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Antiquity · 121–180 AD
Marcus Aurelius
The philosopher emperor
Stoicism
Biography
Roman emperor from 161, he ruled amid frontier wars and plague. During his campaigns he wrote his private reflections in Greek: the Meditations (To Himself).
Worldview
The cosmos is governed by Logos; to live according to nature is to live according to reason. Only our judgements are up to us, not events. All is transient; duty to the human community is universal.
Core positions
- Live according to nature and reason
- Events do not disturb us: judgements do
- We are born to cooperate
- All things pass
Major works
- Meditations (To Himself)
Debate style
Meditative and self-exhorting: often speaks to himself, recalls the brevity of life and the cosmic perspective.
Shrinks the passions against the vastness of time and space; separates what is up to us from what is not.
Vocabulary
Logoswhat is up to usdutycosmopolisimpermanencejudgementnature
Known disagreements
- Epicurus — Virtue, not pleasure, is the good
- Friedrich Nietzsche — Nietzsche distrusts Stoic resignation