to Seneca: Philosopher and Dramatist (p.315)] Brill's Companions in Classical Studies (edited by Andreas Heil, Gregor Damschen) BRILL, 13 Dec 2013 {{ISBN|9004217088}} [Retrieved 2015-3-18]
Later history
The known history of the text begins in the 12th century. Erasmus of Rotterdam once owned a copy of the work, which had previously belonged to the 15th century humanist Rodolphus Agricola.J Sperna Weiland, W Th. M. Frijhoff - [https://books.google.com/books?id=ccwUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA159 Erasmus of Rotterdam: The Man and the Scholar : Proceedings of the Symposium Held at the Erasmus University, Rotterdam, 9-11 November 1986, Volumes 9-11 (p.159)] (Brill Archive, 1988) {{ISBN|9004089209}}[Retrieved 2015-3-17]
The first edition (editio princeps) was published in Venice in 1490. English language editions include that published in 1972-73 by the Loeb Classical Library.HM Hine - [https://books.google.com/books?id=3cr50llp6fsC&q=Naturales+quaestiones Studies in the Text of Seneca's "Naturales Quaestiones" - Bibliography] (Walter de Gruyter, 1 Jan 1996) {{ISBN|3110958074}} [Retrieved 2015-3-16]
See also
- Natural History (Pliny)
- Albert Einstein who expressed the sense of being a part of the universe as a whole as a: "cosmic religious feeling"R Hoffmann, I Boyd Whyte - [https://books.google.com/books?id=Wgh2LLu80IcC&pg=PA122 Beyond the Finite: The Sublime in Art and Science (p.122)] {{ISBN|0199792747}} (Oxford University Press, 14 Sep 2011) [Retrieved 2015-3-18]
- Nature
- Gaia (mythology)
References
{{Reflist|2}}
- {{cite encyclopedia | last = Long | first = George | author-link = George Long (scholar) | title = Seneca, L. Annaeus | editor = William Smith | encyclopedia = Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology | volume = 3 | page = 782 | publisher = Little, Brown and Company | location = Boston | year = 1867 | url = http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/3115.html | url-status = usurped | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110606012034/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/3115.html | archive-date = 2011-06-06 }}
Further reading
- Seneca, Naturales Quaestiones: Bks. I-III, v. 1. Loeb Classical Library
- Seneca, Naturales Quaestiones: Bks. IV-VII, v. 2. Loeb Classical Library
- Seneca, "Ricerche sulla Natura", a cura di Piergiorgio Parroni, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, a recent (2010) edition with a fine comment.
- Nikolaus Groß (1989), Senecas Naturales Quaestiones. Komposition, naturphilosophische Aussagen und ihre Quellen. Franz Steiner. {{ISBN|978-3-515-05385-3}}
- Harry M. Hine (2010), Seneca: Natural questions. University of Chicago Press. {{ISBN|0226748545}}
External links
- {{wikisourcelang-inline|la|Quaestiones Naturales|Quaestiones Naturales}}
- [http://naturalesquaestiones.blogspot.com/ Naturales Quaestiones web texts]
- [https://archive.org/details/physicalsciencei00seneiala Physical science in the time of Nero; being a translation of the Quaestiones naturales of Seneca], (1910). Translated by John Clarke, with notes by Archibald Geikie, at the Internet Archive.
{{Seneca}}
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Category:1st-century books in Latin
Category:Encyclopedias in Latin