Meditations, Marcus Aurelius [websites to read books for free TXT] 📗

Physic and

Theology. This division was merely for practical use, for all Philosophy

is one. Even among the earliest Stoics Logic, or Dialectic, does not

occupy the same place as in Plato: it is considered only as an instrument

which is to be used for the other divisions of Philosophy. An exposition

of the earlier Stoic doctrines and of their modifications would require a

volume. My object is to explain only the opinions of Antoninus, so far as

they can be collected from his book.

 

According to the subdivision of Cleanthes, Physic and Theology go

together, or the study of the nature of Things, and the study of the

nature of the Deity, so far as man can understand the Deity, and of his

government of the universe. This division or subdivision is not formally

adopted by Antoninus, for, as already observed, there is no method in his

book; but it is virtually contained in it.

 

Cleanthes also connects Ethic and Politic, or the study of the principles

of morals and the study of the constitution of civil society; and

undoubtedly he did well in subdividing Ethic into two parts, Ethic in the

narrower sense and Politic; for though the two are intimately connected,

they are also very distinct, and many questions can only be properly

discussed by carefully observing the distinction. Antoninus does not

treat of Politic. His subject is Ethic, and Ethic in its practical

application to his own conduct in life as a man and as a governor. His

Ethic is founded on his doctrines about man’s nature, the Universal

Nature, and the relation of every man to everything else. It is therefore

intimately and inseparably connected with Physic, or the nature of

Things, and with Theology, or the Nature of the Deity. He advises us to

examine well all the impressions on our minds and to form a right

judgment of them, to make just conclusions, and to inquire into the

meaning of words, and so far to apply Dialectic; but he has no attempt at

any exposition of Dialectic, and his philosophy is in substance purely

moral and practical. He says, “Constantly and, if it be possible, on the

occasion of every Impression on the soul, apply to it the principles of

Physic, of Ethic, and of Dialectic”: which is only another way of telling

us to examine the impression in every possible way. In another passage

(III. 11) he says, “To the aids which have been mentioned, let this one

still be added: make for thyself a definition or description of the

object which is presented to thee, so as to see distinctly what kind of a

thing it is in its substance, in its nudity, in its complete entirety,

and tell thyself its proper name, and the names of the things of which it

has been compounded, and into which it will be resolved.” Such an

examination implies a use of Dialectic, which Antoninus accordingly

employed as a means towards establishing his Physical, Theological, and

Ethical principles.

 

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Aurelius Antoninus, by Marcus Aurelius

 

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