Beyond Philosophy

~ How can we improve our moral character? One method that Marcus recommends to himself: we should take time to see the best in the characters with whom we live. Railing at the wicked should not consume all, or the most important part, of our lives. ~ Ὅταν εὐφρᾶναι σεαυτὸν θέλῃς, ἐνθυμοῦ τὰ προτερήματα τῶν συμβιούντων· οἷον τοῦ μὲν τὸ δραστήριον, τοῦ δὲ τὸ αἰδῆμον, τοῦ δὲ τὸ εὐμετάδοτον, ἄλλου δὲ ἄλλο τι. οὐδὲν γὰρ οὕτως εὐφραίνει ὡς τὰ ὁμοιώματα τῶν ἀρετῶν ἐμφαινόμενα τοῖς ἤθεσι τῶν συζώντων καὶ ἀθρόα ὡς οἷόν τε συμπίπτοντα. διὸ καὶ πρόχειρα αὐτὰ ἑκτέον. Whenever you wish to cheer yourself up, think on the real achievements of those who live with you. Consider the activity that one of them has, the modesty expressed by another, the generosity of a third, and so on. There is nothing so cheering as the appearance of virtues in the habits of our fellowmen, especially when these virtues manifest as close and thick as possible. For they are then right at your own hand, ready to be grasped.

 ~ Marcus advises himself to avoid carrying pride or grudges to the grave, which awaits all of humanity as something natural (& in his mind, good, though we commonly regard it as evil). ~ Ἐννόει συνεχῶς παντοίους ἀνθρώπους καὶ παντοίων μὲν ἐπιτηδευμάτων, παντοδαπῶν δὲ ἐθνῶν τεθνεῶτας, ὥστε κατιέναι τοῦτο μέχρι Φιλιστίωνος καὶ Φοίβου καὶ Ὀριγανίωνος. μέτιθι νῦν ἐπὶ τὰ ἄλλα φῦλα· ἐκεῖ δὴ μεταβαλεῖν ἡμᾶς δεῖ ὅπου τοσοῦτοι μὲν δεινοὶ ῥήτορες, τοσοῦτοι δὲ σεμνοὶ φιλόσοφοι, Ἡράκλειτος, Πυθαγόρας, Σωκράτης, τοσοῦτοι δὲ ἥρωες πρότερον, τοσοῦτοι δὲ ὕστερον στρατηγοί, τύραννοι· ἐπὶ τούτοις δὲ Εὔδοξος, Ἵππαρχος, Ἀρχιμήδης, ἄλλαι φύσεις ὀξεῖαι, μεγαλόφρονες, φιλόπονοι, πανοῦργοι, αὐθάδεις, αὐτῆς τῆς ἐπικήρου καὶ ἐφημέρου τῶν ἀνθρώπων ζωῆς χλευασταί, οἷον Μένιππος καὶ ὅσοι τοιοῦτοι. περὶ πάντων τούτων ἐννόει ὅτι πάλαι κεῖνται· τί οὖν τοῦτο δεινὸν αὐτοῖς; τί δαὶ τοῖς μηδ’ ὀνομαζομένοις ὅλως; ἓν ὧδε πολλοῦ ἄξιον, τὸ μετ’ ἀληθείας καὶ δικαιοσύνης εὐμενῆ τοῖς ψεύσταις καὶ ἀδίκοις διαβιοῦν....

~ Sometimes, Marcus just waves his fist at the sky. Too much regularity in our experience of the world is painful, as is too little. ~ Ὥσπερ προσίσταταί σοι τὰ ἐν τῷ ἀμφιθεάτρῳ καὶ τοῖς τοιούτοις χωρίοις ὡς ἀεὶ τὰ αὐτὰ ὁρώμενα, καὶ τὸ ὁμοειδὲς προσκορῆ τὴν θέαν ποιεῖ, τοῦτο καὶ ἐπὶ ὅλου τοῦ βίου πάσχεις· πάντα γὰρ ἄνω κάτω τὰ αὐτὰ καὶ ἐκ τῶν αὐτῶν. μέχρι τίνος οὖν; The same events are always starting up before your eyes in the arena and other public venues. Familiarity makes these spectacles boring, so that you become weary of witnessing them. This you suffer with all your life. Always the same things going up and down, from the same origins. To what end?

~ Marcus reflects on healthy human society, which requires all its members to assume burdens together. If we cannot share liability, then we are not part of a functioning human whole. A telling observation in all times, but especially ours (when we frequently hallucinate wholes that don't really exist, because nobody shares liability within them). ~ Ὅσα ἑκάστῳ συμβαίνει, ταῦτα τῷ ὅλῳ συμφέρει· ἤρκει τοῦτο. ἀλλ’ ἔτι ἐκεῖνο ὡς ἐπίπαν ὄψει παραφυλάξας, ὅσα ἀνθρώπῳ, καὶ ἑτέροις ἀνθρώποις. κοινότερον δὲ νῦν τὸ συμφέρον ἐπὶ τῶν μέσων λαμβανέσθω. What happens to each individual part matters also to the whole. You have known this for a while. But still, the more you look closely, the more you will see how what occurs to one person also ends up happening to others. What is essential for folk in the middle of your society must be taken up now as a burden shared more by outliers, too.

Marcus lays out his own approach to life, one that finds good by recourse to communal standards (evident in religion, and in shared human and animal interaction). What is not good for the community he inhabits he categorically rejects as good for himself. This reveals a conception of good that will not work in most modern environs (which presume a level of autonomy in the individual self that is largely alien to antiquity, not just Marcus: philosophers intent upon individual ethics, as opposed to communal, were seen as strange, mad, even dangerous; this is one of the problems Athens has with Socrates). Εἰ μὲν οὖν ἐβουλεύσαντο περὶ ἐμοῦ καὶ τῶν ἐμοὶ συμβῆναι ὀφειλόντων οἱ θεοί, καλῶς ἐβουλεύσαντο· ἄβουλον γὰρ θεὸν οὐδὲ ἐπινοῆσαι ῥᾴδιον, κακοποιῆσαι δέ με διὰ τίνα αἰτίαν ἔμελλον ὁρμᾶν; τί γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἢ τῷ κοινῷ, οὗ μάλιστα προνοοῦνται, ἐκ τούτου περιεγένετο; εἰ δὲ μὴ ἐβουλεύσαντο κατ’ ἰδίαν περὶ ἐμοῦ, περί γε τῶν κοινῶν πάντως ἐβουλεύσαντο, οἷς κατ’ ἐπακολούθησιν καὶ ταῦτα συμβαίνοντα ἀσπ...

Marcus' view of nature: the entire universe is a rhythmic expression of purposeful motion that repeats itself in the manner of a dance, with periods punctuated by final events (such as birth & death, in the animal life familiar to us). All the things we see around us—sun, rain, stars, subtle processes of healing & conceiving that require us to shrink & to grow, to die & to be reborn—are significant parts of this great dance. Even when these parts appear at odds, as the bright sun drying & the dark water drenching, still in the end they are working together, in perfect natural harmony. Our place is to move with them, making our own entrance & exit on the divine dance-floor as skillfully as we can. Μήτι ὁ ἥλιος τὰ τοῦ ὑετίου ἀξιοῖ ποιεῖν; μήτι ὁ Ἀσκληπιὸς τὰ τῆς Καρποφόρου (†); τί δὲ τῶν ἄστρων ἕκαστον; οὐχὶ διάφορα μέν, συνεργὰ δὲ πρὸς ταὐτόν; Would the sun ever deign to achieve what the rain does? Would Asclepius do the work of fertile Demeter? What about ea...

Providence will make you a character in the drama of the world. You will accomplish what must be done, willy-nilly, but how you accomplish it is up to you. Do you want to fight against your role, to rail against it, to reject it even as you carry it out on the cosmic stage? Or would you like to make it the best expression of your character that you can? This decision is yours, and yours alone. Πάντες εἰς ἓν ἀποτέλεσμα συνεργοῦμεν, οἱ μὲν εἰδότως καὶ παρακολουθητικῶς, οἱ δὲ ἀνεπιστάτως, ὥσπερ καὶ τοὺς καθεύδοντας, οἶμαι, ὁ Ἡράκλειτος ἐργάτας εἶναι λέγει καὶ συνεργοὺς τῶν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ γινομένων. ἄλλος δὲ κατ’ ἄλλο συνεργεῖ, ἐκ περιουσίας δὲ καὶ ὁ μεμφόμενος καὶ ὁ ἀντιβαίνειν πειρώμενος καὶ ἀναιρεῖν τὰ γινόμενα· καὶ γὰρ τοῦ τοιούτου ἔχρῃζεν ὁ κόσμος. λοιπὸν οὖν σύνες εἰς τίνας ἑαυτὸν κατατάσσεις· ἐκεῖνος μὲν γὰρ πάντως σοι καλῶς χρήσεται ὁ τὰ ὅλα διοικῶν καὶ παραδέξεταί σε εἰς μέρος τι τῶν συνεργῶν καὶ συνεργητικῶν, ἀλλὰ σὺ μὴ τοιοῦτο μέρος γένῃ, οἷος ὁ εὐτελὴς καὶ γελοῖος στίχος ἐν τῷ δρά...

Marcus Aurelius consistently thinks that good and evil properly belong to the private life, rather than the public one. By his reckoning, hatred and love are best expressed in the confines of my own mind, as I reject and accept attitudes over which I have personal and wilful control. Public life will demand actions and attitudes from me, of course, but these are not the same, not as morally sound, as the actions and attitudes that I culture and keep within myself. Blaming the evil of the world rather than my own evil is a cause of useless blasphemy and misanthropy: instead of making evil an occasion for learning to express better the good that I carry inside, I learn to turn it into hatred of the gods and my fellow men. A bad outcome, as it tends to render me miserable and useless, to myself as well as others. Ὅ τι ἂν τῶν ἀπροαιρέτων ὑποστήσῃ σαυτῷ ἀγαθὸν ἢ κακόν, ἀνάγκη κατὰ τὴν περίπτωσιν τοῦ τοιούτου κακοῦ ἢ τὴν ἀπότευξιν τοῦ τοιούτου ἀγαθοῦ μέμψασθαί σε θεοῖς καὶ ἀνθρώπους δὲ μισῆσ...

Civilization requires us to inherit and transmit a material legacy that needs careful looking after. Tools won't use and repair themselves well if we neglect to maintain them. Proper maintenance requires us to think about what they were created originally to do (which does not imply that they won't or cannot do other things, of course, but Marcus thinks more about keeping old goods than adding new ones). Ὄργανον, ἐργαλεῖον, σκεῦος πᾶν εἰ πρὸς ὃ κατεσκεύασται ποιεῖ, εὖ ἔχει· καίτοι ἐκεῖ ὁ κατασκευάσας ἐκποδών. ἐπὶ δὲ τῶν ὑπὸ φύσεως συνεχομένων ἔνδον ἐστὶ καὶ παραμένει ἡ κατασκευάσασα δύναμις· καθὸ καὶ μᾶλλον αἰδεῖσθαι αὐτὴν δεῖ καὶ νομίζειν, ἐὰν κατὰ τὸ βούλημα ταύτης ἔχῃς καὶ διεξάγῃς, ἔχειν σοι πάντα κατὰ νοῦν. ἔχει δὲ οὕτως καὶ τῷ παντὶ κατὰ νοῦν τὰ ἑαυτοῦ. Every tool, instrument, or vessel is good, when it is applied to the task for which it has been prepared, even when the person who prepared it is long gone. While a tool lasts, its power to work remains sure, surviving wit...

Marcus Aurelius does not want to cultivate the dissatisfaction that causes us to be always looking to replace things or people around ourselves, shopping for better fulfilment, more happiness, or whatever it is that leads us to seek our fate beyond what exists here & now. Find the best in your immediate reach & commit to it, for real (ἀλλ’ ἀληθινῶς). Οἷς συγκεκλήρωσαι πράγμασι, τούτοις συνάρμοζε σεαυτόν, καὶ οἷς συνείληχας ἀνθρώποις, τούτους φίλει, ἀλλ’ ἀληθινῶς. Put yourself in harmony with whatever circumstances fall to your lot, and love the people with whom you must face them, but you have to be earnest about it.

The entire world, for Marcus, is a living being, with parts whose natural expressions cohere to form one harmonious whole. Πολλάκις ἐνθυμοῦ τὴν ἐπισύνδεσιν πάντων τῶν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ καὶ σχέσιν πρὸς ἄλληλα. τρόπον γάρ τινα πάντα ἀλλήλοις ἐπιπέπλεκται καὶ πάντα κατὰ τοῦτο φίλα ἀλλήλοις ἐστί· καὶ γὰρ ἄλλῳ ἑξῆς ἐστι τοῦτο (†) διὰ τὴν τονικὴν κίνησιν καὶ σύμπνοιαν καὶ τὴν ἕνωσιν τῆς οὐσίας. Consider often how all things in the world are bound together, held fast by mutual opposition. All things are woven together in some way, and so they are all in some degree dear to one another. Each one exists with consequence for another, because matter or being moves reactively, producing live rhythms and wholeness. --- (†) One MS (codex Vaticanus Gr. 1950) has καὶ γὰρ ἄλλο ἑξῆς ἐστι τοῦτο. Coraes (1816) offers καὶ γὰρ ἄλλῳ ἄλλο ἑξῆς ἐστι τοῦτο, and Farquharson (1944) provides καὶ γὰρ ἄλλῳ ἄλλο ἑξῆς ἐστι ταῦτα. My text here comes from Leopold, who follows the other MSS.

In the great cosmic dance of nature, ancient philosophers find abstract forms constantly repeating. We cannot predict the particular movement of the dance, how it must go in some arbitrary window of time & space, but we can be sure it will always have the forms of natural life. In modern terms, we cannot know how living species must look or act in any particular moment, but we can know that they will take the form of cells whose life involves various iterative processes of respiration and replication. We cannot predict historical outcomes, within the story of our own species, but we can be sure these outcomes will involve the existential drama inherent in our mortality. Promises will be made; some shall then be broken, and others kept. Mourning and exultation will be there; seizing and releasing, in turn. Nihil novi sub sole. Ὁ τὰ νῦν ἰδὼν πάντα ἑώρακεν, ὅσα τε ἐξ ἀϊδίου ἐγένετο καὶ ὅσα εἰς τὸ ἄπειρον ἔσται· πάντα γὰρ ὁμογενῆ καὶ ὁμοειδῆ. The man who has seen what exists today has ...

Marcus Aurelius draws a little picture of the world, which he imagines as a kind of living giant. Its ruling principle is a mind that orders movement in a kind of dance that all things follow, including things we regard as evil; but these things also have their place, Marcus says, and contribute ultimately to the wonder and awe and order of the world, which for him is divine. Ἡ Ἀσία, ἡ Εὐρώπη γωνίαι τοῦ κόσμου· πᾶν πέλαγος σταγὼν τοῦ κόσμου· Ἄθως βωλάριον τοῦ κόσμου· πᾶν τὸ ἐνεστὼς τοῦ χρόνου στιγμὴ τοῦ αἰῶνος. πάντα μικρά, εὔτρεπτα, ἐναφανιζόμενα. Πάντα ἐκεῖθεν ἔρχεται, ἀπ’ ἐκείνου τοῦ κοινοῦ ἡγεμονικοῦ ὁρμήσαντα ἢ κατ’ ἐπακολούθησιν. καὶ τὸ χάσμα οὖν τοῦ λέοντος καὶ τὸ δηλητήριον καὶ πᾶσα κακουργία, ὡς ἄκανθα, ὡς βόρβορος, ἐκείνων ἐπιγεννήματα τῶν σεμνῶν καὶ καλῶν. μὴ οὖν αὐτὰ ἀλλότρια τούτου οὗ σέβεις φαντάζου, ἀλλὰ τὴν πάντων πηγὴν ἐπιλογίζου. Asia and Europe: these are corners of the world, and every sea its drop of blood. Athos (†) is just a little speck on it. Each moment taken ...

Marcus exhorts himself to remain true to his mind, to note and solicit its judgments with respect. A good person cannot live well by ignoring or despising his own mind. Οὐχ ὁρᾷς πῶς οἱ βάναυσοι τεχνῖται ἁρμόζονται μὲν μέχρι τινὸς πρὸς τοὺς ἰδιώτας, οὐδὲν ἧσσον μέντοι ἀντέχονται τοῦ λόγου τῆς τέχνης καὶ τούτου ἀποστῆναι οὐχ ὑπομένουσιν; οὐ δεινὸν εἰ ὁ ἀρχιτέκτων καὶ ὁ ἰατρὸς μᾶλλον αἰδέσονται τὸν τῆς ἰδίας τέχνης λόγον ἢ ὁ ἄνθρωπος τὸν ἑαυτοῦ, ὃς αὐτῷ κοινός ἐστι πρὸς τοὺς θεούς; Don't you see how unthinking technicians render themselves as near to idiots as it is possible for them to be, refusing to grasp the rational order of their craft and hastening rather to get away from it as quickly as they can? Terrible as it is for an architect or a doctor to be ashamed of the order that belongs properly to building or medicine, is it not worse for a man to despise his own indwelling order, the rational faculty that gives him common cause with gods?

Anything that delights us can draw attention, but not everything delightful or attractive is something we want to give our attention to. Some things that attract become distractions, when they lead us into circumstances that make future happiness hard to find. Ἡλίκας ἡδονὰς ἥσθησαν λῃσταί, κίναιδοι, πατραλοῖαι, τύραννοι. Pleasures swiftly past their prime draw pirates, p osers , parricides, despots who admit no law.

Is work bad? Not if it is natural, according to Marcus Aurelius. Hard work is good, too, under the same condition. We must work hard at the tasks that nature gives us, not unnatural tasks that we invent for ourselves. Trying to escape all hard work is ultimately impossible, and the attempt will not do us good. Instead, we want to work, and work hard, at the right things. Οὐκ ἔστιν ὁ πόνος τῇ χειρὶ οὐδὲ τῷ ποδὶ παρὰ φύσιν, μέχρις ἂν ποιῇ ὁ ποῦς τὰ τοῦ ποδὸς καὶ ἡ χεὶρ τὰ τῆς χειρός. οὕτως οὖν οὐδὲ ἀνθρώπῳ ὡς ἀνθρώπῳ παρὰ φύσιν ἐστὶν ὁ πόνος, μέχρις ἂν ποιῇ τὰ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου· εἰ δὲ παρὰ φύσιν αὐτῷ οὐκ ἔστιν, οὐδὲ κακόν ἐστιν αὐτῷ. Hard work is not unnatural to our hands and feet, as long as the foot does footwork while handiwork goes to the hand. In the same way, hard work is not unnatural to a human being, as long he is doing human work. If something isn't unnatural to a person, then it isn't bad for him.

Marcus reflects on the power of human agency, which confronts past, present, and future, but can only make meaningful choices in the present. Ἐκ σωματίου εἰμὶ καὶ ψυχῆς. τῷ μὲν οὖν σωματίῳ πάντα ἀδιάφορα· οὐδὲ γὰρ δύναται διαφέρεσθαι. τῇ δὲ διανοίᾳ ἀδιάφορα ὅσα μή ἐστιν αὐτῆς ἐνεργήματα· ὅσα δέ γε αὐτῆς ἐστιν ἐνεργήματα, ταῦτα πάντα ἐπ’ αὐτῇ ἐστιν. καὶ τούτων μέντοι περὶ μόνον τὸ παρὸν πραγματεύεται· τὰ γὰρ μέλλοντα καὶ αρῳχηκότα ἐνεργήματα αὐτῆς καὶ αὐτὰ ἤδη ἀδιάφορα. I am made of soul, and this little body. For the body, all things are the same, as it is incapable of differentiating them on its own. Things remain undistinguished by my mind, too, as long as they fail to partake in its activities. Everything that manages to belong to the activity of my mind has meaning for it. Of all these things, the moments and events that achieve significance for me, only the present one actually matters. Future and past, while they do belong to my mind, are both alike in escaping my ability to dist...

Marcus shakes himself. All of us have to do a little self-correction now and then, snapping out of trances that our expectations tend to put us in. Ἀνάνηφε καὶ ἀνακαλοῦ σεαυτὸν καὶ ἐξυπνισθεὶς πάλιν καὶ ἐννοήσας ὅτι ὄνειροί σοι ἠνώχλουν, πάλιν ἐγρηγορὼς βλέπε ταῦτα, ὡς ἐκεῖνα ἔβλεπες. Sober up. Summon yourself once more to live among the waking. Recognize that dreams were driving you mad, and now that you are awake, see today's world as you saw yesterday's.

Marcus had a good mentor in his adopted father, the emperor Antoninus Pius. Here he reflects on the lessons his father's life teaches about how to be a good person, good enough that you can carry the burden of leadership without being corrupted or destroyed by it. Marcus has mentioned Antoninus before in these Notes , in 1.5 & 1.16 ( 1-4 , 4-7 , 8-10 ). Ὅρα μὴ ἀποκαισαρωθῇς, μὴ βαφῇς· γίνεται γάρ. τήρησον οὖν σεαυτὸν ἁπλοῦν, ἀγαθόν, ἀκέραιον, σεμνόν, ἄκομψον, τοῦ δικαίου φίλον, θεοσεβῆ, εὐμενῆ, φιλόστοργον, ἐρρωμένον πρὸς τὰ πρέποντα ἔργα. ἀγώνισαι, ἵνα τοιοῦτος συμμείνῃς, οἷόν σε ἠθέλησε ποιῆσαι φιλοσοφία. αἰδοῦ θεούς, σῷζε ἀνθρώπους. βραχὺς ὁ βίος· εἷς καρπὸς τῆς ἐπιγείου ζωῆς, διάθεσις ὁσία καὶ πράξεις κοινωνικαί. πάντα ὡς Ἀντωνίνου μαθητής· τὸ ὑπὲρ τῶν κατὰ λόγον πρασσομένων εὔτονον ἐκείνου καὶ τὸ ὁμαλὲς πανταχοῦ καὶ τὸ ὅσιον καὶ τὸ εὔδιον τοῦ προσώπου καὶ τὸ μειλίχιον καὶ τὸ ἀκενόδοξον καὶ τὸ περὶ τὴν κατάληψιν τῶν πραγμάτων φιλότιμον· καὶ ὡς ἐκεῖνος οὐκ ἄν τι ὅλως παρῆκε...

If we are alive, we should not lose courage. Keep pushing for the achievement of the good you know, even when your soul wants to give way. Αἰσχρόν ἐστιν, ἐν ᾧ βίῳ τὸ σῶμά σοι μὴ ἀπαυδᾷ, ἐν τούτῳ τὴν ψυχὴν προαπαυδᾶν. Such a shame that your soul threatens to surrender in this moment of life, as your body yet stands firm.