Ingenia sanare: Die Therapie der Undankbarkeit in Senecas De beneficiis.

For Seneca (and the Stoics in general) benefactions are the essential element for social bonding: they are meant to be reciprocal and thus create relationships. But as he points out in the beginning of De beneficiis they often remain unanswered (and thus fail to create or stabilize community life) because of the recipients' ingratitude. What Seneca undertakes in De beneficiis is to teach people how to avoid ingratitude. As he points out in the beginning of the treatise, a real philosopher's duty is to heal people's souls, so his approach is a therapeutic one. In my paper I present Seneca's therapy of ingratitude. I argue that it is rooted in Stoic Ethics and at the same time adapted to his non-sage readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]