Meditations

Across Meditations, Marcus repeatedly returns to the transience of human experiences, writing in Book 4, “All is ephemeral, both memory and the object of memory” (30). What is the relationship between transience and the life of virtue? How does it relate to other key aspects of the Stoic worldview?

Discuss the purpose of Marcus’s Meditations in relation to his definition of free will. What does having “free will” consist of? Is it active or passive? Can it bring about meaningful change, on an individual level and/or on a wider scale? Why or why not?

In Book 5, Marcus cautions, “Your mind will take on the character of your most frequent thoughts: souls are dyed by thoughts” (41). What is the relationship between thought and action more generally? How does one influence the other, and why?

How does being kind fit into Marcus’s beliefs about the nature of the Whole? Why is kindness an important component of the virtuous life?

Analyze the role of death and Marcus’s perception of it in Meditations. What conception of death does the text present? What role­­—if any—does death play in virtuous living? How does it relate to some of the text’s key themes?

What is the relationship between the “directing mind” and the “rational soul”? How do they inform each other? How can one resolve the tensions between rationality and imagination as a Stoic?

What role does materialism play in Marcus’s thought and in Stoicism more generally? Is materialism an obstacle to virtue? Why or why not?

Marcus quotes Epictetus in Book 11, noting, “‘No thief can steal your will’—so Epictetus” (114). How does Epictetus’s dictum reflect concerns about freedom and personal agency? What roles do agency and freedom play in Meditations as a whole?