In case you’re curious, Stoicism is a philosophy of personal eudaemonic virtue ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world, asserting that the practice of virtue is both necessary and sufficient to achieve eudaimonia - the state or condition of ‘good spirit’ or, as we call it, happiness.

Than a dissolution of the elements of which every living being isĬompounded.Meditations is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, a Roman Emperor from AD 161 to 180, recording his private notes to himself and ideas on Stoic philosophy - from a tent. But this consists in keeping the daemon within a manįree from violence and unharmed, superior to pains and pleasures,ĭoing nothing without purpose, nor yet falsely and with hypocrisy, notįeeling the need of another man's doing or not doing anything andīesides, accepting all that happens, and all that is allotted, asĬoming from thence, wherever it is, from whence he himself came and,įinally, waiting for death with a cheerful mind, as being nothing else What then is that which is able to conduct a man? One thing and only He would prefer you to thirst for learning rather than thirst for answers provided by others. He is encouraging the reader to embrace philosophy and to be skeptical of the spoken or written words of other men as they are, at best, explanations of nature. Of course, as with all things, even moderation, moderation is a virtue. And in today's Internet-connected world, where we regularly drink from a firehose of information, the ability to resist spending too much time reading, is even more desirable. There comes a point, in making any kind of decision, when one has all the information one is ever going to get on what others think about the matter, and at that point one must decide, own the decision, and take the consequences. My own view is, similar to what Ron suggests, that reading can become a crutch that avoids us learning to think for ourselves. I guess it's a matter for the individual reader. But as Mozibur points out, Marcus Aurelius is not alone in doing so.

The fact that they were published and are still being read today was not, I think, any intention of Marcus Aurelius's.Īs to why he reminds himself about not doing too much reading, I don't think that's perfectly clear. The Meditations weren't written as a book for others they were Marcus Aurelius writing for himself. Why do you suppose he says this, and does he want us to thirst to read his book?Īnswering the second part first, no, he doesn't want us to thirst to read his book.

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