Seneca's Notion Of Tranquility Of The Mind And Montaigne

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Seneca’s notion of tranquility of the mind and Montaigne’s notion of solitude readings share similarities and can be acquainted by generosity and avoidance selfishness. I believe both essays share the idea of helping others in order to help ourselves because Seneca uses an analogy that it is perhaps inevitable to always feel like we never have enough. I will show how Seneca conveys this by not paying much attention to materialistic goals and how we can maintain tranquility of the mind by focusing on what we have rather than what we don’t have. I will also demonstrate how Michel De Montaign states it is difficult to know ourselfs and how important is to know ourselves I will bring together, the process of knowing ourselves and achievement to …show more content…

“Analogy than the condition of those people who have got over a long and serious illness; but are still sometimes mildly affected by onsets of fever and pain, and even when free of the last symptoms are still worried and upset;” (Seneca, pg.72) Once you reach a certain comfort zone or perhaps an immunity to a state you tend to feel in between. Seneca explains that in order to be at peace of mind, we have to stop thinking about what we could of have and focus on what we actually have. Seneca also mentions the importance of helping others. “But if we shun all society and, abandoning the human race, live for ourselves alone, this isolation, devoid of any interest, will be followed by a dearth of worthwhile” (Seneca, pg.79) We can choose to live completely isolated and choose not to contribute to society but, as a result we will only achieve being drawn to a situation where we are stuck in between and so, we have to contribute and help others in order to help ourselves be calm get out of our heads for a little …show more content…

This is because of all the distractions we encounter. “We take our fetters with us; our freedom is not total: we still turn our gaze towards the things we have left behind; our imagination is full of them.” (Michel De Montaigne pg. 99) We tend to behave according to our surroundings. If we are chacceled to our surroundings then we cannot fully get to know ourselves but each other. This is also why we need to interact with others and surround ourselves with people we love and love us back. When you help someone in any way then you too are also growing a piece of self. “The evil methods which men use to get ahead in our century clearly show that their aims cannot be worth much” (Michel De Montage pg. 96) there is historical evidence that proves the foreign to an individual causes chaos. We don’t react well to the unknown. When you help somebody in any form you no longer become isolated towards that person and get to know at least part of his or her story. By having some kind of knowledge of a person we take a piece of them into the self and if we find it suitable then we keep it, if not then just meet and help new people to create a possible idea of who we