Marcus Aurelius

"Because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs.

The preacher sought to find out acceptable words; and that which was written was upright, even words of truth."  -- Eccl. 12:9-10

Assignments

Before class:

• read Marcus Aurelius's Meditations
• read Ecclesiastes from the Old Testament
• write down some annotations before class of things which impressed and impacted you

After Class:

• write meditations of one's own
  • favorite quotations of others
  • your own quotables
  • put your epiphanies into words

Meditations

Condensed version at Squashed Philosophers,

Full version at Project Gutenberg

Notes

Written in Greek, not Latin.

Stoic philosophy.

Epictetus:

• "Freedom is secured not by the fulfilling of one's desires, but by the removal of desire." (iv.1.175)
• "Where is the good? In the will. Where is the evil? In the will. Where is neither of them? In those things that are independent of the will." (ii.16.1)
• "Man is disturbed not by things, but by the views he takes of them." (Ench. 5)
• "If, therefore, any be unhappy, let him remember that he is unhappy by reason of himself alone." (iii.24.2)
• "I am formed by nature for my own good: I am not formed for my own evil." (iii.24.83)
• "Permit nothing to cleave to you that is not your own; nothing to grow to you that may give you agony when it is torn away." (iv.1.112)

The Stoics regarded speculation as a means to an end and that end was, as Zeno put it, to live  in conformity with nature. This conforming of the life to nature was the Stoic idea of Virtue.  This dictum might easily be taken to mean that virtue consists in yielding to each natural impulse; but that was very far from the Stoic meaning. In order to live in accord with nature, it is necessary to know what nature is; and to this end a threefold division of philosophy is made—into Physics, dealing with the universe and its laws, the problems of divine government and teleology; Logic, which trains the mind to discern true from false; and Ethics, which applies the knowledge thus gained and tested to practical life.

Compare with Ecclesiastes: many similarities in sentiment and authorship.

• king of jews during golden age / emporer at height of roman empire
• no new thing under the sun (1:9)
• there is no remembrance of former things (1:11, 2:16, 8:10)
  former days not better than these (7:10)
• same things happen to fools and wise (2:15, 9:2)
  though one live 2000 years, all go to one place (6:6)
• dead better than alive, unborn best (4:2-3)
• better a handful with quietness, than both hands full with vexation (4:6)
  abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep (5:12-13)
• fool voice known by the multitude of his words (5:2-3)
• anger resteth in the bosom of fools (7:9)
• there is no work or wisdom in the grave (9:10)
• poor man delivers a city by his wisdom, but no one remembers the poor man (9:14-16)
• "if the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding pacifieth (hebrew: sets aside) great offences. (latin: to cease in your duty will make great sin)" (10:4)
• sow and reap (duty); do not look to the end, which is chance (11:4-6)
• no end of book; much study a weariness of flesh (12:12) / put away thy books
• the duty of god is to fear god and keep his commandments (12:13)

II.1. busy-body, ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial.  They are that way because of ignorance of what is good and evil, not because they are evil.

Simplicity, tranquility, harmony with nature.

Person consists of body, breath (or soul), and intelligence.

IV.18. pay no attention to others' moral, but stay straight yourself.

IV.21. no afterlife

Duty (do one's assigned part in life).

Justice.

V.36. fortunate means that a man has assigned to himself a good fortune: and a good fortune is good disposition of the soul, good emotions, good actions.

VI.13. outward show is a wonderful perverter of the reason.  (but should we not appreciate beauty?)

VI.28. all is vanity

VI.30. Strive to continue to be such as philosophy wished to make thee. ...

VI.41. if we judge only those things which are in our power to be good or bad, there remains no reason either for finding fault with God or standing in a hostile attitude to man.

VI.48. think of the virtues of those who live with thee...

VII.11. To the rational animal, the same act is according to nature and according to reason.

VII.63. Every soul is involuntarily deprived of truth; consequently in the same way it is deprived of justice and temperance and benevolence and everything of the kind.  It is most necessary to bear this constantly in mind, for thus thou wilt be more gentle towards all. (reminds me of coming to earth and forgetting everything--we need to relearn all these things and learn to appreciate them by experiencing their absence.)

VIII.16. Remember that to change thy opinion and to follow him who corrects they error is as consistent with freedom as it is to persist in thy error.

IX.4. He who does wrong does wrong against himself ... because he makes himself bad.

IX.42. what is there strange, if the man who has not been instructed does the acts of an uninstructed man?

XII.4. Every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others.

XII.28. How he knows God exists.

Thoughts

Who is Marcus Aurelius?  What does he do?  What is he, deep down inside?

I see a conflict between what he is and what he does, which he struggles with a lot.  Compare with the writings fo Caesar, who does what he is.  Who is happier?

Is what we do different from what we are?