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Stoicism and Wealth

Stoicism and Wealth

Ancient philosophy in the modern world

Caleb Ontiveros
July 29, 2024

Welcome to The Stoa Letter, the newsletter on Stoic theory and practice.

🏛️ Theory

If I can make money while remaining honest, trustworthy and dignified, show me how and I will do it. But if you expect me to sacrifice my own values, just so you can get your hands on things that aren’t even good – well, you can see yourself how thoughtless and unfair you’re being.

Epictetus, Handbook 24

What’s the Stoic attitude towards wealth?

It’s a complicated question. The first thing to remember is that Stoicism is context-sensitive. It's a system that worked for people from emperors to ordinary citizens.

Who you ought to be and what you should pursue depends on your roles.

Money itself is an indifferent. It’s only good for you if you use it well – and what that looks like depends on who you are. Not because Stoicism is relative – but because we are all different and embedded in unique relationships.

Stoicism is not a “prosperity” philosophy that motivates everyone to pursue riches, but neither does it teach asceticism and promote living in poverty. For most, the middle path is best. But not for all. There’s a role for people who gain and use their wealth well – as well as those who reject economic success entirely.

The pursuit of wealth comes with serious risks. Seneca is perhaps the best teacher for this:

The shortest cut to riches is to despise riches.

Moral Letters 62

Wealth is neither needed nor enough for a good life.

Yet poverty too carries risks. The lack of resources often urges people to act in vicious ways. Just like the rich, they treat others and themselves poorly in their pursuit of more.

Most of us in the developed world live lives of relative comfort. Ones that many rich Romans would be envious of. So, perhaps the poisons of affluence and pleasure are something we should be more on the lookout for. Needless to say, this is not true for all of us.

This is a large issue, but if I were to summarize the philosophy succinctly, I’m left with the following three ideas:

Pursue virtue.
Understand how you can use money virtuously.
Beware of the risks of wealth, poverty, and comfort.

Seneca’s advice from his letter on philosophy and riches is instructive:

One should not seek to lay up riches first; one may attain to philosophy, however, even without money for the journey. It is indeed so. After you have come to possess all other things, shall you then wish to possess wisdom also? Is philosophy to be the last requisite in life, – a sort of supplement? Nay, your plan should be this: be a philosopher now, whether you have anything or not, – for if you have anything, how do you know that you have not too much already? – but if you have nothing, seek understanding first, before anything else.

Moral Letters 17