Marcus Aurelius's Ten Commandments

Massimo Pigliucci studies the Stoic Emperor's to-do list.

- Massimo Pigliucci

Commandments are generally lists of things someone requires someone else to do, usually with the implied threat that something bad will happen if they don’t. In the case of the Stoic philosopher and Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121-180 CE), though, the list we find in section 18 of the 11th book of his Meditations is actually comprised of wise suggestions to himself. Still, they may help us as well:

“Firstly: Consider your relation to humankind and that we came into the world for the sake of one another” (trans. C.R. Haines). According to the Stoics, all human beings are brothers and sisters, members of the cosmopolis, the ‘universal city’ of humanity. Nature put us here to help each other; as is generally the case for highly social species.

“Secondly: Consider what sort of individuals others are at board and in bed and elsewhere. Above all how they are the self-made slaves of their principles, and how they pride themselves on the very acts in question.” One way to be charitable toward others is to remember that many sincerely follow misguided principles; for instance, the notion that owning more things and having more money makes one happier and better than others.

“Thirdly: That if they are acting rightly, there is no call for us to be angry. If not rightly, it is obviously against their will and through ignorance.” Like Plato, the Stoics thought that we do bad things out of a particular kind of ignorance better rendered as ‘unwisdom’. So instead of getting angry with people who err, let us try to teach them the right way.