Ancient Greek philosophy probably wasn't much like how we think of it. It wasn't anywhere near as intellectual and rarified as its current manifestation. Doing philosophy in the the classical world was a lot more like a social support group, a set of exercises to help one live ones life and a sort of personal development programme.
The most well known ancient philosophy is probably stoicism, and the best known stoic is the emperor Marcus Aurelius. In fact as far as I can work out Marcus is probably the only head of state in the history of the world who was so interested in and inspired by philosophy. One of the reasons we know so much about his philosophy and his attitude is that his writings have survived and have been published as the Meditations. These are pretty much what it says on the tin. They are a collection of his daily thoughts jotted down while he got on with the business of running the Roman Empire, which at the time would have made him just about the most powerful human being on the planet.
The interesting thing is that the keeping of a journal of ones thoughts and reflections was very much part of the system of stoicism as it was practiced back then. So the writings that have continued to be admired for so long after his death were probably never intended to be published. Indeed it is very unlikely they were intended to be published. Marcus was simply carrying out one of the things that stoics were supposed to do.
And I have to say that I think it is a splendid thing to do. I set aside time every morning to write whatever happens to be in my head when I wake up. I am not quite as conscientious in writing a review at the end of the day, but I do that pretty regularly as well. It is a very good way of keeping the brain in the state I want it to be.
Looked at in the same light, the Meditations are a great example of someone who consciously thought about things and tried to live a good life. And he was generally considered to be a good emperor, so it might have worked well.
photo credit: Marcus Aurelius Glyptothek Munich via photopin (license)
No comments:
Post a Comment