Akrasia and Dispositional Conflict in Seneca’s Medea
Keywords:
Akrasia, Stoicism, Medea, SenecaAbstract
This article proposes an akratic interpretation of Seneca’s Medea that views the conflict as a battle between two dispositions within the ruling principle: one oriented toward right reason, or Zeus’ will, and the other toward the opinion. This interpretation relies on Richard Joyce’s analysis of Euripides’ Medea, which characterizes akrasia as a conflict arising from the autonomy of the ruling principle, or hegemonikon, and Irene Liu’s dispositional thesis of the hegemonikon, which contends for a reading of the Stoic Sage that goes beyond the traditional views. The present is an attempt to challenge analyses that deny the possibility of akrasia in the Stoic doctrine and provide an alternative perspective for studying the phenomenon of incontinence, which is so common among human beings, outside of Aristotelian motivational theory, and Socratic intellectualism.
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