If you are looking for the beginning of the study for Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations then you can go HERE for a brief introduction. At the bottom of the introduction you will find the links to each section of the study guide as it becomes available. If you would like to see the growing list of book studies available for free on this site you can go HERE. Enjoy!
Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)
Memento Mori, Beauty, Temperance, Virtue, Fame, Happiness, Truth, Justice
Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)
According to Aurelius, what truth ought we to consider about our lives?
What are some examples of things which Aurelius says will be found pleasing “only to him who has become truly familiar with nature and her works?”
What ought we to “check in the series of our thoughts” according to Aurelius?
What did Aurelius consider “every rational animal” to be?
What did Aurelius urge that one should turn to “with all [their] soul?”
What kinds of things tend to “subjugate reason all at once and carry us away?”
What did Aurelius think a person should “never value...as profitable?”
What did Aurelius think one should “bear in mind” about this life we live?
What did Aurelus believe above all else tends to promote “elevation of mind?”
What was Aurelius’ advice about how to “live happily?”
What did Aurelius say belonged to the “body,” the “soul,” and the “intelligence” of man, respectively?
What did Aurelius say is “peculiar to the good man?”
Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)
Given the brevity of life, which Aurelius exhorts us to keep in mind, what is he saying we ought to do in light of that knowledge?
What is Aurelius’ point about beauty given his examples of baked bread, figs, grapes, olives, and lion’s eyebrows, etc.? Why are these things “which follow after the things that are produced according to nature” of a different king beauty but still “pleasing and attractive?”
What do Hippocrates, Alexander, Pompeius, Gaius Caesar, Heraclitus, Democritue, and Socrates all have in common and what are we supposed to learn from this point of commonality?
What did Aurelius mean by saying that Socrates was killed by “other lice?”
What did Aurelius mean by saying one should “not waste the remainder of your life in thoughts about others, when you do not refer your thoughts to some object of common utility?”
Why did Aurelius think that “one who cannot be overpowered by any passion” is truly a man who is “dyed deep with justice?”
What did Aurelius mean by saying, “every rational animal” is his kinsmen?
Is Aurelius suggesting that one can find something “better than justice, truth, temperance, fortitude” etc., or is he suggesting that nothing is higher than these things? Why do you think as you do about this?
Aurelius mentions “the deity that is planted in you” and refers to the “daimon” within man. What is he talking about? How do you understand what he is trying to say with reference to these things?
What does it mean to “revere the faculty that produces opinion?”
Why does Aureliys think that it is critically important to “examine methodically and truly every object that is presented to you in life?”
Aurelius discusses the parts of man (body, soul, and intelligence) but then he suggests that these things are all common to other living beings as well and that being a good man is not a product of these. What then does he think makes a man “good” if it is not one of, or some combination of, these things?
Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)
Aurelius tells us that “the longest posthumous fame” is “buoyed only by a succession of poor human beings who will very soon die and who know little of themselves, much less of someone who died long ago.” Offer a definition for the term “Fame.” Ought we, in any respect, to desire fame? If so, in what way? If not, why not? Do you think Aurelius is right about the fleeting nature of fame? Are there any counterexamples that suggest, at least in some cases, eternal fame is truly possible? What kinds of things tend to make a person famous only for a short time as opposed to gaining a more lasting fame?
According to Aurelius, if one follows his advice about how to be happy, “there is no man who is able to prevent” our happiness. Offer a definition of the term “happiness.” Do you think Aurelius is correct that happiness cannot be taken from us by another? Do you agree with the means he suggests for acquiring happiness? Why or why not?
Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)
Read Matthew 9:27-31. From this passage what ought we to learn about fame?
Read Matthew 7:21-23 and Revelation 20:11-15. What does this teach us about the concept of fame? Put another way, who should we most want to know who we are?
In Psalm 51 David writes a song of repentance after he has had an affair with Bathsheeba and had Uriah, her husband, killed. He states, in verses 3-4, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.” Relate this to what Aurelius said in our present reading when he wrote, “Neither can you do anything well that pertains to man without at the same time having a reference to things divine; nor the contrary.”