Some reflections on anger in Thomas Aquinas and Seneca

Abstract

This article addresses Aquinas and Seneca’s philosophical doctrines on anger. The author tries to establish a bound between both authors in regard to the notion of anger. The proposal grounds on the fact that, although Aquinas and Seneca come from divergent philosophical traditions, there’s a compatibility between both visions of anger, mainly in regard to the similar tools posed by them to attain a rational handling of the aforementioned
emotion. For this purpose, I approach the issue: (1) firstly, laying out the causal nature of anger in Aquinas; (2) secondly, describing the causal nature of anger in Seneca; (3) thirdly, analyzing the commonalities between both thinkers, based on the similarity of the resources quoted by them; and (4) finally,
a general appraisal derived from the preceding analysis.