Perennial Lives | Stoics, Saints, and Sages
The Perennial Lives series explores the life and philosophy of 12 figures (one per week), from Socrates (470—399 BC) to St. Thomas Aquinas (1225—1274). To assist us in our journey, we’ll turn to resources like Lives of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius, along with more recent works like Examined Lives by James Miller, Socrates’ Children by Peter Kreeft, Lives of the Stoics by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman, and others works.
Who is Marcus Aurelius?
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121—180) was a Roman emperor and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good Emperors. In the Lives of the Stoics, Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman write,
At the core of Marcus Aurelius’s power as a philosopher and a philosopher king seems to be a pretty simple exercise that he must have read about in Seneca’s writings and then in Epictetus’s: the morning or evening review. “Every day and night keep thoughts like these at hand,” Epictetus had said. “Write them, read them aloud, talk to yourself and others about them.”
So much of what we know about Marcus Aurelius’s philosophical thinking comes from the fact that for years he did that. He was constantly jotting down reminders and aphorisms of Stoic thinking to himself. Indeed, his only known work, Meditations, is filled with quotes […]
The title of Meditations, which dates to 167 AD, means “to himself,” which perfectly captures the book's essence. Holiday and Hanselman explain Meditations is not a book for the reader. It was a book for the author. Yet this is what makes it such an impressive piece of writing, one of the incredible literary feats of all time. Somehow, in writing exclusively to and for himself, Marcus Aurelius produced a book that has survived through the centuries.
How to Connect — Like Marcus Aurelius
Although there are many lessons to learn from the life and philosophy of Marcus Aurelius, we’ll focus on connection. In a well-known passage from Book II, Marcus Aurelius wrote to himself, “At the start of the day, tell yourself: I shall meet people who are officious, ungrateful, abusive, selfish, etc.” As humans, we are inherently social. Therefore, dealing with people is inevitable.
At first glance, Marcus’s perspective could appear to be a somewhat negative outlook on society. But interestingly, the passage continues this way,
In every case, they’ve got like this because of their ignorance of good and bad. But I have seen goodness and badness for what they are, and I know what is good is what is morally right, and what is bad is what is morally wrong, and I’ve seen the true nature of the wrongdoer himself and know that he’s related to me…
Marcus Aurelius works through the idea of good and evil and comes to a similar conclusion as Socrates, “No one knowingly does evil.” When people act unvirtuously, it is not intentional. It is simply a lack of wisdom (at that particular moment).
Are there any problematic people in your life? How might reframing your perspective on the nature of good and bad help you to connect?
Marcus Aurelius continued,
None of them can harm me, anyway, because none of them can infect me with immortality, nor can I become angry with someone who’s related to me, or hate him, because we were born to work together, like feet or hands or eyelids, like the rows of upper and lower teeth.
The passage concludes, “To work against each other is therefore unnatural — and anger and rejection count as working against.” Marcus Aurelius reveals that responding with kindness and compassion is not only the wise response — it is always possible.
Final Thoughts
The notion of connection appears throughout Meditations and several other philosophical and spiritual traditions.
(author of Think Like a Roman Emperor) said in a recent conversation on In Search of Wisdom, “It’s surprising that some people can read the Meditations without even noticing how important kindness actually was to the Stoics.”Similarly, in his book Beyond the Individual, Will Johncock put it this way,
The fundamental feature of a social or communal nature for the Stoics instead refers to how, when you think and act, you do so with an awareness that you are part of and constituted by a greater whole. This requires an appreciation that everything about us that appears to be ‘individual’ or ‘personal,’ instead borrows from and shares in something that is dispersed beyond ourselves and is common to all.
“In terms of all our thoughts and actions,” writes Johncock, “Epictetus believes a Stoic ‘never acts in their own interest or thinks of themselves alone, but . . . all its actions and desires aim at nothing except contributing to the common good.’”
Marcus Aurelius teaches us that realizing our connection with the whole of society shapes how we see and live in the world. Therefore, the art of living is not only about recognizing our connection with others. It is also conducting ourselves in ways that contribute to the common good.
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Thank you for reading; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
P.S. Feel free to comment, ask questions, or make suggestions!
You can read previous meditations in the series below:
Today’s meditation was Part X of the Perennial Lives series — The Art of Living: From Socrates to Aquinas. Previously, we discussed The Art of Living: From Socrates to Aquinas (Part I), How to Live — Like Socrates (Part II), The Life and Philosophy of Confucius (Part III), The Wisdom of Jesus (Part IV), and The Teachings of the Buddha (Part V), How to Live — Like Lao Tzu (Part VI), The Way of Aristotle (Part VII), The Life and Wisdom of Epictetus (Part VIII), and How to Search for Wisdom — Like St. Augustine (Part IX).