Meditations

Zeno of Citium (c. 335-263 BC) is generally credited with founding Stoic philosophy. Stoicism’s name derives from the Greek word stoa, which denotes the porch within the Athenian Agora where followers of the philosophy gathered to lecture and discuss. Its three main branches were: logic, the study of rational discourse; physics, the study of the cosmic order; and ethics, the study of proper human behavior. Stoicism became one of the leading philosophical schools in the Roman Empire, with Marcus’s own primary interest being the study of ethics.

At the time Marcus wrote down his Meditations, Stoicism had codified a few key concepts. First, happiness derives from living virtuously. Good health and wealth are morally indifferent and not necessary preconditions for happiness. Second, how humans respond to events and what they desire flow from what they believe is valuable and worth pursuing, which Stoics would say may be morally mistaken beliefs and desires. For example, fearing death and wanting to live longer result from having mistaken beliefs about life and death. Third, humans are naturally disposed to benefit each other. When properly cultivated, this natural disposition leads to humans regarding each other as parts of a larger Whole.

A fourth Stoic concept concerns physics, meaning the study of the natural world and how it intersects with ethics. Stoic and Epicurean philosophies held opposing viewpoints on natural design. Building on Plato and Aristotle, Stoics argued that divine Providence shapes cause and effect, while Epicureans argued that the world is shaped by natural processes with random results. For the Stoics, philosophy necessarily incorporated the study of the natural world, notions of the divine, and ethics.

The practice of Stoicism included a systematic method of self-improvement that required subjecting the self to rigorous examination. Two prominent Stoic philosophers, Epictetus and Seneca, suggested a three-step process that involved evaluating whether an object or activity held ethical value, shaping beliefs around that value, and moving to bring beliefs and actions into harmony. Marcus repeatedly invokes this process when describing how to divest things of their vain embellishments and strip them down to their essential natures. While it can suggest a concept of the self that is familiar to modern people, it is important to remember that Stoicism saw the self as inextricably connected to a community, as the individual is a limb, as Marcus puts it, on the body of the whole.

Though he cites and engages with other philosophers and philosophical schools, Marcus’s most significant influence was Stoicism. Marcus’s Stoic beliefs appear often in Meditations, including that happiness derives from virtue instead of material goods, social influence, or power; that virtuous behavior is that which benefits others; and that divine Providence shapes the course of events, with all humans a part of the greater Whole.