 Seneca tells us that there is a much-debated choice between three kinds of life—the life of theory, the life of politics (or practice), and the life of pleasure. This is not a Stoic distinction. Rather, it is (by Seneca’s time) a conventional division, going back, on the one hand, to Aristotle’s discussion of the life of theoria (‘contemplation’) as compared to the life of politics, and on the other hand to Plato’s and Aristotle’s engagement with prominent views about the good (the good is pleasure, the good is honor, the good is wisdom). Seneca is not committed to the view that the life of theory is a different life from the life of practice. But the Aristotelian way of framing the question helps him describe choices which he and some of his addressees face in life: whether to retire from an active role in politics, or to single-mindedly pursue one’s political career (for a discussion of traditional interpretations, which aim to explain Seneca’s views on retirement in the context of his biography, see Williams 2003).