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Questions tagged [marcus-aurelius]

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6 votes
3 answers
156 views

What did Marcus Aurelius mean in Book II Verse VI

I am confused by the first part in the statement made by Marcus Aurelius in his book meditations (Book II, Verse VI) Do wrong to thyself, do wrong to thyself, my soul; but thou wilt no longer have ...
Kamola's user avatar
  • 175
4 votes
3 answers
137 views

What did Marcus Aurelius mean when he said, ". . . we can learn how man has contact with God"?

This is from Book 2, Meditation 12 (Maxwell Staniforth's translation): We should apprehend, too, the nature of death; and that if only it be steadily contemplated, and the fancies we associate with ...
Gerry's user avatar
  • 719
3 votes
1 answer
54 views

How do Philosophy students deal with archaic and old English in Philosophy books?

I am from India and English is my third language. When I tried to get into Philosophy, the first book I picked up was Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Even though I liked the book, the archaic grammar ...
Suradoe Uchiha's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
949 views

There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Are these words of Shakespeare,inspired by Marcus Aurelius, true?

This question is not about ethics. It is about our perceptions of positive and negative value. I take the original meaning of the great emperor to be that we have control only of our own thinking, and ...
Meanach's user avatar
  • 2,341
0 votes
1 answer
372 views

What does Marcus Aurelius' "Lower things for the sake of higher ones, and higher ones for one another" mean and how does it relate to stoic ideals?

From Book Seven of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations: Everything has to do what it was made for. And other things were made for those with logos. In this respect as in others: lower things exist for the ...
Golden Ratio's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
535 views

Modern-day examples of Stoicism? [closed]

Having listened to the Meditations audiobook on YouTube, and having watched Professor Michael Sugrue's lecture on Marcus Aurelius - it seems to me, the essence of Stoicism is: to accept what is, as it ...
user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
514 views

wisdom vs thoughts vs meditations of marcus aurelius

i don't know anything about stoicism but am trying to buy a present for someone who likes it a lot. i am seeing books called 'meditations of marcus aurelius', 'wisdom of marcus aurelius', and 'the ...
push33n's user avatar
  • 113
4 votes
2 answers
2k views

Why did Marcus Aurelius reproach rhetoric and poetry?

While reading Marcus' Meditations, I noticed a dose of subtle criticism directed at rhetoric and poetry. As per Book I Chapter XIV: From the gods I received that ... I was no great proficient in the ...
Paul Razvan Berg's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
1k views

Marcus Aurelius' progression in stoic thought

In what is ascribed to be Verse 18, Book V of Marcus Aurelius' Mediations, Marcus writes: [1] "Nothing happens to any man which he is not formed by nature to bear." Alternative ...
TomDot Com's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
1k views

What exactly did Marcus Autelius mean by "To pursue the impossible is madness: and it is impossible for bad men not to act in character."?

why he did write that? Does this paragraph make any sense? Maybe, he wanted to say it is impossible to be good man without good characters? Any assumption?
Mike's user avatar
  • 31
2 votes
1 answer
218 views

Marcus Aurelius' Meditations

My question is short. Are there any contradicting things in Meditations of Marcus Aurelius? Contradictions in between his quotes or quotes and real life.
Mike's user avatar
  • 31
6 votes
1 answer
2k views

What does Marcus Aurelius mean by quoting Plato here?

Keep always before you that “this is no different from an empty field,” and the things in it are the same as on a mountaintop, on the seashore, wherever. Plato gets to the heart of it: “fencing a ...
Li Cooper's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
662 views

What does Marcus Aurelius mean by 'sympathetic link'?

I am reading Meditation by Marcus Aurelius and finding difficulty in understanding this sentence: When they (agitations of the flesh) make their way into your thoughts, through the sympathetic link ...
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