Marcus Aurelius and Understanding Stoicism

Written by Luca Rabaiotti

Edited by Alfred Tyrrell

Stoicism has been increasingly at the forefront of the modern philosophy zeitgeist, breaking its way deeply into public consciousness. The book Meditations by Marcus Aurelius has been undoubtedly the most popular, widely read text and is where much of the modern view of stoicism is drawn from. Thus, we will use Marcus’s text to derive the core concepts of stoicism and ask if it deserves its prominence in modern thought. 

To begin, let us first take a look at the history of stoicism. The school was first founded by Zeno of Citium in 300 BCE, yet we do not have much Stoic literature written from this Greek period. Much of what we do know of stoicism came from its great rise in popularity during the Roman Empire. Philosophers such as Seneca and Epictetus emerged in the first century CE, and their writing had great influence on the philosophy of the Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius (many of his other life influences are listed in the first book of Meditations). Meditations itself, which is split into 12 books, is famously made up of Marcus's collected personal writings, which were never intended for public consumption, and was even given the title ‘to himself’ when first published. Marcus himself was made joint emperor of the Roman empire in 161 AD, being the final adopted emperor in a long series. 

Much like Virtue Ethics, another recently re-popularised ancient philosophy, Stoicism has its primary focus on obtaining virtue. For Marcus, virtue matters above all; he states that:

 ‘The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature’.

One important virtue to the stoics is living in accordance with nature, both physical and human, to suspend one's desire, and additionally working to advance the community. Similarly, to other philosophies such as Confucianism, in stoicism, one with much virtue is considered a sage, and is a model of morality. Furthermore, the most important virtue, to the stoics, is correct judgement. 

This is the most famous element of stoicism and often its most attractive idea. The idea that one should only worry about what is in one's control, and what is in our control is our judgments. To Marcus, there is cognitive content within emotions, what this means is that contained inside our emotions or feelings there is a judgement that we make, which is in our control. We must train our judgements to bring them into line with reality. Interestingly, this formed the basis for cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which today is one of the most widely used forms of therapy for a large range of problems. This is often misunderstood as a call to have no feelings, especially those exponents of stoicism who come from the manosphere, which has often co-opted stoic theory.

However, one could argue that this emphasis on the dichotomy of control can be problematic when brought to extremes. Whilst focusing solely on what one's judgements can be helpful day to day, is it really true that all one can and should worry about controlling is their judgments? How then would structural change come about, to combat important global issues? In theory, this would lead stoics to engender passivity, yet Marcus himself, being a Roman emperor, clearly was not passive. But does this defend stoicism or does it show even the greatest stoic sages could not embody all stoic principles? Additionally, similar arguments can be applied to the stoic reasoning on emotion, CBT has been critiqued for not always addressing the underlying issues that cause the views of emotion, often reframing your views on your feelings will not fix the reason you had your initial views in the first place.

Overall, stoicism provides many interesting ideas for a personal philosophy that in essence acts as self-help. It has clearly been greatly influential, with its influence on cognitive behavioural therapy, and may provide people with a means of support. But stoicism is not without its flaws, and its over-focus on these elements of judgement is both its triumph and downfall. For me, these problems overshadow the philosophy too much to be personally convinced of its merit. The book Meditations itself should undoubtedly be revered for its window into Marcus’s life, which is incredibly insightful and intriguing. It is unbelievably surprising just how much one can apply this almost 2000-year-old text to modern life, and even if you do not subscribe to stoic philosophy it is undoubtedly worth reading.