Discussion #36: Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius

Welcome to Citizen Scholar! Since launching seven months ago we&#8217;re reaching people all over the world, so we thank you for your support. If you enjoy our writing on civic virtue and individual excellence, we humbly ask you to share Citizen Scholar with your family members and friends who may enjoy it. The contents of the audio and text formats are identical and meant to accommodate your preferences. Please let us know if you have any feedback - we&#8217;re always looking for ways to improve!<br/><br/>Introduction<br/><br/>Bill Clinton once claimed to read it every year. Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis carried it into battle with him as a Marine Corps Officer. Wen Jiabao, the former Prime Minister of China, claims to have read it over one hundred times. It appears in reading lists for sports teams and corporate departments &#8211; in high culture and in popular culture. We&#8217;ve long been fascinated by the widespread appeal of The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.<br/><br/>This text, beloved especially by the powerful and the introspective, was probably not meant for public consumption. As far as historians can tell, the last of Rome&#8217;s &#8220;Five Good Emperors&#8221; composed the Meditations as an untitled text meant for private reflection. Scholars who lived centuries later dusted it off and referred to it by a number of titles; in English, it is most often known as Meditations or as The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.<br/><br/>The Lure of the Meditations<br/><br/>Over his last ten years, the Emperor aggregated the learnings of a lifetime. He begins the work by thanking various mentors, teachers and role models and citing key takeaways from each one. Aurelius then goes on to list many practical philosophical principles and specific reminders to himself about how to live well. It&#8217;s hard to argue that the book is an original work of philosophy; instead, a man who had a rigorous education in Stoic philosophy distilled related thinking into the most practical bits. He likely wanted to ref