On the vanity of mental gymnastics
111:1
Book Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Book Description: The final volume of Seneca's moral letters. Common Stoic themes emerge again and again: the unreliability of fortune, the ability to form Stoic resolve, and the importance of virtue.
1.
You have asked me to give you a Latin word for the Greek sophismata.
Many have tried to define the term, but no name has stuck.
This is natural, inasmuch as the thing itself has not been admitted to general use by us; the name, too, has met with opposition.
But the word which Cicero used seems to me most suitable: he calls them cavillationes.
Book: Moral Letters Vol III
Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Author: Seneca
Chapter: On the vanity of mental gymnastics
Location: Chapter 111, Section 1
Content:
1.
You have asked me to give you a Latin word for the Greek sophismata.
Many have tried to define the term, but no name has stuck.
This is natural, inasmuch as the thing itself has not been admitted to general use by us; the name, too, has met with opposition.
But the word which Cicero used seems to me most suitable: he calls them cavillationes.