Marcus Aurelius And Stoicism

He wrote a textbook on music that was used until modern times. Boethius did many great things in his life, until he was charged with conspiring to deliver Rome from his rule, and was thrown into prison for the rest of his life. It is questioned whether his philosophy stands, due to the way he conspired it. Boethius was chained up in a dark dungeon, when a woman appeared in front of him. This was the start of the Consolation of Philosophy, and it is debatable whether he was crazy or simply just using her as a literary device for our reading. Marcus Aurelius lived around 140 A.D., which was considered “Ancient Era” He was known as one of the greatest rulers of all time. Meditations was wrote from the journal of Marcus Aurelius. His philosophy was very simple. He did not want to start a riot with his philosophy, but he practiced it within himself. “Although steeped in the teachings of philosophy, he did not attempt to remodel the world on any preconceived plan” (Meditations p 68).

Both Marcus Aurelius and Cicero try to create a guide, based on their stoic views, on how a person is supposed to live a purposeful life. Marcus Aurelius was an emperor and Cicero was a politician, so both serve somebody or something. In Cicero’s “On Friendship” he bases his guides on what he has learned from important people in his life. In Marcus Aurelius’ “Meditations” he bases his guide off of what he has learned as an emperor with stoic views. Some of what he Aurelius has learned is different from Cicero’s view of stoicism; an example of this is in section seven of Meditations. Section seven of Meditations is about what Aurelius learned from his tutor. He states, “Endure hardship, and have few needs; to do things for myself and not

If I were a noble man then surely I would not even question my Roman faith, however, since I am lost in a sea of middle class laborers I could contemplate Christianity. Word of Christianity spreads slowly in rural communities and I have only heard pieces of this new religion when I travel into the city. The middle class has clearly grown throughout the years with the decrease in population that participates in government affairs. This leads to a skewed distribution of wealth to the minority of individuals. It also seems as though both men and women have both been straying from tradition and normality. However, I would lose the ability to practice my faith openly in the community because the authorities wouldn’t like that Christians view public affairs as meaningless. The emperor would think I am not loyal because I would participate in his army of killers, yet I would be loyal to a man I call king

Even though he professed no specific religious faith, he appeared to suggest that some kind of logical, benevolent force organizes the whole universe in such a way and that even bad occurrences occur for the good of the whole. He claimed that all attributions of good or evil are the product of human judgement. Marcus Aurelius' Stoic ideas often had to do with the denial of emotion. He believed that this ability can free a person from the pains and pleasures of the material world and that the only way one can be harmed by others is by their reaction overpowering them. In many passages, Marcus Aurelius encourages himself to overcome the limited perspective of the self and experience the world from a cosmic perspective. He believed that once one has overcome false value-judgements such as wealth, social rank and competition, one will experience the cosmos as a single living entity instead of an existence of destruction, chaos, and

Epictetus, a Stoic philosopher who lived from 50-130 AD, was instrumental in allowing the Stoic philosophy to grow and flourish. As ideas have come and gone throughout the years, this is a philosophy, a way of thinking, or even a lifestyle that has maintained its validity ever since its inception into the human mind, and continues to be a formative way of thinking to this day. Without knowing it, I have adopted several of the views that are explicitly written in Epictetus’ The Handbook. As I grew tired and annoyed with the events happening around me, it dawned on me that I can only control how I live my life, and that has been a central philosophy in my life for several years. In this paper, I will use different excerpts from The Handbook to support my claim that this philosophical way of thinking is a superior path to eudaimonia, and I will look at counter-arguments and discuss why they are less valid than the Stoic outlook on life.

Marcus Aurelius was born on the 26th April 121ce, in Rome, Italy. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus was known as the last of the 5 “good” emperors because he consistently placed the needs of his people before his own desires or visions of glory.

The son of Marcus Aurelius,’ Commodus Antoninus, came to power in the wake of his father’s death in March of 180 CE. From the death of Marcus Aurelius came the end to the Five Good Emperors. Commodus’ reign lasted from 180 to 192 CE and he described it as a “golden age.” (cite) However, this was far from the truth. Commodus succumbed to the lure of self-indulgence and become a megalomaniac. Along with those two flaws, he also held deep antagonism against the Senate. (cite)

The book Meditations wasn’t ever really intended for publication; this is due to the fact that this book is personal writings from Marcus Aurelius himself. Its his own memories and events of his life that he went through.

Marcus was born into a rich family that was involved in politics. Both of his parents died at an early age, and Marcus lived with his grandfather. Marcus was a great student and learned Latin and Greek, but showed a lot of interest in stoicism, which is a philosophy about fate and reasoning. Marcus attracted the interest of Emperor Hadrian and earned the nickname Vessimus, which means most truthful. Emperor Hadrian appointed Titus Aurelius Antoninus and made Marcus his successor. This made Antoninus his adopted father.

He ruled with wisdom and firmness because of his stoic philosophy. He kept with him a journal of sorts that was written to himself that eventually got turned into a published work called Meditations. From this text we learn that Marcus Aurelius was a humble philosopher who, by example taught a person can be in control of the way he/she acts and reacts. He also believed there was no reason to fear death because it was something natural and everyone's time would eventually come. He also displayed a great tolerance of his subjects as well as patience

This thirst for knowledge was provided by Junius Rusticus. A distinguish senator like Fronto, Rusticus was a Stoic who instructed Marcus in the logic and theory of Stoicism. Intrigued by Stoicism, Marcus seriously began to study morals and seems to have thought that his literary labours had gone far enough. Marcus writes:

Aurelius did not live a regular life like others, he was taught to not waste his time on nonsense and to devote his time to training and disciplining his own character. In the eighth person he credits, Apollonius, he explicates to have “independence and unvarying reliability” to be the same in all circumstance such as pain, a loss of a child, or an illness. This shows that he was taught to be calm and understanding that everything happens for a reason even at the hardest times it is best to be patient. The last person Marcus Aurelius gives his thanks to is to his adopted father. He writes that he learned compassion, hard work, and persistence.

Marcus Aurelius was the emperor of Rome from 161 to 180 AD. Marcus Aurelius was known as one of ‘The five good emperors’, some of the most well respected emperors in Roman history and was well known for his philosophical interests. He was born into a wealthy and politically prominent family. Growing up, Aurelius was a dedicated student, learning Latin and Greek. But his

	Throughout his life, Aurelius was never able to be happy being an emperor. Even though he had money and privileges, and was royalty, he never became tranquil, or at peace with himself, with these material riches. It is evident when a person reads Meditations that Aurelius would much rather have lived the quite life of a philosopher than the public life of an emperor. He always wished that, at some point in his life, maybe when the wars were over, he would have some time to actively pursue philosophy. He never received that opportunity. However, he did, in the midst of all the wars he fought in, find the time to write down his thoughts into a

Stoicism: “a systematic philosophy, dating from around 300 b.c., that held the principles of logical thought to reflect a cosmic reason instantiated in nature.” (dictionary.com). Marcus Aurelius (the author of “Meditations”) was a stoic as well as an emperor. The book he wrote was a collection of thoughts, things he advised himself to do, a piece reflecting his stoicism, and a personal diary of sorts. The kinds of things put into this book were sometimes crazy, sometimes contradictory, yet sometimes very true and insightful. Marcus wasn’t a professional philosopher, and this comes out in his work, but he had an interesting way of living his life. His writings