Beyond Philosophy

Marcus advises himself to avoid attributing value to things that are unnecessary to life. Placing great value on excellence that goes beyond what nature requires makes it harder to be content with having our real needs met. We want to do our best work, and then be happy with that. Not wishing it to be better than our need, nor caring what others make of it in the markets. Οὔτε τὸ διαπνεῖσθαι ὡς τὰ φυτὰ τίμιον οὔτε τὸ ἀναπνεῖν ὡς τὰ βοσκήματα καὶ τὰ θηρία οὔτε τὸ τυποῦσθαι κατὰ φαντασίαν οὔτε τὸ νευροσπαστεῖσθαι καθ’ ὁρμὴν οὔτε τὸ συναγελάζεσθαι οὔτε τὸ τρέφεσθαι· τοῦτο γὰρ ὅμοιον τῷ ἀποκρίνειν τὰ περιττώματα τῆς τροφῆς. τί οὖν τίμιον; τὸ κροτεῖσθαι; οὐχί. οὐκοῦν οὐδὲ τὸ ὑπὸ γλωσσῶν κροτεῖσθαι· αἱ γὰρ παρὰ τῶν πολλῶν εὐφημίαι κρότος γλωσσῶν. ἀφῆκας οὖν καὶ τὸ δοξάριον· τί καταλείπεται τίμιον; δοκῶ μὲν τὸ κατὰ τὴν ἰδίαν κατασκευὴν κινεῖσθαι καὶ ἴσχεσθαι, ἐφ’ ὃ καὶ αἱ ἐπιμέλειαι ἄγουσι καὶ αἱ τέχναι· ἥ τε γὰρ τέχνη πᾶσα τούτου στοχάζεται, ἵνα τὸ κατασκευασθὲν ἐπιτηδείως ἔχῃ πρὸς τὸ ἔργον ...

Unamuno begins his chapter on God by proposing to examine the concept of divinity. What experiences show us divinity? Unamuno believes that our experience and understanding of divinity is necessarily social (communal, shared) before it becomes personal (private, unique). Approaching divinity requires us to engage society before we look at ourselves. No creo que sea violentar la verdad el decir que el sentimiento religioso es sentimiento de divinidad, y que sólo con violencia del corriente lenguaje humano puede hablarse de religión atea. Aunque es claro que todo dependerá del concepto que de Dios nos formemos. Concepto que depende a su vez del de divinidad. Conviénenos, en efecto, comenzar por el sentimiento de divinidad, antes de mayusculizar el concepto de esta cualidad, y, articulándola, convertirla en la Divinidad, esto es, en Dios. Porque el hombre ha ido a Dios por lo divino más bien que ha deducido lo divino de Dios. Ya antes, en el curso de estas algo errabundas y a la par insis...

Seneca thanks Lucilius for writing letters to him, taking a moment to appreciate the significance he finds in reading over something his friend wrote on purpose, with him in mind. There is something special about letters written deliberately to you, by someone who cares. Quod frequenter mihi scribis gratias ago; nam quo uno modo potes te mihi ostendis. Numquam epistulam tuam accipio ut non protinus una simus. Si imagines nobis amicorum absentium iucundae sunt, quae memoriam renovant et desiderium absentiae falso atque inani solacio levant, quanto iucundiores sunt litterae, quae vera amici absentis vestigia, veras notas afferunt? Nam quod in conspectu dulcissimum est, id amici manus epistulae impressa praestat, agnoscere. I give you thanks for writing to me regularly. Your letters show me what you can do, providing a window into the world of possibility that is your life. I never receive an epistle from you without feeling immediately that we are once more together. If pictures of absen...

Life is a river of events, and we must ride its tides. We will not control what lies beyond our power. Τὰ μὲν σπεύδει γίνεσθαι, τὰ δὲ σπεύδει γεγονέναι, καὶ τοῦ γινομένου δὲ ἤδη τι ἀπέσβη· ῥύσεις καὶ ἀλλοιώσεις ἀνανεοῦσι τὸν κόσμον διηνεκῶς, ὥσπερ τὸν ἄπειρον αἰῶνα ἡ τοῦ χρόνου ἀδιάλειπτος φορὰ νέον ἀεὶ παρέχεται. ἐν δὴ τούτῳ τῷ ποταμῷ, ἐφ’ οὗ στῆναι οὐκ ἔξεστιν, τί ἄν τις τούτων τῶν παραθεόντων ἐκτιμήσειεν; ὥσπερ εἴ τίς τι τῶν παραπετομένων στρουθαρίων φιλεῖν ἄρχοιτο, τὸ δ’ ἤδη ἐξ ὀφθαλμῶν ἀπελήλυθεν. τοιοῦτον δή τι καὶ αὐτὴ ἡ ζωὴ ἑκάστου, οἷον ἡ ἀφ’ αἵματος ἀναθυμίασις καὶ ἡ ἐκ τοῦ ἀέρος ἀνάπνευσις· ὁποῖον γάρ ἐστι τὸ ἅπαξ ἑλκύσαι τὸν ἀέρα καὶ ἀποδοῦναι, ὅπερ παρ’ ἕκαστον ποιοῦμεν, τοιοῦτόν ἐστι καὶ τὸ τὴν πᾶσαν ἀναπνευστικὴν δύναμιν, ἣν χθὲς καὶ πρῴην ἀποτεχθεὶς ἐκτήσω, ἀποδοῦναι ἐκεῖ ὅθεν τὸ πρῶτον ἔσπασας. Some events hasten to begin, and others to be done, and occasionally one will end even as it is just beginning. The ebb and flow of events renews the world continually, even as ...

Unamuno concludes this chapter emphasizing the idea that we need God, and make him, to feel purpose that extends beyond ourselves, that cannot be reduced to some merely material end. Es tal nuestro anhelo de salvar a la conciencia, de dar finalidad personal y humana al Universo y a la existencia, que hasta en un supremo, dolorosísimo y desgarrador sacrificio llegaríamos a oir que se nos dijese que si nuestra conciencia se desvanece es para ir a enriquecer la Conciencia infinita y eterna, que nuestras almas sirven de alimento al Alma Universal. Enriquezco, sí, a Dios, porque antes de yo existir no me pensaba como existente, porque soy uno más, uno más aunque sea entre infinitos, que como habiendo vivido y sufrido y amado realmente, quedo en su seno. Es el furioso anhelo de dar finalidad al Universo, de hacerle consciente y personal, lo que nos ha llevado a creer en Dios, a querer que haya Dios, a crear a Dios, en una palabra. ¡A crearle, sí! Lo que no debe escandalizar se diga ni al más...

What is moral depravity? Seneca argues that it is lacking natural limits for our desires. Without natural limits, we want things that are too much, too large, too unbalanced to be good for us. Over time, having too much will manifest as a permanent shift in our habits and character that causes us to want excess as a rule, as though it were good and necessary (i.e. virtuous), though it is not. Philosophy should teach us to want only what is needed, naturally, not what is excessive, though it appear desirable. Qui hostis in quemquam tam contumeliosus fuit quam in quosdam voluptates suae sunt? quorum impotentiae atque insanae libidini ob hoc unum possis ignoscere, quod quae fecere patiuntur. Nec immerito hic illos furor vexat; necesse est enim in immensum exeat cupiditas quae naturalem modum transilit. Ille enim habet suum finem, inania et ex libidine orta sine termino sunt. Necessaria metitur utilitas: supervacua quo redigis? Voluptatibus itaque se mergunt quibus in consuetudinem adducti...

Our lives are series of events. These exist & persist for us, in our minds at least, as we perceive them & find ways to remember what we have perceived. Material events without any animal motivation that we see become expressions of nature or divinity, which gives birth to myriad physical compounds that lack overt animal intelligence. Events with clear animal motivation appear different: Marcus says that they involve soul. The rational soul, a soul like ours, conceives events in its life as occasions for deploying skill and logic together, drawing on practice and inference from what it has learned in times past. Note that Marcus makes every rational skill something social: we develop & deploy it in concert with other people. Τὰ πλεῖστα, ὧν ἡ πληθὺς θαυμάζει, εἰς γενικώτατα ἀνάγεται τὰ ὑπὸ ἕξεως ἢ φύσεως συνεχόμενα, λίθους, ξύλα, συκᾶς, ἀμπέλους, ἐλαίας· τὰ δὲ ὑπὸ τῶν ὀλίγῳ μετριωτέρων εἰς τὰ ὑπὸ ψυχῆς, οἷον ποίμνας, ἀγέλας ἢ κατὰ ψιλὸν τὸ πλῆθος ἀνδραπόδων κεκτῆσθαι. τὰ δὲ ...