- Published: October 9, 2022
- Updated: October 9, 2022
- Level: College Admission
- Language: English
- Downloads: 44
Emperor Marcus Aurelius expounded an own brand of Stoicism that consisted of the theory of what exists, and theory of knowledge and ethics in relation to how one should live. The views of Marcus Aurelius were quite liberal. The Emperor believed that the majority of the problems a person might have were coming from the individual’s own imagination. Therefore, an external individual or force was not treated responsible for any action of the individual. Marcus Aurelius also believed that any person influencing your life in a negative manner cannot be responsible for those negative things, since only the person’s ignorance and lack of understanding was causing the bad things. The Emperor was quite just in the fact that it is not, at least, fair, to blame the other in the faultiness of your own deeds. On the contrary, Marcus Aurelius believed that the person who caused the event was the only, and the only one, reason of the event. Furthermore, it was in the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius that a non-educated individual should not suffer from the lack of knowledge. On the contrary, it is the responsibility of the educated ones to either treat the poor in knowledge one sympathetically, or to help himher in obtaining the knowledge. Marcus Aurelius was always trying to educate and empower his nation, and such tendencies seem to be coming from the philosophical views of the Emperor. The Stoic thoughts he followed helped his rule to be more liberal and humanistic. At the same time, as I believe, Aurelius’ ideas did not let the Emperor execute his power in its full force – blaming one single individual means missing the influential context of the external environment formed by the society and the Emperor in particular. Blaming on single individual for a single fault, therefore, means transferring responsibility for the fault from the society and the Emperor onto one person.