The Selfless Mind By Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius’Meditationsis one amongsttheratherlimited number of...

Marcus Aurelius’Meditationsis one amongsttheratherlimited number ofancientStoic writings thathavesurvivedcompletely, oralmost completely,intact. His writings areespecially interesting in the areaof moral psychologybecause of their undoubtedly practical andstrikinglyintimate nature.This personaland practical character, combined with the rare positionof its authoras Roman emperor (A.D. 161-180)sets this text apart from other Roman Stoic texts such as the writings of Seneca and the discourses ofEpictetus as reported by Arrian and it thusgivesus a perspective on thetheory andpractice of(Stoic)philosophyin ancient Romethat cannot be found anywhere else.Moreover, it could provide importantinformation on the development and continuity of the Stoic school up to the second century A.D.Thesurvival of such an intimate text is close to miraculous and this is shown in the fact that we have only asingle surviving manuscript(Vat. Gr. 1950) of the textdating from the fourteenth century,in addition tothe first printed edition with Latin translation by Xylander from 1559, which was based on a manuscriptnow lost. Whereas thesurvivingmanuscript lacks a title, the printed edition was entitled“MarcouAntoninou Autokratopos Tôn eis heauton bibliôn”. Thistitle was very probably given to the work later but-although there have been suggestions that the text was either a preparation for, or extract from, amoral treatise and even that it was intended for the instruction of Marcus’ son and successor Commodus-the title is probably correct inits implicationthat theemperor wrote the textexclusivelyfor,andspecifically directed athimself.1Greek editions of the text usually maintainas titlethe elliptical version“ta eis heauton”while the English translations generally go by the title“Meditations” which carriespossibly misleading connotations, especiallyin the form ofasupposedresemblance to Descartes’Meditationes.As opposed to the latter, theMeditationsdo not show a series of extended andthoroughgoing contemplations that focus on a small number of interrelated problems or subjects