331 sats \ 1 reply \ @gd 13 Feb \ on: Stoic Book Club: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius #1 - Debts and Lessons BooksAndArticles
I'd love to be included in this too.
Meditations is a profoundly impactful book in a different way each time I read it. I'd call myself an eager student of Philosophy (especially socratic and stoic) and try to practice whenever I can.
To me— debts and lessons reads as an exercise in gratitude. Marcus wasn't born to be the heir to the Roman Empire, he was chosen. I imagine this magnitude of social elevation providing immense perspective to him, both in good and bad ways. Marcus seems to always want to extinguish the bad and bring to light the good. He distinguishes both not by his instinct, but by comparing it to the logos.
The logos is synonymous with nature, God, the cosmos, everything. By justifying one's actions as in accordance with the logos (or nature as Marcus frequently writes) we should be able to rationally prove that our actions are virtuous.
This task is where we meet our first and arguably most important virtue of Stoicism— Wisdom.
The pursuit of wisdom is one the will last until your final moment.
To live in accordance with the logos, we must be able to use our wisdom to guide our actions.
Wonderful synthesis. Your observation that he was chosen is acute and really quite important. By being chosen, he is a product of logos itself, his appointment is ordered by Nature. Leaders who are clamoring for (more) power without responsibly managing that which is already within their sphere of influence are trying to bend Nature. They don't have "the mark of a soul in readiness".
It conjures an image of the knight kneeling to receive his title and duty. We must do our best with what we have, not conquest for more before we're ready.
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