How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius

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Marcus was greatly influenced by Socrates, Seneca, Epictetus, and his own personal philosophy tutors.

Socrates used to say that death is like some prankster in a scary mask, dressed as a bogeyman to frighten small children. In plain English, what the Cynics meant was that our character is the only thing that ultimately matters and that wisdom consists in learning to view everything else in life as utterly worthless by comparison. We do so by using reason to challenge the value judgments and other beliefs on which they’re based, much as we do in modern rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT).Zeno appears to have been trying to synthesize the best aspects of different Athenian philosophical traditions.

Indeed, I would invite you, as a reader, to put effort into reading this book in a special way, to try and place yourself in Marcus’s shoes and look at life through his eyes, through the lens of his philosophy. However, I believe that for many people a combination of Stoic philosophy and CBT may be even more suited for use as a long-term preventive approach. He furrows his brow in puzzlement as he relays the dead emperor’s message: “Go to the rising sun,” he said, “for I am already setting. The more time I spent in the basement of the library poring over books, the further away I seemed to be drifting from Socrates’s original conception of philosophy as a way of life, something that could improve our character and help us flourish.Although we share many instincts with other animals, our ability to think rationally is what makes us human. The use of reason is the only way to modify unhealthy habits, which are usually the result of blindly following our emotions. From the moment we’re born we’re constantly dying, not only with each stage of life but also one day at a time. Living in agreement with Nature, in part, means fulfilling our natural potential for wisdom; that’s what it means for us to flourish as human beings. I didn’t know it at the time, but that sort of existential anxiety is a common experience that drives people to the study of philosophy.