Marcus Aurelius
121-180 · Hellenistic Philosophy · Renowned
Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor and a Stoic. He ran an empire and filled a private notebook, the Meditations, with reminders of how little of it he controlled. A rational order, the logos, governs the cosmos. Your own assent is the one thing in your power, and virtue is the whole of the good. Accept the fate handed to you, he told himself, and remember that you are going to die.
Signature
The position Aurelius is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Meaning
- leans Inherent
- Ethics Basis
- Virtue / Natural Law
Positions on the 8 axes the sources answer
- Natural Processes
- leans Purposeful (75 on a 0–100 scale from Mechanistic to Purposeful)
- Society
- leans Collectivism (25 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- Meaning
- leans Inherent (75 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Nature of Reality
- leans Unity (20 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Ground of Being
- leans Immanence (25 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Opposition
- leans Concurrence (75 on a 0–100 scale from Sublation to Concurrence)
- Nature
- leans Harmony (79 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
- Ethics
- leans Means (79 on a 0–100 scale from Ends to Means)
12 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Aurelius refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Pantheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Government
- One World Order
What is your ideal form of government? - Highest Good
- Virtue
What is the highest good? - Good and Evil
- Moral Realism
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - End of Things
- Eternal Return
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Perception
- Direct Realism
What do we directly perceive? - Knowledge
- Sense Experience / Pure Reason
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Virtue / Natural Law
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Divine Providence
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Beginning of Things
- Eternal Cosmos
What is the origin of reality? - Time
- Cyclical Return
What is the fundamental shape of time? - Authority
- Natural Law
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Law
- Natural Law
What is the ultimate source of legitimate law? - Death
- Annihilation / Other
What happens at death? - Role of Emotion
- Obstacle to Reason / Virtue to Cultivate / Sign of Weakness
What is the proper role of emotion? - Human Nature
- Innate Good
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- Humanity
What is your primary bond and loyalty?