Marcus Aurelius, Philosopher-King (Stoicism Part III)

In this video, we will introduce students to the great Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, the figure who most befit Plato´s ideal of the philosopher-king. We will discuss what people have said of Marcus through the centuries, his childhood, education, biography and accession to imperial rule, and finally the focus of this course, his great philosophical work the Meditations. Following the scholarship of Pierre Hadot, we will discuss the idea of the Meditations as belonging to the Stoic genre of spiritual exercises and discuss some of its key ideas and principles in order to acquaint students with its peculiar structure and organization.

We began our excursus through the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, starting with chapters I-IV, discussing the themes of Stoic philosophy, what we can glean from his biography from the work and the various spiritual exercises which Marcus recommends in the quest for the good life of virtue and inner tranquility.

We now continue with Marcus´s Stoic reflections in Books V-VIII on the flux of the cosmos, the vanity of fame and glory, the need to live in accord with nature, and the fellowship of all human beings.

We finish up our discussion of Marcus Aurelius with the last chapters of his Meditations. Among the topics covered are the relation between justice and piety, acquiring tranquility and patience by seeing things as they are, the faculties of the human soul, and coming to terms with change, loss, and mortality.

Despite its roots in classical antiquity, Stoicism has proven to have perennial value and interest in other ages of history. In this bonus lecture, we explore the Flemish Renaissance neo-Stoic Justus Lipsius. Exploring his era of violent religious wars in the Low Countries, his personal biography, and some of the themes of his main Stoic work De Constantia we learn how Justus Lipsius sought to find tranquility in Stoicism in an age of troubles. We will also explore how he sought to integrate Stoicism and his Christian faith.

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