moral progress

In the year 65 AD, Lucius Annaeus Seneca composed one of his most ambitious epistles to his student Lucilius. In Letter XC, he unfolds a sweeping argument about the origins of human civilization, the role of the philosopher in early societies, and the provocative question of whether technological progress truly equates to moral progress. Nearly two thousand years later, this text remains strikingly relevant — precisely because it forces us to examine what we really mean when we speak of ‘progress.’ The Golden Age as Starting Point Seneca opens Letter XC by invoking the idea of a Golden Age — a concept that had already taken root in the works of poets like Hesiod and Virgil. In this primordial time, so the story goes, humanity lived in harmony with nature. There was no greed, no private property, no war. The earth freely offered its fruits, and people were content with what lay at hand. Seneca draws on this powerful image, but he refuses to accept it uncritically. Instead, he poses a crucial question: were those earliest humans truly virtuous, or were they simply ignorant of evil? This distinction lies at the heart of the entire letter. Seneca makes it unmistakably […]