Firstly, thank you for this series. I am thoroughly immeshed, and it has provided both initial considerations to journal about, as well as subsequent considerations weaved into my daily pondering.
Second, and in relation to this post: A very important thing to always bear in mind when doing an in-depth study of anything (and you have mentioned this) is the environment of the author. No matter how much we want to read something in isolation, social, cultural, political, and religious climates of the day play an important part in any writing. Even, for example, the Bible. I find this a very important fact to keep in mind and to research as thoroughly as is possible, because otherwise we make assumptions about how to be based on our own minds in relation to what is said, instead of taking the core reasoning around the why for these actions. We can make use of the reasoning; we cannot always make use of the action.
In modern-day stoicism, as in any other philosophical / religious ideal that wants to determine how we should live, I find this is often missing. Humans want a map; they want a definitive manual that tells them what and how to do things.
Thirdly, my personal and additional take on 'not working against them' is that Marcus believes in an order (as you said) and these less virtuous people are a part of that order. Basically, we all have our part in the play. Like you said, all of that is a tough pill for the modern mind. And yet at the same time, we understand that, not the gods, but our systems let people down and that these have very definite repercussions that affect society as a whole. Or at least, we're starting to.
Lastly, I think the take away from this first paragraph is that every day will contain people that aren't that great (not necessarily all of their days, personally I like to remind myself that everyone has a bad day), but they are people just like you, and that always reacting to them does more harm to yourself than to them in the end.
Question: would Marcus Aurelius agree with this idea from JP Sartre: “…man is responsible for what he is… And when we say that man is response for himself, we do not mean that he is responsible only for his own individuality, but that he is responsible for all men.” ?
That’s a very provocative last line there. That we should think about metaphysics more than Ethics is something that most people would not even conceive of as a reasonable thought. However, I think you are basically right. I once heard a catholic philosopher say that Mary, mother of Jesus, was the greatest of all philosophers because she knew how to truly contemplate the divine. That might be along the lines of where you’re going.
Firstly, thank you for this series. I am thoroughly immeshed, and it has provided both initial considerations to journal about, as well as subsequent considerations weaved into my daily pondering.
Second, and in relation to this post: A very important thing to always bear in mind when doing an in-depth study of anything (and you have mentioned this) is the environment of the author. No matter how much we want to read something in isolation, social, cultural, political, and religious climates of the day play an important part in any writing. Even, for example, the Bible. I find this a very important fact to keep in mind and to research as thoroughly as is possible, because otherwise we make assumptions about how to be based on our own minds in relation to what is said, instead of taking the core reasoning around the why for these actions. We can make use of the reasoning; we cannot always make use of the action.
In modern-day stoicism, as in any other philosophical / religious ideal that wants to determine how we should live, I find this is often missing. Humans want a map; they want a definitive manual that tells them what and how to do things.
Thirdly, my personal and additional take on 'not working against them' is that Marcus believes in an order (as you said) and these less virtuous people are a part of that order. Basically, we all have our part in the play. Like you said, all of that is a tough pill for the modern mind. And yet at the same time, we understand that, not the gods, but our systems let people down and that these have very definite repercussions that affect society as a whole. Or at least, we're starting to.
Lastly, I think the take away from this first paragraph is that every day will contain people that aren't that great (not necessarily all of their days, personally I like to remind myself that everyone has a bad day), but they are people just like you, and that always reacting to them does more harm to yourself than to them in the end.
Could you explain what you mean by metaphysics?
By metaphysics, I mean how the world is — what it is made of, its nature, order, etc. This is a helpful article: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/metaphysics/
Question: would Marcus Aurelius agree with this idea from JP Sartre: “…man is responsible for what he is… And when we say that man is response for himself, we do not mean that he is responsible only for his own individuality, but that he is responsible for all men.” ?
That’s a very provocative last line there. That we should think about metaphysics more than Ethics is something that most people would not even conceive of as a reasonable thought. However, I think you are basically right. I once heard a catholic philosopher say that Mary, mother of Jesus, was the greatest of all philosophers because she knew how to truly contemplate the divine. That might be along the lines of where you’re going.