Guest Post: A Friend's Reply

A friend and student of mine shared with me the following response to my post on Marcus Aurelius. Its gracious and probing manner deserves to be posted in full. Thank you, Guilherme!

I have never read Meditations, but this post has motivated me to get that audio version and listen to it. That quote you provided is an inviting sample: “... A personality in balance ... Neither rash nor hesitant—or bewildered, or at a loss. Not obsequious—but not aggressive or paranoid either.” Hopefully, I can learn some things from Marcus Aurelius’ remarks on people who impacted him, which I can then put into practice, among other things, as I reflect on what I should do with my life.

There are a number of good things in your reflection that can be further unpacked. Maybe you could do a podcast episode on Marcus Aurelius as part of your What I Have Learned From ... series. In fact, maybe you could even write a book with that title at some point.

I appreciate your call to be thankful for the people in our lives. I also believe it could be interesting to explore the interplay between the emotions of gratitude and admiration in one’s engagement with moral exemplars.

Your statement that “recollecting virtuous people might be more valuable than any ethical theory” may be welcomingly humbling to scholars. While you are definitely not dismissing the study of ethical theory, you are touching on a point that should become clearer the more one thinks about it. In a sense, this reality is liberating. On the other hand, the statement is itself a theoretical reflection on how people exercise moral agency, that is, that a moral agent’s reflection upon the lives of people he or she admires may be more important than that agent’s comprehension of how he or she exercises moral agency. While theory is helpful, it is definitely not primary.

Thanks again for sharing. Have a good week!

Guilherme