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 Justin Brown

1^st Installment

Meditations

            The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius made a series of writings and wrote down private notes and wrote out ideas of stoic philosophy. Stoic Philosophy a philosophy that encourages self-restraint, harsh reality-checking, and a strong sense of civic responsibility. Meditations was written by Marcus where he wrote 12 books total in Greek. He wrote these books for himself and guidance. The book of meditations was written into 12 books which was all into separate periods of his life. The writings were out of order only because it was for himself and so no one else could understand his book but him. When people looked through his books it was out of sort but it referred to man among other men so it can all relate to his knowledge. He had many stoic philosophy ideas but what captured readers eye which was that his writing skill freed men from their pain and sorrows. Marcus stated that the only way a man can be harmed by others is to allow his reaction to overpower him. Most of the books in Meditations had a lot to do with existence, mortality, virtues, relationships with communities and the gods. Marcus talked about the standards he noticed in the people lives who were important to him. He also learned from other philosophers and life about life traditionally, living in nature, and tolerance. Book 1 was long passages of him mentioning the people who made him who he was which were his grandfather and father. In book 3 he believed that if a man should live longer it is uncertain the understanding will go on and retain power. He believes that life is shorter than we all think because he says that our mind breaks down before our body does. When death is into play, he believes that our new world was a journey with the fellow gods. In book 10 Marcus reminded himself of many things through his belief and wisdom. He reminded himself that he will do whatever it takes to satisfy the nature of his body. He tried to study change so he could focus on leaving his human body and focus more on the purpose of life. He reminded himself to not worry about criticism he believed that if he thinks that if he believes what he does is true to him nothing shouldn’t matter. He also believed he should tend to figure things out on his own. Marcus had many beliefs and much knowledge but I believe he got caught up too much into his beliefs. I certainly don’t believe that that our bodies go to the gods. I believe that our bodies are left on earth but our soul leaves the body to enter into either the gates of heaven or into hell. With all being said everyone has a right to their own beliefs, Marcus Aurelius was a great philosopher even when he felt like he wasn’t.

http://classics.mit.edu/Antoninus/meditations.3.three.html

http://seinfeld.co/library/meditations.pdf

http://www.shmoop.com/meditations/