Giving Gifts and Making Friends

Abstract

Abstract The ethical ideal of the ancient Stoics requires that the virtuous agent care about the good of everyone. Contemporary scholars and ancient commentators have struggled to understand how agents are supposed to progress towards this ideal, much less attain it. The central claim of this paper is that the Roman Stoic Seneca offers a blueprint for ethical progress in On Benefits, one that makes giving and receiving benefits central to ethical development. It argues that, for Seneca, (1) benefaction is a joint activity (i.e. an activity with multiple participants working in relation to one another) and that (2) it is intrinsically oriented towards the good. The special nature of benefaction explains why Seneca regards it as a source of friendship. The paper also shows that Stoic friendship shares its core features with the Stoic ethical ideal. Because benefaction results in friendship, it offers progressors a powerful means of developing ethical concern for others’ good.