Marcus Aurelius Meditations

He had been highly educated in both Greece and Rome. He was also a great intellectual and orator of his time which would have put him in contact with the people who already knew of Stoicism. He studied under the Stoic philosopher Diodotus (d. 59 BCE). They maintained such a close friendship that Diodotus lived in Cicero’s house until his death when he left everything he owned to Cicero. While Cicero considered himself not a complete disciple of Stoicism (he followed some teaching of Epicurus and Plato) he practiced Stoicism’s ideals, especially it’s ethics, throughout his life. Professor and historian Edward Clayton writes that “Cicero puts forth Stoic doctrines not dogmatically, as absolutely and always true, but as the best set of beliefs so far developed. We ought to adhere to them because our lives, both individually and collectively, will be better if we do. It is essentially Stoic ethical teachings that Cicero urges the Roman elite to adopt.” Cicero urges the elite to adopt these ethics through his orations and his philosophical writings. He, himself, studied the texts of the earlier stoic philosopher Panaetius, and this influenced his most famous work: De Officiis, or On Duty. On De Divinationes, another of Cicero’s Stoicism -influenced works, the historian A E Douglas writes that: “Cicero wrote at its beginning and again at its end… that he was deliberately seeking relief through philosophy from the political troubles of the time and an outlet

23. The stoics believed that the most important good in life was is the serenity of the mind, and they placed emphasis on duty and self-discipline as main virtues.

In Descartes’s Meditations III, the Meditator describes his idea of God as "a substance that is infinite, eternal, immutable, independent, supremely intelligent, supremely powerful, and which created both myself and everything else."(70) Thus, due to his opinion in regards to the idea of God, the Meditator views God containing a far more objective reality than a formal one. Due to the idea that of God being unable to have originated in himself, he ultimately decides that God must be the cause of the idea, therefore he exists. The meditator defines God as such, “by ‘God’ I mean the very being the idea of whom is within me, that is, the possessor

During his childhood Marcus studied Stoic Philosophy. Stoic Philosophy deals with the teachings of living simply and being down to Earth and logical about situations. Marcus wrote about this philosophy in his book Meditations. Also during his childhood Hadrian had appointed Marcus to equestrian rank, at the age of six. Then at the age of eight he was appointed Priest of Salian. During his youth he was called “Verissimus”, by Hadrian, which means genuine or true.

Beck, p. 3) Later in the book, he quotes the Stoic emperor, Marcus Aurelius as saying, “If thou are pained by any external thing, it is not the thing that disturbs thee, but thine own judgement about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgement now” (Marcus Aurelius, quoted in A.T. Beck, p. 263)

Augustinus’s meditation of Christ Jesus raised him up to a clarity that evil does not exist in Gods perspective (Hallman,

Topic: How does Descartes argue that mind and body are distinct? Is he right? Am I real, or imaginary? In the First Meditation, Rene Descartes presents the main falsehoods in which he believed during his life, and the subsequent faultiness he experienced concerning the body of knowledge. The philosopher considers that it is never too late to rethink the knowledge about his personal being from the very foundations, and builds his thoughts on a certain ground starting from common things. It would be impossible to doubt each thing separately, so he expresses his doubt to the basic principles of knowledge he has already gained, since a conclusion would surely be doubted if its premise was doubted. He starts by doubting basic senses, by comparing feels in reality vs. in dreams. For example, even if I consciously feel warm when I am walking in the sun, I could not claim that I am hundred-­‐percentage sure I am awake, since I would feel it the same way when I was in dreams. Descartes presents this idea to show the doubt of reality and its elements. Also, he concludes that the common things we perceive are fashioned, and knowledge based on that can be doubted, such as physics and astronomy. This category of knowledge are different from geometry and arithmetic, which contain certain and definiteness in the simplest thing. By doubting the sense and knowledge based on it, Descartes argued his approach that the body and mind are two absolutely distinctive things. Descartes mentions God

He was an emperor that was not just remembered for the wars that he fought for his people, but mainly for “his contemplative nature and his rule driven by reason” (“Marcus Aurelius” 3). His stoic beliefs, hardworking nature, and self-restraint allowed him to be loved and honored by those he ruled (“Marcus Aurelius” 2). Due to his many accomplishments and tolerant nature the Romans honored him as a man and their leader. “In ancient Rome equestrian statues of emperors would not have been uncommon sites in the city…as they were official devices for honoring the emperor for singular military and civic achievements” (Becker

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.

2nd century emperor Meditations, a response within an ever-growing philosophical dialogue between the philosophers of the past and present. As the ruler of the known world, Marcus's worldview is surprisingly modest, positing that the human experience, regardless of length, is a thing of equality as every man possesses only the present moment in which he lives. Within this work, the emperor addresses the men of the Roman world (therefore, those who could read in Greek and had an interest in philosophy or learnedness) in an educated fashion and exhorts them to lead a balanced and good life without fear of death, “Bear in mind always that as a Roman and a man you should perform your duties well and with dignity and

Marcus Aurelius and his philosophies were composed down in a collection of his intimate writings titled Meditations. The compilations and stories that Meditations follows are the influence of Stoicism along with

	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

At the beginning of the fourth meditation Descartes has developed three main certainties: 1) God exists. The understanding that God exists, comes from the intellect and not from the senses or the imagination therefore God exists 2) God is not a deceiver because deceiving is a sign of weakness or malice and because God is perfect he would not be allowed to do things of such evil nature. And 3) if God created him, God is responsible for his judgment, and so his ability to judge must be sound; so long as he uses it correctly. Yet, If God has given Descartes indubitable judgment how is it Descartes makes an error from time to time?

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

Included in Aurelius’ book are all the philosophies he believes in, which generally match with those of the Stoics. His views on such topics as man’s place in the universe, an outer force, the soul, death, truth, knowledge, and virtue are included in his works.