Classic Philosophy for the Modern Man

by Andrew Lynn

  And secondly we must consider, each for himself, what we are most prone to—for different natures are inclined to different things—which we may learn by the pleasure or pain we feel. And then we must bend ourselves in the opposite direction; for by keeping well away from error we shall fall into the middle course, as we straighten a bent stick by bending it the other way.

  But in all cases we must be especially on our guard against pleasant things, and against pleasure; for we can scarce judge her impartially. And so, in our behaviour towards her, we should imitate the behaviour of the old counsellors towards Helen, and in all cases repeat their saying: if we dismiss her we shall be less likely to go wrong.

  But it is a hard task, we must admit, especially in a particular case. It is not easy to determine, for instance, how and with whom one ought to be angry, and upon what grounds, and for how long; for public opinion sometimes praises those who fall short, and calls them gentle, and sometimes applies the term manly to those who show a harsh temper.

  In fact, a slight error, whether on the side of excess or deficiency, is not blamed, but only a considerable error; for then there can be no mistake. But it is hardly possible to determine by reasoning how far or to what extent a man must err in order to incur blame, and indeed matters that fall within the scope of perception never can be so determined. Such matters lie within the region of particulars, and can only be determined by perception.

  So much then is plain, that the middle character is in all cases to be praised, but that we ought to incline sometimes towards excess, sometimes towards deficiency; for in this way we shall most easily hit the mean and attain to right doing.

  3

  Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

  Introduction

  Philosopher, soldier, emperor – Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, better known as simply ‘Marcus Aurelius’, was all of these and more. Plato had once dreamed of a philosopher king. In Marcus Aurelius, the classical world finally had one.

  We could write at length on the enlightened nature of his imperial rule – his support for orphans and the poor, his interest in manumission (freeing) of slaves, and his tolerance for free speech. We could also write at length of his military campaigns and triumphs – his victory in the East as co-ruler with his adopted brother Verus against the Parthians, invading from what is modern-day Iran, as well as his defence against marauding Germans swarming into Roman territory from across the Danube in the north. On any basis, it is no surprise that he was considered the last of the five ‘good emperors’.

  What is really of interest, though, is the philosophy that underpinned these achievements.

  Marcus Aurelius was a Stoic. The rational man, according to the Stoics, takes active and positive command of his emotions. Desire, fear, and even pain arise from false judgments: nothing affects us unless we choose to let it. Only those who can grasp these truths are truly free. All others are slaves.

  The Meditations are a high point of Stoic thinking, but they are also one of a kind. Marcus Aurelius left us more than merely a philosophy. What he left was a code of conduct for dealing with the stresses and strains endured as ruler of one of the greatest empires known to man. Large portions of the work appear to have been composed when the emperor was on campaign in the Roman province of Pannonia, near modern-day Austria and Hungary – a land of gloomy forest, gigantic oaks, and birds with feathers that ‘shine like fires at night’. It was there, at the edge of his empire and surrounded by ferocious barbarian tribes, that Marcus Aurelius gave birth to the writings that have inspired leaders and thinkers for centuries. It’s no surprise that these reflections are rooted in practical concerns and form the bedrock of a practical ethos.

  How, then, to live?

  Accept. Begin every day with this simple reminder: today I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, the arrogant, the deceitful, the envious, the antisocial. They are this way through their own ignorance of what is good and what is evil. No matter: nothing they say or do can have any effect on me. They cannot implicate me in what is ugly, what angry, or what is hateful unless I am complicit in this. Work with them. To act against one another is contrary to nature.

  Take control. Dig deep. Retreat inside yourself. Go to the place where nothing can touch your soul. From there you will find that what disturbs you now disturbs you as a result of your own judgment about it – and it is in your power to wipe out this judgment now. Such as a man’s habitual thoughts are, such is the character of his mind. Where a man can live he can live well. To do that, keep the contents of the mind clean, and correct, and self-composed.

  Focus on the present. Don’t spend time thinking of the whole course of one’s life. Don’t allow your thoughts to roam over potential troubles that may befall you in a hypothetical future. At all times consider what it is in the present moment that pains or is intolerable to you. You will find this circle of the present to be a very circumscribed one. Loss is nothing else than change, and change – like all things – gives pleasure or pain just as our judgment would render it.

  This is a noble philosophy not because it comes from an emperor but because it reflects a nobility of spirit. Here is nothing servile: the whole basis of the philosophy is the rediscovery of our native freedom. Here is nothing needy: all that is required is to take command of oneself and one’s reactions. And here is nothing small: a good disposition towards our fellow men is invincible if genuine. Go out and live as a man aware of his true nature, says Marcus Aurelius, and you will do well enough.

  * * *

  Book II

  1. Begin the morning by saying to yourself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. But I who have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the bad that it is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that it is akin to me; not only of the same blood or seed, but that it participates in the same intelligence and the same portion of the divinity, I can neither be injured by any of them, for no one can fix on me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my kinsman, nor hate him. For we are made for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another, then, is contrary to nature; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn away.

  5. Every moment think steadily as a Roman and a man to do what you have in hand with perfect and simple dignity, and feeling of affection, and freedom, and justice, and to give yourself relief from all other thoughts. And you will give yourself relief if you do every act of your life as if it were the last, laying aside all carelessness and passionate aversion from the commands of reason, and all hypocrisy, and self-love, and discontent with the portion which has been given to you. You see how few the things are, the which if a man lays hold of, he is able to live a life which flows in quiet, and is like the existence of the gods; for the gods on their part will require nothing more from him who observes these things.

  16. The soul of man does violence to itself, first of all, when it becomes an abscess, and, as it were, a tumour on the universe, so far as it can. For to be vexed at anything which happens is a separation of ourselves from nature, in some part of which the natures of all other things are contained. In the next place, the soul does violence to itself when it turns away from any man, or even moves towards him with the intention of injuring, such as are the souls of those who are angry. In the third place, the soul does violence to itself when it is overpowered by pleasure or by pain. Fourthly, when it plays a part, and does or says anything insincerely and untruly. Fifthly, when it allows any act of its own and any movement to be without an aim, and does anything thoughtlessly and without considering what it is, it being right that even the smallest things be done with reference to an end; and the end of rational animals is to follow the reason and the law of the most ancient city and polity.

  Book IV

  3. Men seek retreats for themselves, hous
es in the country, seashores, and mountains; and you too are wont to desire such things very much. But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in your power whenever you shall choose to retire into yourself. For nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire than into his own soul, particularly when he has within him such thoughts that by looking into them he is immediately in perfect tranquility; and I affirm that tranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind. Constantly then give to yourself this retreat, and renew yourself; and let your principles be brief and fundamental, which, as soon as you shall recur to them, will be sufficient to cleanse the soul completely, and to send you back free from all discontent with the things to which you return. For with what are you discontented? With the badness of men? Recall to your mind this conclusion, that rational animals exist for one another, and that to endure is a part of justice, and that men do wrong involuntarily; and consider how many already, after mutual enmity, suspicion, hatred, and fighting, have been stretched dead, reduced to ashes; and be quiet at last. But perhaps you are dissatisfied with that which is assigned to you out of the universe. Recall to your recollection this alternative; either there is providence or atoms; or remember the arguments by which it has been proved that the world is a kind of political community. But perhaps corporeal things will still fasten upon you. Consider then further that the mind mingles not with the breath, whether moving gently or violently, when it has once drawn itself apart and discovered its own power, and think also of all that you have heard and assented to about pain and pleasure. But perhaps the desire of the thing called fame will torment you. See how soon everything is forgotten, and look at the chaos of infinite time on each side of the present, and the emptiness of applause, and the changeableness and want of judgment in those who pretend to give praise, and the narrowness of the space within which it is circumscribed. For the whole earth is a point, and how small a nook in it is this your dwelling, and how few are there in it, and what kind of people are they who will praise you.

  This then remains: Remember to retire into this little territory of your own, and above all do not distract or strain yourself, but be free, and look at things as a man, as a human being, as a citizen, as a mortal. But among the things ready to thy hand to which you shall turn, let there be these, which are two. One is that things do not touch the soul, for they are external and remain immovable; but our perturbations come only from the opinion which is within. The other is that all these things, which you see, change immediately and will no longer be; and constantly bear in mind how many of these changes you have already witnessed. The universe is transformation; life is opinion.

  7. Take away your opinion, and then there is taken away the complaint, ‘I have been harmed’. Take away the complaint, ‘I have been harmed’, and the harm is taken away.

  36. Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom yourself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are and to make new things like them. For everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be. But you are thinking only of seeds which are cast into the earth or into a womb: but this is a very vulgar notion.

  39. What is evil to you does not subsist in the ruling principle of another; nor yet in any turning and mutation of your corporeal covering. Where is it then? It is in that part of you in which subsists the power of forming opinions about evils. Let this power then not form such opinions, and all is well. And if that which is nearest to it, the poor body, is cut, burnt, filled with matter and rottenness, nevertheless let the part which forms opinions about these things be quiet; that is, let it judge that nothing is either bad or good which can happen equally to the bad man and the good. For that which happens equally to him who lives contrary to nature and to him who lives according to nature, is neither according to nature nor contrary to nature.

  40. Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one perception, the perception of this one living being; and how all things act with one movement; and how all things are the cooperating causes of all things which exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread and the contexture of the web.

  Book V

  16. Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts. Dye it then with a continuous series of such thoughts as these: for instance, that where a man can live, there he can also live well. But he must live in a palace; well then, he can also live well in a palace. And again, consider that for whatever purpose each thing has been constituted, for this it has been constituted, and towards this it is carried; and its end is in that towards which it is carried; and where the end is, there also is the advantage and the good of each thing. Now the good for the reasonable animal is society; for that we are made for society has been shown above. Is it not plain that the inferior exists for the sake of the superior? But the things which have life are superior to those which have not life, and of those which have life the superior are those which have reason.

  19. Things themselves touch not the soul, not in the least degree; nor have they admission to the soul, nor can they turn or move the soul: but the soul turns and moves itself alone, and whatever judgments it may think proper to make, such it makes for itself the things which present themselves to it.

  20. In one respect man is the nearest thing to me, so far as I must do good to men and endure them. But so far as some men make themselves obstacles to my proper acts, man becomes to me one of the things which are indifferent, no less than the sun or wind or a wild beast. Now it is true that these may impede my action, but they are no impediments to my affects and disposition, which have the power of acting conditionally and changing: for the mind converts and changes every hindrance to its activity into an aid; and so that which is a hindrance is made a furtherance to an act; and that which is an obstacle on the road helps us on this road.

  26. Let the part of your soul which leads and governs be undisturbed by the movements in the flesh, whether of pleasure or of pain; and let it not unite with them, but let it circumscribe itself and limit those affects to their parts. But when these affects rise up to the mind by virtue of that other sympathy that naturally exists in a body which is all one, then you must not strive to resist the sensation, for it is natural: but let not the ruling part of itself add to the sensation the opinion that it is either good or bad.

  Book VI

  6. The best way of avenging yourself is not to become like the wrongdoer.

  19. If a thing is difficult to be accomplished by yourself, do not think that it is impossible for man: but if anything is possible for man and conformable to his nature, think that this can be attained by yourself too.

  20. In the gymnastic exercises suppose that a man has torn you with his nails, and by dashing against your head has inflicted a wound. Well, we neither show any signs of vexation, nor are we offended, nor do we suspect him afterwards as a treacherous fellow; and yet we are on our guard against him, not however as an enemy, nor yet with suspicion, but we quietly get out of his way. Something like this let thy behaviour be in all the other parts of life; let us overlook many things in those who are like antagonists in the gymnasium. For it is in our power, as I said, to get out of the way, and to have no suspicion nor hatred.

  Book VII

  2. How can our principles become dead, unless the impressions which correspond to them are extinguished? But it is in your power continuously to fan these thoughts into a flame. I can have that opinion about anything which I ought to have. If I can, why am I disturbed? The things which are external to my mind have no relation at all to my mind. Let this be the state of your affects, and you stand erect. To recover your life is in your power. Look at things again as you used to look at them; for in this consists the recovery of your life.

  29. Wipe out the imagination. Stop the pull
ing of the strings. Confine yourself to the present. Understand well what happens either to you or to another. Divide and distribute every object into the causal and the material. Think of your last hour. Let the wrong which is done by a man stay there where the wrong was done.

  64. In every pain let this thought be present, that there is no dishonour in it, nor does it make the governing intelligence worse, for it does not damage the intelligence either so far as the intelligence is rational or so far as it is social. Indeed in the case of most pains let this remark of Epicurus aid you, that pain is neither intolerable nor everlasting, if you bear in mind that it has its limits, and if you add nothing to it in imagination: and remember this too, that we do not perceive that many things which are disagreeable to us are the same as pain, such as excessive drowsiness, and the being scorched by heat, and the having no appetite. When then you are about any of these things, say to yourself that you are yielding to pain.

  Book VIII

  36. Do not disturb yourself by thinking of the whole of your life. Let not your thoughts at once embrace all the various troubles which you may expect to befall you; but on every occasion ask yourself, ‘What is there in this which is intolerable and past bearing?’, for you will be ashamed to confess. In the next place remember that neither the future nor the past pains you, but only the present. But this is reduced to a very little, if you only circumscribe it, and chide your mind if it is unable to hold out against even this.

  47. If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it. And it is in your power to wipe out this judgment now. But if anything in your own disposition gives you pain, who hinders you from correcting your opinion? And even if you are pained because you are not doing some particular thing which seems to you to be right, why do you not rather act than complain? But some insuperable obstacle is in the way? Do not be grieved then, for the cause of its not being done depends not on you. But it is not worth while to live if this cannot be done. Take your departure then from life contentedly, just as he dies who is in full activity, and well pleased too with the things which are obstacles.