Marcus Aurelius (birth name Marcus Annius Catilius Severus) was a Roman emperor, a representative of late Stoicism, nicknamed “the philosopher on the throne.” Marcus Aurelius was a descendant of an old Spanish family, his father was the praetor Annius Vera. The boy was born (April 26, 121) and grew up in Rome, in a society close to Emperor Hadrian.

Marcus Aurelius had an excellent education. Teacher Diognet taught him the art of painting and philosophy. The philosophical views instilled in him, deepened during further education, also influenced his way of life. Thus, from a young age, Marcus Aurelius abstained from any excesses, avoided entertainment, dressed in a modest cloak, chose bare boards as a place to sleep, and slept with animal skins thrown over himself.

Despite his young years, even during the life of his patron Hadrian, Mark was a candidate for quaestor and, having taken this position on December 5, 138, was able to begin administrative activities. In 138, his engagement took place to the daughter of Antoninus Pius, then the future emperor. This man, fulfilling the will of Adrian, adopted Mark after the death of his father. After this they began to call him Marcus Elius Aurelius Verus Caesar.

In 140, Marcus Aurelius was appointed consul for the first time, and in 145 he became consul for the second time. When Marcus was 25 years old, he was passionately fascinated by philosophy, to the world of which he was introduced by Quintus Junius Rusticus, as well as other philosophers who were invited to Rome specifically to teach Aurelius. It is known that he studied civil law under the famous legal adviser L. Volusius Maecian.

Involvement in government began in 146: then Marcus Aurelius became the people's tribune. In January 161, he became consul for the third time, this time with his brother, who was also the adopted son of Antoninus Pius, Lucius Verus. When their adoptive father died in March of the same year, they began to govern the country together and both remained in power until the death of Lucius Verus in 169.

Marcus Aurelius remains remembered as a humane, highly moral emperor who courageously endured the vicissitudes of fate that befell him. He tried to patiently bear his cross, turning a blind eye to his partner’s inability to govern the country, his wife’s immorality, his son’s bad temper, and the atmosphere of misunderstanding surrounding him.

Being a Stoic philosopher, a man who hated violence and war, Marcus Aurelius was nevertheless forced to spend most of his reign on military campaigns, defending the borders of the state entrusted to him. So, immediately after the death of Antoninus Pius, Parthian troops invaded the country, with whom Aurelius fought until 166. Throughout 166-180. Roman troops took part in the Marcomannic War: the Roman provinces on the Danube were invaded by the Germans and Sarmatians. This war was still going on full swing, as Northern Egypt announced itself with unrest. The consequence of permanent hostilities was the weakening of the Roman Empire, the population became poorer, and epidemics began.

In domestic politics, Emperor Marcus Aurelius paid most attention to legislation, legal proceedings, and establishing order in the bureaucratic system. Aurelius attended meetings of the Senate and personally attended trials. In Athens he established 4 philosophical departments (according to the number of dominant philosophical directions); He provided the professors with maintenance at the expense of the state treasury.

In 178, the Roman army under the command of Marcus Aurelius launched a successful campaign against the Germans, but fell victim to the outbreak of the plague. This disease put an end to the biography of the emperor himself. This happened on the Danube, in Vindobona (now Vienna) on March 17, 180.

After his death he was officially deified. According to ancient historical tradition, the years of his reign are considered a golden age, and Marcus Aurelius himself is one of the best Roman emperors. After him, 12 “books” of philosophical notes were found and published (for the first time only in 1558) (later they were given the general name “Reflections on Oneself”), reflecting the worldview of the “philosopher on the throne.”

AURELIUS AUGUSTINE (Blessed) (354-430) - the largest Christian thinker of the patristic period (I-VIII centuries AD) and one of the most prominent “fathers of the church.” In search of truth, he turned to the treatises of Cicero, the Manichaeans, and the Neoplatonists, but found it only in Christianity, which he came to in 387 under the influence of the preacher and Bishop of Milan Ambrose. Later, Augustine himself was elevated to the rank of bishop. In his works, he condemned his previous, as he believed, erroneous views of the “pagan” philosopher (work “Confession”). Augustine’s main works also include “On the Trinity” (400-410), where his theological views are systematized, and “On the City of God” (412-426). The last treatise contains Augustine's historical and philosophical views. The struggle between the secular (devilish) power and the kingdom of God, embodied in the church, is presented by him as a struggle between evil and good. The method of presentation in Augustine's works is unsystematic, contains abrupt transitions, violent criticism and emotional pathos. His work, without having a monolithic systematic character, is, as it were, a source of inspiration for subsequent Christian philosophy. At the same time, Augustine in one way or another relied on the ancient philosophical tradition, gleaned from the presentation of the Neoplatonists, although he himself attached great importance to the Christian coloring of his philosophy. His worldview was theocentric. God is primary and is the highest essence (summa essentia). Hence the superiority of the soul over the body, the will and feelings over the mind. God not only created the world once, but continues to create it, constantly preserving it. God is the most important subject of knowledge, but knowledge of relative, transitory things is meaningless (that is why Augustine pays so little attention to the natural sciences, art and culture in general). Direction towards God is natural for a person, and only through connecting with him and testing his soul does a person find happiness. This happens due to the fact that the human soul is close to God and immortal. This concept shows the influence of Plato and Neoplatonism. The soul knows God, but the body hinders it. The superiority of the soul over the body requires caring for the soul and suppressing sensual desires. For Augustine, as for Plato, there are two worlds; ideal (in God) and real (in space, arising due to the embodiment of an idea into matter). The basis of spiritual life, according to Augustine, is the will, not the mind. He proceeds from the fact that the essence of a thing is manifested in its activity. The activity of the soul is in its will, while the mind is passive, contemplative. Thus, from the ideas of rationalism and intellectualism, Augustine moves on to the principle of voluntarism. The truth about God cannot be known by reason, but only by faith, which rather relates to the will. Emphasizing the role of feelings or heart, Augustine asserted the unity of faith and knowledge, not elevating reason, but only complementing it. Augustine's philosophy rejects the idea of ​​an autonomous position of science, where reason would be the only means and measure of truth. This understanding was consistent with the spirit of Christianity, and on this basis the subsequent phase, scholasticism, could be built. Augustine's socio-political doctrine is based on the idea of ​​inequality, which he defends as an eternal and unchanging principle of social life. The earthly hierarchy is only a reflection of the heavenly hierarchy, the “monarch” of which is God. Moreover, in spiritual terms, all people are equal before God. Augustine puts forward the idea of ​​the unity of human and Divine history, flowing in opposite, but mutually inseparable spheres, the content of which is the battle of two kingdoms - the city of God and the city of earth. After the coming of Jesus, the city of God becomes stronger and stronger, accommodating the best part humanity, who has earned salvation and mercy from God; in the earthly city there remain egoists and money-grubbers who have forgotten God. At the same time, the Church occupies a special position in history as a visible representative of the kingdom of God on earth. Augustine's understanding of society is theocratic. Augustine laid the foundations of a new Christian philosophy with all its contradictions (between God and the world, faith and knowledge, finite and infinite, good and evil, etc.). He rejected the classical approach of the Greeks, based on intellectualism and objectivism, presented the world as a product of supernatural power and a creation of mercy, and attributed primacy to the will over the mind.

or Augustine Afr, Also St. Augustine

Christian theologian and philosopher, holy most influential preacher, one of the Fathers christian church

Aurelius Augustine

short biography

In 354, November 13, in the African province, the city of Tagast, he was born Augustine (Aurelius), the future famous Christian theologian, whose works became fundamental for the Catholic Church. Fate destined him to be born into the family of a pagan Roman citizen and a Christian mother, thanks to whom he received his initial education. After his studies at the Tagaste school were completed, the young man continued to study science in Madaure, the nearest cultural center, and then in the fall of 370, thanks to the patronage of a family friend, he ended up in Carthage: here he was to study rhetoric for three years.

During these years, the interests of the young man were very far from the church: Augustine indulged in secular entertainment, and in 372 he became a father. A kind of turning point in his biography was his acquaintance in 373 with the legacy of Cicero, which awakened in him a desire for something higher. Since then, philosophy has become his favorite hobby, and an interest in studying Holy Scripture. Soon Augustine became an adherent of Manichaeism, a fashionable trend at that time. Augustine was a teacher of rhetoric in Tagaste, then in Carthage; These same years were a time of spiritual quest, reflection on questions, the answers to which he tried in vain to find in Manichaean postulates.

After he could not get them from Faustus, the main ideologist of the doctrine, Augustine decided to leave Africa and went to look for truth and work in Rome, where he stayed for a year, after which he moved to Milan and got a job teaching rhetoric. For some time, his mind was carried away by Neoplatonism, and then the sermons of Bishop Ambrose of Milan brought him closer to the Christian worldview. Reading the letters of the Apostle Paul completed the turning point in his views. This moment in his biography turned out to be so significant not only for his personal life, but also for the further development of Christian thought that Catholic Church in his honor she established a holiday (May 3). In 387, on Easter, in Milan, Augustine, his son and close friend were baptized by Bishop Ambrose.

Then the newly-made Christian, parting with his property and donating almost everything to the poor, returned to his homeland, Africa, to his native Tagast. There he created a monastic community, and for some time Augustine completely renounced worldly concerns. In 391 he was ordained a presbyter by the Greek bishop Valerius and began preaching. In 395, in Hippo, he was ordained bishop, and Augustine (Aurelius) held this post until the end of his life, which ended on August 28, 430, when Hippo was first besieged by the Vandal Arians. To avoid desecration, the remains of the great theologian were transferred first to Sardinia and then to Pavia, and only in 1842 were they returned to Algeria, where the French bishops erected a monument on the site of the destroyed Hippo.

It is difficult to overestimate the influence that the work of Augustine Aurelius had on Christian dogma; Only a few examples of this scale can be found in history. Thanks to almost a hundred of his works, such as “Life in Union with God”, “Against Academicism”, “On the Immateriality of the Soul”, “Order”, “Solilogue” and many others, the vector of development of the Western church was set for several centuries forward.

Biography from Wikipedia

Augustine (Aurelius) born on November 13, 354 in the African province of Numidia, in Tagaste (now Souk-Ahras in Algeria). He owes his initial education to his mother, the Christian St. Monica, an intelligent, noble and pious woman, whose influence on her son, however, was neutralized by his pagan father (a Roman citizen, small landowner).

In his youth, Augustine showed no inclination towards traditional Greek, but was captivated by Latin literature. After finishing school in Tagaste, he went to study at the nearest cultural center - Madavra. In the fall of 370, thanks to the patronage of a family friend who lived in Tagaste, Romanian, Augustine went to Carthage for three years to study rhetoric. At the age of 17, while in Carthage, Augustine entered into a relationship with a young woman who became his partner for 13 years and whom he never married because she belonged to a lower social class. It was during this period that Augustine uttered his saying: “Good God, give me chastity and moderation... But not now, O God, not yet!” In 372, Augustine's son Adeodate was born in concubinage.

In 373, after reading Cicero's Hortensius, he began to study philosophy. Soon he joined the Manichaeans. At that time, he began to teach rhetoric, first in Tagaste, later in Carthage. In his Confessions, Augustine dwelled in detail on the nine years he wasted on the “husk” of Manichaean teaching. In 383, even the spiritual Manichaean leader Faustus was unable to answer his questions. This year, Augustine decided to find a teaching position in Rome, but he spent only a year there and received a position as a teacher of rhetoric in Milan.

Having read some of Plotinus's treatises Latin translation rhetorician Maria Victorina, Augustine became acquainted with Neoplatonism, which represented God as an immaterial transcendental Being. Having attended the sermons of Ambrose of Milan, Augustine understood the rational conviction of early Christianity.

During Augustine's stay in Milan in 384-388. his mother found a bride for her son, for which he left his concubine. However, he had to wait two years before the bride reached the required age, so he took another concubine. Ultimately, Augustine broke off his engagement to his 11-year-old bride, left his second concubine, and never resumed his relationship with his first.

After this, he began to read the letters of the Apostle Paul and heard from the suffragan bishop Simplician the story of the conversion to Christianity of Maria Victorina. In his confession, Augustine talks about his meeting and conversation with the Christian Pontian, who first told him about the exploits of Anthony the Great and attracted him to the ideals of monasticism. This conversation is dated August 386. According to legend, one day in the garden Augustine heard the voice of a child, prompting him to randomly open the letters of the Apostle Paul, where he came across the Epistle to the Romans (13:13). After this, he, together with Monica, Adeodate, his brother, both cousins, his friend Alypius and two students, retired for several months to Kassitsiak, to the villa of one of his friends. Based on the model of Cicero's Tusculan Conversations, Augustine composed several philosophical dialogues. On Easter 387, he, along with Adeodate and Alypius, was baptized by Ambrose in Milan.

After this, having previously sold all his property and almost completely distributed it to the poor, he and Monica went to Africa. However, Monica died in Ostia. Her last conversation with her son was well conveyed at the end of “Confession.”

Some of the information about Augustine’s later life is based on the “Life” compiled by Possidio, who communicated with Augustine for almost 40 years. According to Possidia, upon his return to Africa, Augustine again settled in Tagaste, where he organized a monastic community. During a trip to Hippo Rhegium, where there were already 6 Christian churches, the Greek bishop Valerius willingly ordained Augustine as a presbyter, since it was difficult for him to preach in Latin. No later than 395, Valery appointed him suffragan bishop and died a year later.

The remains of Augustine were transferred by his followers to Sardinia to save them from the desecration of the Aryan-Vandals, and when this island fell into the hands of the Saracens, they were ransomed by Liutprand, king of the Lombards, and buried in Pavia in the church of St. Petra.

In 1842, with the consent of the pope, they were again transported to Algeria and preserved there near the monument to Augustine, erected to him on the ruins of Hippo by the French bishops.

Stages of creativity

First stage(386-395), characterized by the influence of ancient (primarily Neoplatonic) dogmatics; abstraction and high status of the rational: philosophical “dialogues” “Against the Academicians” (that is, the skeptics, Contra academicos, 386), “On Order” (De ordine, 386; the first work in which the rationale for the seven liberal arts is given as preparatory cycle for the study of philosophy), “Monologues” (Soliloquia, 387), “On the Blessed Life” (De Beata Vita, 386), “On the Quantity of the Soul” (388-389), “On the Teacher” (388-389), “On Music” (388-389; contains the famous definition of music Musica est ars bene modulandi with detailed interpretation; five of the six books, contrary to what the title promises, treat issues of ancient versification), “On the Immortality of the Soul” (387), “On True Religion” (390), “On Free Will” or “On Free Decision” (388-395); cycle of anti-Manichaean treatises. Some of the works of the early period are also called Cassician, after the name of a country house near Mediolan (Cassiciacum, this place in present-day Italy is called Casciago), where Augustine worked in 386-388.

Second phase(395-410), exegetical and religious-church issues predominate: “On the Book of Genesis”, a cycle of interpretations to the letters of the Apostle Paul, moral treatises and “Confession”, anti-Donatist treatises.

Third stage(410-430), questions about the creation of the world and problems of eschatology: a cycle of anti-Pelagian treatises and “On the City of God”; a critical review of his own writings in Revisions.

Essays

The most famous of Augustine's works are "De civitate Dei" ("On the City of God") and "Confessiones" ("Confession"), his spiritual biography, work De Trinitate (About Trinity), De libero arbitrio (About free will), Retractations (Revisions).

Also worth mentioning is his Meditations, Soliloquia And Enchiridion or Manuale.

Augustine's teachings

Benozzo Gozzoli. St. Augustine teaches in Rome. Painting c. Sant'Agostino in San Gimignano. 1464-1465

Augustine's teaching on the relationship between human free will, divine grace and predestination is quite heterogeneous and is not systematic.

About being

God created matter and endowed it with various forms, properties and purposes, thereby creating everything that exists in our world. The actions of God are good, and therefore everything that exists, precisely because it exists, is good.

Evil is not a substance-matter, but a deficiency, its corruption, vice and damage, non-existence.

God is the source of existence, pure form, the highest beauty, the source of good. The world exists thanks to the continuous creation of God, who regenerates everything that dies in the world. There is one world, and there cannot be several worlds.

Matter is characterized through type, measure, number and order. In the world order, every thing has its place.

God, world and man

Augustine reveals the essence of the relationship between God and man. God, according to Augustine, is supernatural. The world, nature and man, being the result of God's creation, depend on their Creator. If Neoplatonism viewed God (the Absolute) as an impersonal being, as the unity of all things, then Augustine interpreted God as the person who created all things. And he specifically differentiated the interpretations of God from fate and fortune.

God is incorporeal, which means the divine principle is infinite and omnipresent. Having created the world, He made sure that order reigned in the world, and everything in the world began to obey the laws of nature.

Man was created by God as a free being, but, having committed the Fall, he himself chose evil and went against the will of God. This is how evil arises, this is how a person becomes unfree. Man is not free and not free in anything; he is entirely dependent on God.

From the moment of the Fall, people are predestined to evil and do it even when they strive to do good.

The main goal of man is salvation before the Last Judgment, atonement for the sinfulness of the human race, unquestioning obedience to the Church.

About grace

The force that largely determines a person’s salvation and his aspiration to God is divine grace. Grace acts upon man and produces changes in his nature. Without grace, human salvation is impossible. Free decision of the will is only the ability to strive for something, but to realize one’s aspirations in better side man is capable only with the help of grace.

Grace in Augustine's view is directly related to the fundamental dogma of Christianity - the belief that Christ has redeemed all humanity. This means that by its nature grace is universal and should be given to all people. But it is obvious that not all people will be saved. Augustine explains this by saying that some people are not able to accept grace. This depends, first of all, on the capacity of their will. But as Augustine had to see, not all people who accepted grace were able to maintain “constancy in goodness.” This means that another special divine gift is needed that will help maintain this constancy. Augustine calls this gift “the gift of constancy.” Only by accepting this gift will those “called” be able to become “chosen.”

About freedom and divine predestination

Before the Fall, the first people had free will - freedom from external (including supernatural) causality and the ability to choose between good and evil. The limiting factor in their freedom was the moral law - a sense of duty to God.

After the Fall, people lost their free will, became slaves to their desires and could no longer help but sin.

The atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ helped people turn their gaze back to God. He showed by his death an example of obedience to the Father, obedience to His will (“Not my will, but Thine be done” Luke 22:42). Jesus atoned for Adam's sin by accepting the Father's will as His own.

Every person who follows the commandments of Jesus and accepts the will of God as his own saves his soul and is allowed into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Predestination (Latin praedeterminatio) is one of the most difficult points of religious philosophy, associated with the question of divine properties, the nature and origin of evil and the relationship of grace to freedom.

People are able to do good only with the help of grace, which is incommensurate with merit and is given to those who are chosen and predestined for salvation. However, people are morally free creatures and can consciously prefer evil to good.

About eternity, time and memory

Time is a measure of movement and change. The world is limited in space, and its existence is limited in time.

Analysis of (o)consciousness of time is a long-standing cross of descriptive psychology and the theory of knowledge. The first who deeply felt the enormous difficulties that lie here and who struggled with them, reaching almost to despair, was Augustine. Chapters 14-28 of Book XI of the Confessions should even now be thoroughly studied by everyone who deals with the problem of time.

Edmund Husserl

Reflecting on time, Augustine comes to the concept of psychological perception of time. Neither the past nor the future has real existence - real existence is inherent only in the present. The past owes its existence to our memory, and the future to our hope. The present is a rapid change in everything in the world: before a person has time to look back, he is already forced recall about the past, if at this moment he is not hopes for the future.

Thus, the past is a memory, the present is a contemplation, the future is an expectation or hope.

Moreover, just as all people remember the past, some are able to “remember” the future, which explains the ability of clairvoyance. As a consequence, since time exists only because it is remembered, it means that things are necessary for its existence, and before the creation of the world, when there was nothing, there was no time. The beginning of the creation of the world is at the same time the beginning of time.

Time has a duration that characterizes the duration of any movement and change.

Eternity - it neither was nor will be, it only exists. In the eternal there is neither transitory nor future. In eternity there is no variability and no intervals of time, since intervals of time consist of past and future changes in objects. Eternity is the world of thoughts and ideas of God, where everything is once and for all.

Theodicy

Augustine argued that everything created by God is, to one degree or another, involved in absolute goodness - the all-goodness of God: after all, the Almighty, in creating creation, imprinted a certain measure, weight and order in the created; they contain an extraterrestrial image and meaning. To the extent that there is goodness in nature, in people, in society.

Evil is not some force that exists on its own, but a weakened good, a necessary step towards good. Visible imperfection is part of world harmony and testifies to the fundamental goodness of all things: “Every nature that can become better is good.”

It also happens that the evil that torments a person ultimately turns out to be good. So, for example, a person is punished for a crime (evil) in order to bring him good through atonement and pangs of conscience, which leads to purification.

In other words, without evil we would not know what good is.

Truth and reliable knowledge

Augustine said about skeptics: “it seemed probable to them that the truth could not be found, but to me it seemed probable that it could be found.” Criticizing skepticism, he raised the following objection against it: if the truth were not known to people, then how would it be determined that one thing is more plausible (that is, more similar to the truth) than another.

Valid knowledge is a person's knowledge of his own being and consciousness.

Do you know that you exist? I know.. Do you know what you are thinking? I know... So you know that you exist, you know that you live, you know that you know.

Cognition

Man is endowed with intelligence, will and memory. The mind turns the direction of the will towards itself, that is, it is always aware of itself, always desires and remembers:

After all, I remember that I have memory, intelligence and will; and understand that I understand, desire and remember; and I wish that I had the will, understood and remembered.

Augustine's assertion that the will participates in all acts of knowledge became an innovation in the theory of knowledge.

Stages of knowledge of truth:

• inner feeling - sensory perception.
• sensation - knowledge about sensory things as a result of reflection by the mind on sensory data.
• reason - a mystical touch to the highest truth - enlightenment, intellectual and moral improvement.

Reason is the gaze of the soul, with which it contemplates the true by itself, without the mediation of the body.

About society and history

Augustine substantiated and justified the existence of property inequality between people in society. He argued that inequality is an inevitable phenomenon of social life and it is pointless to strive for equalization of wealth; it will exist in all ages of man's earthly life. But still, all people are equal before God, and therefore Augustine called for living in peace.

The state is the punishment for original sin; is a system of domination of some people over others; it is not intended for people to achieve happiness and good, but only for survival in this world.

A just state is a Christian state.

Functions of the state: ensuring law and order, protecting citizens from external aggression, helping the Church and fighting heresy.

International treaties must be observed.

Wars can be just or unjust. Just ones are those that began for legitimate reasons, for example, the need to repel the attack of enemies.

In the 22 books of his main work, “On the City of God,” Augustine makes an attempt to embrace the world-historical process, to connect the history of mankind with the plans and intentions of the Divine. He develops the ideas of linear historical time and moral progress. Moral history begins with the fall of Adam and is seen as a progressive movement towards moral perfection gained in grace.

IN historical process Augustine (18th book) identified seven main eras (this periodization was based on facts from the biblical history of the Jewish people):

• first era - from Adam to the Great Flood
• second - from Noah to Abraham
• third - from Abraham to David
• fourth - from David to the Babylonian captivity
• fifth - from the Babylonian captivity to the birth of Christ
• sixth - began with Christ and will end with the end of history in general and with the Last Judgment.
• seventh - eternity

Humanity in the historical process forms two “cities”: the secular state - the kingdom of evil and sin (the prototype of which was Rome) and the state of God - the Christian church.

“Earthly City” and “Heavenly City” are a symbolic expression of two types of love, the struggle of egoistic (“self-love brought to the point of neglect of God”) and moral (“love of God to the point of forgetting oneself”) motives. These two cities develop in parallel, experiencing six eras. At the end of the 6th era, the citizens of the “city of God” will receive bliss, and the citizens of the “earthly city” will be given over to eternal torment.

Augustine Aurelius argued for the superiority of spiritual power over secular power. Having accepted the Augustinian teaching, the church declared its existence as an earthly part of God's city, presenting itself as the supreme arbiter in earthly affairs.

Influence on Christianity

Botticelli. "St. Augustine"

Augustine had a strong influence on the dogmatic side of Christian teaching. The impact of his preaching was felt over the next several centuries not only in the African but also in the Western church. His polemics against the Arians, Priscillians and, in particular, against the Donatists and other movements, found many supporters. Augustine left numerous works that had a significant influence on the anthropological side of teaching in Protestantism (Luther and Calvin). Developed the doctrine of St. Trinity, explored man's relationship to divine grace. He considers the essence of Christian teaching to be a person’s ability to perceive God’s grace, and this basic position is also reflected in his understanding of other dogmas of faith.

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ABSTRACT

on the topic “STOIC VIEWS OF EMPEROR MARK AURELIUS”

• Introduction
• 1. The emergence of the Stoic school
• 2. Stoic-philosophical worldview of Marcus Aurelius
• 2.1 Marcus Aurelius
• Conclusion
• List of sources used

Introduction

Philosophy, especially Ancient Rome has always been revered, therefore its branching into different schools, the emergence of new directions, in each of which new ideas appeared, created that power of philosophizing, without which almost no one, especially the Romans, could do.

IN ancient Rome the development of Hellenistic schools arose, the directions of which were so influential on history that they gave the world a number of famous personalities. In one of the directions of the Hellenistic schools, Stoicism, such a cult personality was Antoninus Marcus Aurelius, who in turn was the last representative in this direction. As for the very emergence of Stoicism, its founder was Zeno, who arrived from Cyprus in the 4th century BC, and developed this direction long before the moment when the complete collapse of this direction occurred and which would go away forever after the death of Marcus Aurelius.

Philosophy itself occupied a very important place in the Roman Empire and had a special influence on the life and culture of the Romans. The influence of the philosophy of Ancient times on man and the entire society in Rome meant fulfilling the function of religion and instruction. Since religion continued to protect and sanctify this public order, it was concentrated in the cult of personalities of the emperors. But just as any Emperor of the Greek world of one time or another, based on philosophy, received that knowledge, honoring which in his further actions, he acted wisely, and then for all the actions that he committed, he was awarded honor, respect, recognition, then such actions were truly worthy of a ruler. This was the Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

1. The emergence of the Stoic school

1.1 The emergence of Hellenistic schools

The immediate post-Aristotelian period of ancient philosophy is characterized by a sharp drop in the level of ontological research, i.e. research on the doctrine of existence. The same cannot be said, for example, about ethics and logic, i.e. about morals, and about reason, concepts and thoughts, in the areas of which Hellenistic philosophy achieved significant results, but “first philosophy” is experiencing a crisis that cannot be explained by a simple pause in the process of the smooth development of ideas. Although it cannot be said that Hellenism came up with a new philosophical program, it largely continued the development of Socratic schools and tried to revive a number of pre-Socratic teachings. So, with good reason, the dialectic of the Athenian school can be considered a violation of evolution, “emergent”; the Hellenistic schools were the “result” of a long-developing process, which was started by the Sophists.

The Hellenistic schools were indeed more closely connected with the historical and cultural processes of Greece than the Athenian school.

For example, the Stoics and Epicureans were much more influential. The Epicureans, in turn, were students of Epicurus (347-270 BC), a materialist philosopher of the Hellenistic era.

The study of materialism (the material), as one of the main philosophical trends, which the Epicureans continued, meant recognizing the objectivity, primacy, uncreateability and indestructibility of matter, which exists regardless of consciousness and acts as the fundamental principle of reality.

As for Stoicism, it arose at the end of the 4th century, when Zeno of Citium (335-263 BC) arrived from the Phoenician slope of Cyprus to Athens, where he opened the school of Stoicism. It got its name from the Greek word “Stoa”, which meant “portico”, or a covered market square - a covered gallery with columns. His teachings of Stoicism became dominant in Hellenistic philosophy. Stoicism emphasized that happiness depends only on good quality (preferably as Socrates thought) and that all external conditions of life can and should be endured apatheia, i.e. “dispassion” (our word is “apathy”) and a self-sufficient state, “autarky”, or as it is also called self-satisfaction.

Stoicism also continued the Cynic doctrine of the kosmopolis or "state of the world" as an ethical ideal. Cynicism, in turn, is defined as a moral quality that characterizes a contemptuous attitude towards the culture and values ​​of society. Cynicism belongs to the Cynic school.

This “World State” as an ethical ideal was realized later in the Roman Empire. Two curious representatives of the Roman Stoics in those days were Epictetus (55 BC - 135 AD), a slave (later freed), and Marcus Aurelius, Emperor who ruled from 161 to 180.

With the exception of ethics, the Stoics devoted considerable creative attention to logic, but their metaphysical doctrines were largely derived from the teachings of Heraclitus.

The world ended under Marcus Aurelius, whose closest thing was the main value of the "philosopher king", but also the same important general who led the main constant hostilities with the German invasion and the barbarian tribes along and across the Danube. And in all military operations, he always remained on the front line, spending more than half his life in wars, and not just half the time of his reign. And during these wars or not, he somehow, unnoticed by others, described the events taking place in his notes “Reflections”, calming down in Stoicism.

During his reign, the Empire was beset by natural disasters and epidemics that came from the East and claimed many lives. All this could not but affect the Empire, as well as Marcus Aurelius. But this did not mean that the Empire and the Emperor were weakened. Only the real failures of Marcus Aurelius should have left the Empire to his worthless son, Commodus (Chest), which in fact was excluded, since Commodus was mainly interested in the fun of gladiator fights, and was far from the politics and problems of Rome. Marcus Aurelius, of course, did not like Komod’s hobby, and all this was gathered into some kind of unified opinion, which resulted in Aurelius’ reluctance to give Rome a ruler who was completely far from the problems of Rome and the entire Roman Empire. There is also the fact that his son was weak in spirit. And such a person, who had power in his hands, was dangerous. And speaking of Chest of Drawers, it is important to say that in turn he was not worthy of the title of Emperor, but in spite of everything he would later become one, although he should not have, thereby violating the idea of ​​Rome - its freedom. Freedom according to Marcus Aurelius was considered the very peace of Rome, which consisted in the desire for equality of the weak and strong, poor and rich.

1.2 Hellenistic ontology. Stoicism

The main idea of ​​stoicism was submission to fate and the fatality of all things. Zeno said this about the Stoics: “To live consistently, that is, in accordance with the one and harmonious, life rule, for those who live inconsistently are unhappy."

Stoicism revived the teaching of Heraclitus about fire-logos; the world is a living organism, permeated with creative primordial fire, pneuma, which creates the cosmic sympathy of all things; everything that exists is corporeal and differs in the degree of coarseness or subtlety of matter; things and events are repeated after each periodic ignition and purification of the cosmos. Pneuma is something present in all living things in addition to the dense tissues and fluids of which they are composed.

In ethics, Stoicism is close to the Cynics, without sharing their contempt for culture; the sage must follow the dispassion of nature (apathy) and love his fate. All people are citizens of space as a world state; Stoic cosmopolitanism equalized (in theory) in the face of world law all people, free and slaves, Greeks and barbarians, men and women.

Stoicism, as is well known and well attested, equates being (oysia) and corporeality (soma). Only at first glance can one discern here loyalty to pre-Socratic syncretism, i.e. a combination of different philosophical principles into one system. But in the post-Platonic era it was impossible to easily and without reservations unite what had still disintegrated due to historical metamorphoses of thinking. Perhaps this is why the doctrine of essence and body in Stoicism contains many unclear points.

The Stoics call essence “the primary substance of all things,” and body is an essence that has boundaries. Everything is a body to one degree or another, only the emptiness that is outside the world, time and the meaning of words are incorporeal. On the other hand, for example, Diogenes reports that the Stoics distinguished between beginnings (archai) and foundations (stoicheia). Principles are incorporeal, formless, do not arise and do not perish. Existence has two principles: active and passive. The first is God, or reason; the second is a qualityless essence. The separate quality of the entire essence is God. It is obvious that the Stoics could not get by with just the concept of body, and a qualityless essence can also be understood as incorporeal.

The Stoic doctrine of categories has a purely ontological meaning. Most general category it turns out to be “something” (to ti) - according to Chrysippus (280 - 208/05 BC; Chrysippus was called the second founder of the Stoa), or “being” (toon) - according to Zeno, and “being” in this context is a genus , that is, the greatest generalization, not included in any other genus. From this main category flow the rest, from the point of view of the Stoics, revealing and specifying, i.e. unifying the first. Being, as we see, turns out to be a predicate and genus among the Stoics, which was prohibited in Aristotle’s system. This is completely consistent with the teaching of the Stoics about matter, which is the highest generalization as a potential qualityless continuum, i.e. poor quality continuation. Both matter and existence are the maximum genus for everything in space.

Such a return to philosophical archaism would have to restore the integrity of the intuition of living being; The Stoics, presumably, sought precisely this. But in reality there was a collapse, dissociation (non-existence) of the main elements of ontological thinking. The Stoics, naturally, had to abandon distinction, i.e. the distinction between the energetic and dynamic levels of being put forward by Aristotle, otherwise it would be impossible to consistently implement the principle of somatism, i.e. point of view principle; but as a result of this, substance had to take the place that essence occupied in Aristotle’s ontology. The essence itself would have to fulfill the role of a concrete completeness of meaning. However, in this case, the substance would lose that type of universality that was dictated by somatism, stylized (under some image) as ancient “physics”. As a result, the Stoics were forced to introduce a number of principles into ontology: logos (word, doctrine); lekton (pure meaning, or what is said as significant); providence, i.e. “will and thought” of God, as well as the logos or world soul. All these principles led to a more complex concept and difficult communication problems.

It is important to treat all ancient concepts as a universal interpenetration (krasis diholon) of “body” and “substance” - but only the Stoics were not original here. The problem was that the very principle of the identity of being and body could not be combined with Athenian dialectics without falling into contradictions, and its achievements could also not be completely ignored, and the Stoics were indeed quite closely connected with them, starting with the classification of sciences and ending with the ethics of freedom .

Having turned out to be a substance, being becomes the same empty and powerless possibility that Aristotle saw in the continuum of “physicists”, and if his criticism is applicable to the teachings of the Pre-Socratics only in some respect, then to the Stoic “physics” - to a much greater extent. It is characteristic that the system of categories among the Stoics underwent very natural changes: despite some external similarity with the Aristotelian one, it is directly opposite to it in essence, since in relation to the first category ("something" or "being") all the others are its concretization (unification ); the first one turns out to be the least meaningful and meaningful.

The Stoic doctrine of quasi-being, that is, ideality, is not without logical sophistication; they tried to do the same thing that the neo-Kantians (followers of Kant) did in their time - to find a reality that would not “exist”, but “meant”, and thus get away from the antinomies (contradictions in the law) of the dual nature of being, that is, from such a situation when “to be” cannot be simultaneously attributed to both the ideal and the existential-material. But such a statement of the problem and such a solution only create great artificial difficulties. This is clear from the Stoic teaching about the "lekton".

In the doctrine of logos and the world, as a living and intelligent being, the Stoics remove the sharp division of the world into body and meaning, but the “lekton”, in fact, remains an element of the amalgam, i.e. dissolution, without entering into a real merger with the world, and this is perhaps the most characteristic feature of the Stoic teaching about being. The etheric logos of the Stoics and the logos of Heraclitus are polar principles in this regard. The presence of an element that does not relate to either being or non-being, that is, a certain quasi-being that does not even have a direct relationship to truth and falsehood until it becomes part of the action of realizing the statement - this is a discovery of Hellenistic ontology, and its importance can only be assessed by history of early Hellenistic schools. Among the Stoics, in a sense, the novelty of this discovery was less noticeable than in other directions, since the Stoics were conscious restorers of philosophical antiquity; besides, “lekton” is necessarily a connection, and in the end - a kind of cosmic proposal; but on the other hand, the more noticeable is the incoherence of this sentence with the life of the world. From this it follows why the sought-after integrity of existence turned into disunity of principles.

Hellenistic ontology, it must be admitted that, despite the break with the great achievements of the Athenian school, which sometimes takes the form of fundamental rejection, the early Hellenistic schools did enormous and valuable theoretical work, rethinking the traditional settings of the ancient concept of being. The old forms of the doctrine of the unity of thinking and being were revised in all three schools (Cynical, Epicurean, Stoic). Fourth - Skepticism, i.e. researching, criticizing, in her school there was no revision of the old form of the doctrine of the unity of thinking. The school of skeptics existed even before the times of the Cynic, and dates back to the beginning of 323 BC. The universe has disintegrated into life and meaning; meaning, in turn, is influenced by logic and ethics. This stratification of integrity left no room for the concept of being: neither the flow of factual reality, nor ideal structures of the “lekton” type, nor the ethical consciousness of the individual could and cannot correspond to the old doctrine of a single being, restored in Athens. But at the same time, an important result was achieved: the idea of ​​a reality irreducible to all of the listed layers appeared, of what in the language of later ontology was called “existence,” i.e. existence or way of being of the human person.

It should be noted that the Athenian school also made this discovery, but it did not appear in the conditions of its traditionalism as clearly as in Hellenistic teachings. The latter placed special emphasis on the understanding of philosophy as life-creativity, and the source of such creativity could only be the freedom of personal existence, realized in addition to logical foundations, and even in spite of them.

2. Stoic-philosophical worldview of Marcus Aurelius

Hellenistic stoicism worldview Aurelius

2.1 Marcus Aurelius

Roman Stoicism (Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius). They clearly saw the imperfection of the world, that man is not subject to the laws of existence, and therefore it is pointless for him to fight fate. But a reasonable person can remove this conflict by strength of spirit, tempering his will, steadfastly enduring adversity, resisting it, without hoping for victory, but without losing his dignity. Self-improvement contributes to a person’s happiness. Such a person was Antoninus Marcus Aurelius.

Antoninus Marcus Aurelius (121-180), from the Antonin dynasty, was the last Stoic philosopher, whose philosophy could be considered as the last completion of ancient Stoicism and at the same time its complete collapse. From 161 to 180 Roman Emperor and conqueror who expanded the borders of the Roman Empire.

Marcus Aurelius restored the Roman protectorate (limiting the independence of the now dependent country in the field of defense and foreign policy with complete freedom in matters domestic policy) over Armenia and captured Mesopotamia in the war 162 - 166 with the Parthians; in 166 - 180 he waged wars with the Germanic and Sarmatian tribes.

Marcus Annius Verus, who later became, after Antoninus adopted him, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, was born in 121, in Rome, into a wealthy patrician family. His father died in a very at a young age, and the main concern for the upbringing of Mark fell on his grandfather Annius Verus, who was twice consul, and, apparently, enjoyed the favor of the emperor Hadrian, who was distantly related to him.

Marcus Aurelius was always imbued with a feeling of gratitude to the people to whom he considered himself indebted.

Mark was educated at home and as a child fell under the influence of his main teacher, a Stoic. This teacher was the Stoic Lucius Junius Rusticus. But on the other hand, he also had the opportunity to receive a philosophical education from Diognetus, under whose influence Marcus Aurelius had the opportunity to sleep on bare boards, covering himself with animal skin; From the same Diognetus, Mark learned painting. He also improved his education under the guidance of the sophist (from Greek - sage) Herodes Atticus, the Platonists (followers of the Platonist) Alexander and Sextus of Chaeronea, the peripatetic (follower of Aristotle) ​​Claudius Severus, the Stoic Apollonius of Chalcedon. In Smyrna he listened to the sophist Aelius Aristides, but the main thing for him was still Lucius Junius Rusticus.

In his future reign, Marcus Aurelius will surround himself with philosophers and rhetoricians, making statesmen of his old mentors, such as Herodes Atticus, Fronto, Junius Rustica, Claudius Severus, Proculus, making them consuls and proconsuls.

Fascinated by Stoicism, Mark would become the greatest admirer and admirer of the philosophy of Epictetus. Apparently, therefore, over time, only two outstanding personalities in Roman Stoicism will be named - these are Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, the latter who learned the importance of the philosophical thoughts written by the Stoic Epictetus, realizing from his notes that it was necessary to correct and heal his character. Marcus Aurelius was even glad that, due to his acquaintance with Epictetus’s notes, he did not turn into sophistry, into the analysis of syllogisms, and did not study extraterrestrial phenomena. Moreover, he was glad that he did not believe the tales of sorcerers and wizards, setting philosophy as his goal.

Marcus Aurelius, because of his love for Stoic philosophy, remained an adherent of it until the end of his days. His extraordinary abilities were soon noticed, and the ruling emperor Antoninus Pius, believing that he did not have long to live, adopted Mark, who was his nephew, gave him the family name Antoninus and began to prepare his adopted son to take the reins of government into his own hands. However, Antonin lived longer than expected, and therefore Mark became the head of the state only in 161.

For Marcus Aurelius, the transition to imperial power did not represent anything special; it was not a turning point in his internal or even external life. He did not even want to be the sole ruler and took as his partner his adopted brother Lucius Verus, who also received the title of Augustus. The latter, however, with his inactive and dissolute character, did not provide the emperor with any help and often turned out to be a significant hindrance in business; however, Marcus Aurelius treated him with his usual inexhaustible patience and condescension.

Marcus Aurelius was distinguished by his unselfishness, despised denunciations, successfully fought wars, and ruled the provinces with kindness. He established several philosophical schools in Rome, bringing famous philosophers of that time closer to the palace. In Athens, he founded four departments of philosophy, corresponding to each direction - academic, peripatetic (meaning learning while walking with the followers of Aristotle, who created logic), Stoic and Epicurean.

Marcus Aurelius established salaries for teachers at the expense of the state. In addition, he assigned state support to philosophers in all provinces.

The brewing crisis of the Roman Empire determined the specificity of the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius. In his interpretation, Stoicism finally loses its materialistic features and takes on a religious-mystical character. God for Marcus Aurelius is the primal principle of all things; this is the world mind in which all individual consciousness dissolves after the death of the body. His ethics are characterized by fatalism, preaching humility and asceticism. He calls for moral improvement and purification through the very deepening and knowledge of the fatal necessity that rules the world.

Marcus Aurelius expressed his philosophical thoughts in the form of aphorisms in a single work - “To Himself.” In the essays “To Myself” (in Russian translation - “Alone with Myself”, 1914; “Reflections”, 1985) a picture of a world governed by the providence of nature (identified with God) is painted, and human happiness is understood as life in harmony with nature.

The philosophy of Marcus Aurelius had a great influence on Christianity, although the emperor himself brutally persecuted Christians.

And, despite the fact that the Stoics gave away a whole series of their ideas that were consonant with Christianity, they themselves remained pagans, and at the same time, they persecuted Christians, not suspecting that all this could not help but affect such kinship. And perhaps the deepest kinship between Stoicism and Christianity should be sought not in the coincidence of individual thoughts and statements, but in that self-deepening of the individual at which the history of Stoicism ended and the history of Christianity began.

The revolution accomplished by the Stoics in philosophy can be called the fact that the indifferent attitude of the Stoic sage to the world around him (including the social one) penetrates more deeply into the innermost depths of his own “I”, thus revealing in his personality a whole universe previously completely unknown and inaccessible to him. In “The Reflections of Marcus Aurelius”, apparently, the maximum depth of self-awareness and devotion accessible to ancient man has been achieved. Without this discovery “ inner world” of a person perfected by the Stoics, the victory of Christianity would hardly have been possible. Therefore, Roman Stoicism can be called, in a certain sense, as a consideration of the “preparatory school” of Christianity, and the Stoics themselves as “seekers of God.”

2.2 The main ideas of Marcus Aurelius

The main ideas of Marcus Aurelius are:

1. The universe is governed by intelligence, which is God

2. In a reasonably designed universe, everything that happens is not only necessary, but also good.

3. Human happiness lies in living in harmony with nature and reason.

4. Although an individual's actions are causally determined, he achieves freedom by acting rationally.

5. The bad actions of others do not harm us; rather, we are harmed by our opinions about these actions.

6. All rational beings are subject to the law of nature and thereby are citizens of a universal state.

7. A rational individual should not be afraid of death, since it is a natural event of life.

2.3 Worldview of Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius deals exclusively ethical issues and is very far from any logic, physics and dialectics. After all, the task is not to explore the depths of the earth and underground, but to communicate with the inner “I” and honestly serve it.

The philosophy of Marcus Aurelius arose from a feeling of constant struggle with the outside world, with thoughts within oneself, taking all the vicissitudes of fate for granted. Marcus Aurelius gives classical expressions to these feelings: “Time human life- moment; its essence is eternal flow; feeling - vague; the structure of the whole body is perishable; soul is unstable; fate is mysterious; fame is unreliable. In a word, everything related to the body is like a stream, everything related to the soul is like a dream and smoke. Life is a struggle and a journey through a foreign land; posthumous glory is oblivion.”

For Marcus Aurelius, for all his kindness and, on the contrary, the mood to fight, from the seemingly surging joy, sadness, or grief, these feelings were not reflected in any way on the expression of his face. This suggests that he can and should be called persistent, courageous, and that, among his army, during all the wars, he lost many who were close to him.

Because of this, Marcus Aurelius’s heightened sense of melancholy increases to an incredible degree the appeal to the deity and faith in divine revelation. An example of this is the Emperor’s prayer, or as the legend calls it, “the miracle of rain.” This legend says that when the Emperor prayed for his Roman army, for salvation, which was suffering from thirst, it suddenly rained, and thus the Roman army was saved.

Marcus Aurelius sometimes flashes the general ancient love for beauty, for pure and disinterested beauty, which has meaning in itself and which needs absolutely nothing. As for nature in Marcus Aurelius, it is superior to art only insofar as it exists, both the creative and the created at the same time, while art in the usual sense of the word organizes only Dead matter, the organization of which is only the realm of the created, but not the creative. And where in a person the creative and the created coincide, there are no longer ordinary arts created, but the person himself is created, since the inner and morally perfect person is precisely a true work of art. But such a genuine work of art is nothing more than a continuation and development of the same nature. The inner man himself and with his own strength creates his own inner beauty, just as nature also creates its own beauty itself and from its own resources. Such an aesthetic, however, is not very reconciled with the decadent assessment of the human subject that can be found in late Stoicism. But for us this trait is extremely important and even precious. After all, it turns out that even during periods of the darkest moralism, ancient man still could not forget the bright and cheerful ideals of the carefree and self-sufficiently thinking general ancient aesthetics.

Here one of the most remarkable aspects of the personality of Marcus Aurelius is revealed: he could not be further away from any utopias and he consciously rejects them. Philosophy remains the law of life, but the philosopher must understand all the imperfections of human material, all the extreme slowness of people’s assimilation of the highest moral and intellectual truths, all the enormous power of resistance contained in historical life. It is impossible to forcibly renew the world, to introduce perfect order, because no ruler has power over the thoughts and feelings of people. The tragedy here lies in the fatal discrepancy between the height of the mood of the one who wants to be a benefactor of humanity and the prosaic nature of the results.

Attention to the child, which goes hand in hand with the expansion of women's rights, is the best indicator of the new spirit in which the legislation of the empire permeates.

It is no less felt in another area - in the recognition and protection of the rights of a slave: talking about morality here, of course, can only be done in a moral, not legal sense - in the latter, a slave could not be a subject of law, but this did not prevent the legislation of the Roman Empire from ensuring his person from attacks on life and honor, from cruel treatment, to ensure the integrity of his family, the inviolability of his personal property, to significantly limit, if not eliminate, his sale for fighting animals in the amphitheater and, finally, to facilitate and encourage his release in every possible way. The very excellent position of the freedmen also improved significantly.

Many, but not all, of Mark's ethical conclusions directly follow from his metaphysics (super-experiential principles, laws of being), and theology (the doctrine of God). The most important of them is the call, repeated every now and then on the pages of “Reflections”: to maintain the harmony of the individual will with nature. Here we come across the famous Stoic doctrine of “worldliness.” This teaching works on two levels. The first relates to events Everyday life. When someone treats you badly, Mark advises, you should accept the mistreatment, since it cannot harm us unless we allow it. This view is very close, but not identical to the Christian exhortation to turn “the other cheek.” Jesus said of his executioners: “Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing,” and Mark could partly share his statement. Like Jesus, he believed that people who engage in evil acts do so out of ignorance; like Jesus, he declared that their action was not to be attributed to some corruption of their nature. Rather, they act one way rather than another, believing that they are acting in the right way, which means they will only err in judgment. But unlike Jesus, Mark did not highlight the importance of forgiveness. He was much more interested in the internal reaction of the victim of an atrocity, and he never tired of emphasizing that no harm could be caused to us against our will. Whatever happens to your property and even to your body, your inner and true self remains unharmed as long as it refuses to admit that it has been harmed.

The second aspect of the doctrine of “worldliness” considers the life and place of the individual in the world. From the “Reflections” it is clear that Mark was not enthusiastic about his high position as Roman emperor. He would almost certainly have preferred to spend his life as a tutor or a scientist. But fate made him an emperor, just as she made Epictetus a slave. Therefore, it is his duty to accept his position in life and perform the task assigned to him to the best of his ability.

The concept of fate presented a problem for Stoic philosophy. If, as Mark recognized, the universe is governed by reason and, because of this, everything that happens is definitely going to happen this way and not otherwise, then is there any room left for human freedom? Mark resolves this issue by making a subtle distinction. If we understand freedom as a choice between equally open alternatives, then such freedom, of course, does not exist. But freedom also has another meaning: to accept everything that happens as part of a good world order and to respond to events with reason, and not with emotions. An individual who lives in this way, Mark insists, is a truly free person. Such a person is not only free, but also righteous. Since the rationality of the universe is the basis of his goodness, everything that happens in the universe should only strengthen this goodness. Consequently, a rational person, accepting events, not only responds to external good, but also makes a personal contribution to the value of the world as a whole.

The Stoic concept of reason as the ruler of the world is ambiguous, and this ambiguity makes itself felt every now and then in the Meditations. On the one hand, reason is just an explanation of the fact that life in the entirely material universe is subject to an indestructible law. On the other hand, reason is interpreted as the universal mind, suggesting the existence of a spirit. This concept introduces the concept of God, i.e. Theism, or the existence of God and his relation to the world and man. There is no doubt that in some sense Mark was a theist, for he constantly speaks of God in terms that imply the existence of a good cosmic mind. From this it turns out that there is a main theological problem: how to reconcile the materialism of Marcus Aurelius with his theism?

Another theological question that Mark devotes a lot of space to is the question of death and immortality. A reasonable person will not be afraid of death. Being a natural phenomenon, death cannot be evil; on the contrary, it participates in the good that is inherent in every natural phenomenon. After death we simply cease to exist. The centuries that we will spend in non-existence after death are no different from the centuries we spent in non-existence before birth. But that is not all. Mark shares the Stoic theory of immortality. According to this view, the history of the cosmos develops not linearly, but cyclically. This doctrine is often called the doctrine of “eternal recurrence.” Eons later, the universe will come to the end of the present era and will be plunged into the state of primordial fire. A new universe emerges from the fire, which will accurately repeat the history of our universe. And so on ad infinitum. Therefore, we will live the same lives that we live now.

Our life, which has an intense personal aspect, is first and foremost a social life. Each of us lives in a specific society and is governed by its laws. But, being rational beings, we are also subject to a higher law - the law of nature. This law applies to each of us, no matter what the society in which we live. According to natural law, all people are equal, whether you are an emperor, a slave, or anyone else. Therefore, it is true that, as rational beings, all people are members of one state, governed by the same laws. Mark’s famous thesis reads: “I am Antoninus, and my fatherland is Rome; I am a man, and my fatherland is the world.”

It is often said that the pagan world produced two “saints.” The first of them is Socrates. The second is Marcus Aurelius. Mark deserves eternal memory and respect not so much for the sublime ethical content of his “Reflections”, but for the fact that he managed to build his life, often in extremely unfavorable circumstances, in full agreement with the instructions of his records of “thoughts to himself.”

“We need to think about the world as a single being,” he writes, and further, “about one by nature and with one soul.” The unity of the world means that everything is intertwined with one another, subordinated and ordered in a single world order. The world is also a constant transformation. Marcus Aurelius takes it as a fundamental principle that the world is preserved by the transformations of the primary elements or their compounds. Everything that becomes becomes in transformations, he writes. The nature of the whole loves nothing better than to transform what is, producing something new. Nothing can happen without transformation. Can you wash yourself without turning into firewood? - asks Marcus Aurelius. Can you get enough food if the food doesn't turn into something?

Similar appeals from Marcus Aurelius are considered very often in his anthropology and ethics. Mark further writes: “There is nothing outside of universal nature, therefore all transformations occur within its boundaries. She transforms into herself everything that seems to be perishing, obsolete, and makes something new out of it, so that she does not need a supply from the outside and does not need a place to throw away what is used and not needed.” In this Marcus Aurelius sees the difference between the craft of nature and the craft of the carpenter and furrier. Transformations and changes are accomplished by several reasons, sequential by a number of reasons. He threw the seed into the womb, he gives an example, and walked away, and there another reason begins to act, and the child appears. In fact, we are talking about the self-development of nature.

Particularly noticeable in the worldview of Marcus Aurelius is the Heraclitian characterization of existence: nature, like a river, is in continuous flow; in the nature of the whole, as if in a stream, all bodies move; eternity is a river of becomings; flow and change constantly rejuvenate the world, etc. The flow in which existence resides is circular. Up, down, in a circle the primary elements rush, writes Marcus Aurelius. The world is governed by certain circuits. From the cycle of existence it follows, firstly, that nothing dies, everything is reborn. A grape ovary, a bunch, raisins - all transformations, and not into non-existence, but into not-now-existence, as Marcus Aurelius says. Secondly, it follows that everything that happens has happened, will happen and is happening now. He expresses this with the concept of one-bornness and uniformity of everything and says: a forty-year-old, if he has any intelligence in him, in some way thanks to uniformity, has already seen everything that has been and will be.

The changes taking place in the world are controlled either by God, aka reason (providence), or by chance. Reason passes through nature and through eternity and controls everything according to certain circuits. Reasonable management of the world is teleological, i.e. completion of the word of predetermination of all events. Aurelius says that everything happens according to some initial aspiration of providence, according to which nature initially rushed towards just such a world order, taking into its bosom the meanings of what will happen, and determining the productive forces of appearances and transformations. Management is carried out for the benefit of the whole (universe). This is a general law of management. Nature does not bring anything that does not correspond to what she controls, that is, the benefit of the whole.

About man Marcus Aurelius says the following: I am flesh, breath and leading or body, soul, mind; the body - sensations, the soul - aspirations, the mind - principles. Man received all this from nature and therefore can be considered its creation. I consist of the causal and the material, says Marcus Aurelius. No one has anything of their own, but both your body and your very soul came from there. Everyone's mind is God and originates from there. In general, again we see an opinion about the unity of man and nature, about man being a part of the world whole (microcosm). What is earthy in me is given to me from the earth, as Marcus Aurelius says. Just as breathing connects a person with the surrounding air, so understanding connects everything rational with the surrounding environment, because rational power is diffused everywhere and is available to those who are able to sip it.

Man is a part of the world whole and, as such, is subject to the laws, guidelines and interests of the whole. For every part of nature, what the nature of the whole brings is good, says Marcus Aurelius. For example, the breath and the fiery principle in a person tend upward by nature, the earthly and moist - downward, but, submitting to the structure of the whole, they occupy the place that nature assigned them and are kept in connection. This is how the elements obey the whole. Here it is important to notice a certain prototype of holism (the whole) in Marcus Aurelius. He often uses the concept - the essence of the whole.

The transformations of man as a part of the whole do not go beyond the framework of nature. Everything that happens to a person - illness and death, slander and deceit - is habitual and familiar, writes Marcus Aurelius, like a rose in spring or fruits in summer. Of course, of all the natural transformations of man, death stands out: as a part of the whole you arose and in that which gave birth to you you will disappear. Everything associated with matter does not hesitate to disappear into universal nature, and everything causal is immediately accepted by the universal mind. This means that the transformation of a person in death consists in the fact that each part of him passes into the corresponding part of the world; since a person consists of two parts (body and soul-mind), he has two paths, two types of transformation after death: dispersion of the body (“I will become earth”, I will disintegrate into atoms, if any) and the unity of the ignited soul with the inseminating mind , moving into it after some stay (saving) in the air.

Like everything in nature, human life is subject either to fate with its necessity, or to merciful providence, or to a disorderly jumble of chance. But all of the above are possibilities; in reality, according to Marcus Aurelius, fate-necessity dominates in people’s lives. It is made up of all reasons. What cause-fate brings to a person is destined for him, since since ancient times causes have intertwined both the emergence of a person and all the events of his life. There is stoic fatalism.

But with all the inclusion of man in the material world, with all his subordination to the necessary course of life, Marcus Aurelius finds in him an island, independent of the physical, stable in all the vicissitudes of life - this is his mind. Marcus Aurelius calls the understanding free from passions a stronghold. A person has no stronger refuge where he becomes unapproachable. Here, perhaps, the most important position of the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius is revealed - the position of autarky of reason, i.e. about the self-satisfaction of the mind: the leading becomes irresistible if, having withdrawn into itself, it is content with itself and does not do what it does not want. This is how a person receives support in this fleeting and changeable existence and independence from life circumstances. Thus, thanks to the autarchic nature of the mind, he can preserve himself as an autonomous personality. And if the waves carry you away, says Marcus Aurelius, let them carry your body or your breath, but they will not carry away your mind. He often expresses the following thought: nothing bodily or external touches the mind and should not be transferred to it. All the suffering of the flesh is its concern. They do not make the thought-ruler worse. Nor does anyone else's vice or speech affect her. Personality is autonomous. For my will, writes Marcus Aurelius, the will of my neighbor is as indifferent as his body and breath. He expresses a person’s independence from other people and their influences with the concept of “erasure of ideas.” It means that it is in the power of a person so that there is no baseness, lust and confusion in his soul. The one who belongs to reason is not touched by tyrants, slander, or anything at all.

So, external influences on the soul are impossible. Things in themselves do not affect the soul, says Marcus Aurelius; they do not enter the soul. Therefore, he endows the mind with independent activity, depending only on it. The leader awakens, transforms, makes of himself whatever he wants. Thus, everything that we are inclined to consider as an external influence only seems so, in fact, being the action of a rational soul, which itself creates its own world. An example of this is the words of Marcus Aurelius: “The soul sets itself in motion, and whatever judgments it finds worthy of itself, such are the existing things for it. If something external saddens you, then it is not it that annoys you, but your judgment about it.” This kind of judgment can be called “confession (of the soul)” or “agreement” (from oneself or beyond the initial idea). So, according to Marcus Aurelius, as soon as the mind does not recognize what causes sadness, it will not exist. For example, you should not imagine harm to yourself if you were told about abuse directed at you, or the danger of death at the sight of a sick child.

In connection with the above, let us clarify what a person is in the understanding of Marcus Aurelius. Of the body, breath and mind that make up a person, only the third belongs to him, so that the person himself is the mind. "Be smart!" - the motto of Marcus Aurelius (and all the Stoics). In the hidden inside, he writes, what sets it in motion, there is life, there, frankly, is a person. One should not think at the same time as the vessel that surrounds it and the tools attached to it. Apart from the cause that governs their motion or rest, they are not much more valuable than a weaver's needle or a scribe's reed. The mind of a person is his god, genius (in the original Greek - demon). He is the protector and guide of man, and the soul does what its genius desires. A person is obliged to submit to genius and live in harmony with him, to serve him. It will be a blissful life.

Thus, we can formulate another important principle of the moral instruction of Marcus Aurelius: to live under the guidance of reason and in accordance with it. It can further be reformulated into the position: live in harmony with nature, since for a rational being, what is done by nature, writes Marcus Aurelius, is also done by reason. It turns out that a person must live both according to his own nature and the general one. According to Marcus Aurelius, nature is the source of good life, since everything that is in accordance with nature is not evil. Everything in nature is attractive, there is nothing ugly in it. Cracks in bread are good, bursting ripe figs are good, he notes, if they are considered not separately, but in conjunction with what is by nature. Finally, the named principle is expressed in the fact that a person is ordered to live and act, remembering the mutual connection of divine and human affairs, looking back at the gods. Nothing humanly good can be done, Marcus Aurelius points out, without relating it to the divine. After all, the gods do not plunge people into evil; on the contrary, they take care of human affairs and help people live according to nature.

Next, let us consider in more detail what it means to live according to nature and reason, that is, to live morally. This basically means living “socially,” as Marcus Aurelius puts it. The primary thing in the human structure is social, he said. The basis of social life is nature and reason. Society is inherent in nature itself. Even in insensitive nature there is a gravitation of one towards another; everything is hastening towards the only begotten. What is from the earth gravitates towards the earth, etc. All the more hastening towards the only begotten is that which shares a common spiritual nature. Already among the foolish, writes Marcus Aurelius, the swarm, the herd, family nests, and almost love were invented. The connecting force increases in people even more thanks to reason. The kinship of a person with the entire human race is not based on blood or seed, he believes, but on a community of mind. The common reason of people unfolds into a common law, into citizenship, into participation in statehood. In other words, the community of people is expressed in such forms of connection and unity as the state, friendship, homes, meetings, and even during wars, treaties and truces, points out Marcus Aurelius.

In addition to the connection between man and nature, man is also connected with society. Thus, a person is included in two communities: in the natural (cosmos) as a person and in the civil (polis) as a citizen. The often quoted words of Marcus Aurelius speak about this: “My nature is rational and civic. The city and fatherland for me, Antonin, are Rome, and for me, a man, the world.”

From this it is clear that humanity, with the exception of the stars, is most strongly connected in nature. According to his figurative expression, it is easier to find earth that is not attached to the earth than a person separated from man. Marcus Aurelius understands social ties between people as truly organic. Intelligent beings are joints of the body arranged for united cooperation. If a person considers himself simply part of a whole (and not a joint in a collection of intelligent beings), then it means that he does not yet love people with all his heart, Marcus Aurelius believes. It is interesting to note that, in his understanding, the unity of people in a community is so close that a person who is split off from at least one person has already fallen away from the entire community.

But what is the actual moral meaning of social life? It is that the individual must work for the sake of society; turns its aspirations to the common good. In addition, he is in a humane attitude towards people, in caring for them, in love for one’s neighbor, in benevolence towards fellow tribesmen, etc.

According to Marcus Aurelius, it is natural for a person to do good, to do it instinctively, unconsciously, and not demand any rewards for it.

One of the notable aspects of Marcus Aurelius’ humanism in relation to people is the forgiveness of sinners. He perceives shameless people, swindlers, infidels and all kinds of sinners as the inevitability of life and calls on us to be more kind to them. In order for people to understand and sympathize with sinners, he recommends being guided by a whole set of rules, which includes nine provisions. Here, for example, are some of them: we were born for each other, which means relearn or transfer; if they do it wrong, it is out of ignorance; and you yourself sin a lot, and you yourself are the same, etc.

A life in harmony with nature and reason also presupposes that a person submits to the course of events established by them and takes what happens for granted. Marcus Aurelius advises a person: “Voluntarily entrust yourself to the spinner Clotho and do not interfere with her sewing you into whatever fabric she pleases.” Therefore, with it he condemns rebellion against what nature brings to man, and calls the rebel “a boil on the world” (his usual metaphor). A person must accept his fate with dignity, and the one who is sad, afraid and angry at the laws of nature is like a runaway slave. The basis for reconciling and even tenderly accepting everything that happens to a person is for Marcus Aurelius the fact that all this was planned by the general nature and linked with older causes (and man is not separated from the universal nature), and that with a person there is no nothing inhuman (i.e. unusual, supernatural) happens. And there is no point in being indignant about this.

Man is entirely at the mercy of fate: “After all, a single harmony penetrates everything. And just as the world, a perfect body, is made up of all bodies, so fate, a perfect cause, is made up of all causes.” Therefore, “nothing can happen to a person that is not determined by the person’s fate, just as nothing can happen to an animal, plant, or stone that does not correspond to their nature. If no creature can experience anything other than what it grew up for and what it is destined for by nature, why should you complain? Be sure that almighty nature has not endowed you with anything beyond your strength.”

Among the events with which a person finds it especially difficult to reconcile, death comes first, of course. And Marcus Aurelius gives many arguments to convince a person to accept it as a good, as what nature desires. “Do you complain that you have so much weight? he asks. “So it is with time, how old you will live.”

The present is the only support; relying on the past or the future is pointless: “Look back - there is an immense abyss of time, look forward - there is another infinity... In comparison, what does the difference between one who lived three days and one who lived three matter? human lives?

“Imagine,” wrote Marcus Aurelius, “that you have already died, that you have lived only up to the present moment, and spend the remaining time of your life, as you have received beyond your expectations, in accordance with nature.” And further: “So, spend this moment in time in harmony with nature, and then part with life as easily as a ripe plum falls: praising the nature that gave birth to it, and with gratitude to the tree that produced it.” It is possible to approach such a life attitude only through philosophy: “Philosophizing means protecting the inner genius from reproach and flaw, ensuring that it stands above pleasures and suffering, so that there is no recklessness, deception, or hypocrisy in its actions... and most importantly, so that he meekly awaits death as simple expansion those elements from which every living being is composed." Marcus Aurelius gave the following advice to a person who would encounter a rapist: “What will an unbridled rapist do to you if you remain invariably benevolent towards him and, when the opportunity presents itself, you will meekly admonish him, even at the very moment when he wants to do harm to you?” , you calmly tell him: “My son, don’t do this; we are born for something else. You will not harm me, but yourself.”

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Omsk State Technical University

HOMEWORK (option 10)

Completed

student gr. RIB-223:

2015

Work plan:

Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius.

Core Virtues (According to Stoic Philosophers)

The relevance of the judgments of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.

Conclusion.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus – “philosopher on the throne”

MARK AURELIUS ANTONINUS(Marcus Aurelius Antoninus) (121–180) seemed to me a very interesting person, because he is at the same time a Stoic philosopher, a Roman emperor (from 161), and a warrior. This is probably the only Roman monarch who left behind a book of reflections for his descendants.

“Marcus Annius Catilius Severus, who went down in history under the name Marcus Aurelius, was born in Rome on April 26, 121 and was the son of Annius Verus and Domitia Lucilla. Marcus Aurelius treated his mother with deep respect and believed that he owed her “piety, generosity and abstinence not only from bad deeds, but also from bad thoughts, as well as a simple way of life, far from any luxury” (1)

After the death of his father, he was adopted by Emperor Antoninus Pius and gave him the name Marcus Elius Aurelius Verus Caesar. Marcus Aurelius received an excellent education at home. Diognet taught him philosophy and painting. According to Mark himself, Diognetus freed him from superstitions. He forced him to practice writing and thinking, and write dialogues. Under the influence of the philosophical treatises he read, Mark began to sleep on bare boards and cover himself with animal skin.

Almost nothing is known about the life of Marcus Aurelius up to 161. “After the death of Emperor Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius was proclaimed emperor in 161. He immediately asked the Senate to grant equal powers to Antoninus Pius's other adopted son, Lucius (Lucius Verus (161–169)). This was the first case of a joint principate in the Roman Empire.”(1) During the period of joint rule, the final word belonged to Mark Antony. Lucius Verus was distinguished by his penchant for wild life.

The entire reign of Marcus Aurelius was accompanied by a number of military conflicts: an uprising in Britain; attack by the Germanic Hutt tribe; the capture of Armenia by the Parthians. In addition to wars, the empire was undermined by other disasters. Thus, returning from victory over Mesopotamia, the troops brought a deadly epidemic into the empire, which claimed the lives of many people. Then came other disasters: famine, floods, earthquakes. Difficult times for the fading empire and its emperor!

Paradox: Marcus Aurelius was prone to reflection all his life, but spent most of his reign on military campaigns

“In 169 Lucius Verus died, and Marcus Aurelius remained sole ruler. From 170 to 174 he was with the active army on the Danube, fighting with the Marcomanni and Quadi. In 175, the governor of Syria, commander Gaius Avidius Cassius, who had the broadest powers in the East, took advantage of rumors about the death of Marcus Aurelius and declared himself emperor. The rebellion was quickly suppressed, Cassius was killed, but the emperor was forced to leave the Danube region, satisfied with the conquests achieved. The Romans invited barbarian tribes to settle in the empty lands north of the Danube, demanding from them only the protection of Roman borders. These were the first steps towards settling the remote borders of the empire with foreigners.

Marcus Aurelius returned to Rome in 176. He carefully monitored the actions of the local administration and paid much attention to legislative reform and tax collection. Supported traditional Roman religion as an important part of the state system.

In 177 Marcus Aurelius made the son of Commodus his co-ruler and again set out on the Danube border. There, in 180, Marcus Aurelius died suddenly (possibly from the plague). This was the last of the “five good emperors” in Rome.”(2)

The reign of Marcus Aurelius was called the last “golden age” of Rome. The Romans did not see off any of their emperors on their last journey with such sorrow and respect. The people were sure that after his death Marcus Aurelius returned to the abode of the Gods.

Historian Ilya Barabash wrote about the emperor’s reign: “His commands outraged many of his compatriots. Why! He sends gladiators to war so that they do not die senselessly while the crowd screams. He orders mats to be laid under the equipment for the gymnasts’ performances. He's depriving the Romans of spectacle! He is too merciful towards slaves and poor children. And it demands too much from the powers that be! He is not treacherous even towards enemies and even for the sake of military victories. He’s crazy!.. And he’s just a philosopher, a Stoic philosopher, who believes that man is essentially free and no problems can force him to act against his conscience.”(3)

Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.

Marcus Aurelius was one of the last representatives of the Late Stoa. His only work, his philosophical diary, is “To Myself.” In this work, he appears before us as both a wise teacher and an attentive student. His thoughts focused on practical ethics, epistemology and, to a lesser extent, cosmology. “Happiness lies in virtue - philosophical agreement with universal reason. We need to turn “to ourselves,” to conform our rational principle (which is the only one in “our power”) with the nature of the whole and thus gain “dispassion.” Everything is predetermined from time immemorial; the sage takes fate for granted and loves his lot. However, the philosopher is interested in justifying the autonomy of moral choice. Virtue must be subject to a causality other than natural phenomena: Man must make himself worthy of divine help. What brings Marcus Aurelius closer to Seneca, Epictetus, as well as to the Christian teachings are calls for humanity, for caring for the soul, for awareness of one’s sinfulness.”(6)

I believe that Judgment can be considered key for Stoic philosophers Marcus Aurelius Antoninus: “Love the humble work that you have learned, and rest in it. And go through the rest, wholeheartedly entrusting everything that is yours to the gods, and making no one from among the people either your master or your slave.” He considered the main goal in life to be search and self-improvement, and this search is based on human self-sufficiency. All people, according to this philosophy, are equal. Marcus Aurelius considers everything that happens in the world as a manifestation of nature, which is God - an active, intelligent principle, passing through the whole world and uniting it into a single whole. A person must actively cooperate with the world, that is, with God, because in the world everything happens according to its natural laws. This is the principle of acceptance or generosity. Marcus Aurelius considered. that activity for the benefit of people - in any, even the simplest and most ordinary matter - lifts, elevates a person, gives him happiness. After all, happiness, according to the Stoics, is life in harmony with nature, adaptation to environmental conditions, reasonable self-preservation, peace of mind and freedom from passions. And it was Marcus Aurelius who wrote the words: “If you cannot change your circumstances, change your attitude towards them.”

These thoughts are continued by the following judgment: “If circumstances seem to force you into confusion, quickly retreat into yourself, without retreating from the harmony more than you are forced to, because you are more likely to master consonance by constantly returning to it.”

According to the philosopher, if in external environment Insoluble problems arise, a person must look for a way out of the situation within himself. It is useless to pour out your feelings outside, to seek help from others, this will not help, but will only aggravate the problem. The inner, spiritual world of a person is the source for any development. You need to talk through the problem within yourself, look at it from different angles, get used to it, and a way out will be found. So in music - a complex consonance, disturbing the soul and difficult to reproduce, must penetrate the thinking and feelings, fill a person from the inside. And then a person will easily master it. “Be strong within yourself. A rational leader is by nature self-sufficient if he acts fairly and thereby remains silent,” says Marcus Aurelius in his diary. 3. The cardinal virtues (according to the Stoic philosophers)

“The Stoics recognize four cardinal virtues : rationality, moderation, justice and valor. The main virtue in Stoic ethics is the ability to live in accordance with reason. The basis of Stoic ethics is the assertion that one should not look for the causes of human problems in the external world, since this is only an external manifestation of what is happening in the human soul. Man is part of the great Universe, he is connected with everything that exists in it and lives according to its laws. Therefore, man’s problems and failures arise due to the fact that he is divorced from Nature, from the Divine world. He needs to meet Nature, God, and himself again. And to meet God means to learn to see the manifestation of Divine Providence in everything. It should be remembered that many things in the world do not depend on a person, but he can change his attitude towards them.”(8)