“Politics” in the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

• Authors: Cheikh Mbacke Gueye
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This paper proposes to examine the diverse ways that conceptions of politics can be retrieved from the Meditations of the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius. It claims that the Meditations are in a certain sense an important work on politics, owing to the theoretical and practical insights into not only (political) leadership, but also the (political) system and arrangements. As a matter of fact, a number of principles and codes of conduct are proposed by the Stoic philosopher who is faithful to the understanding of philosophy as being primarily a “way of life.” However, despite the attractive and inspiring treatments of human nature, society, and virtues that are at the heart of the “political” agenda of Marcus Aurelius, the Meditations, due to its “dislocated” nature, does not offer a fully-fledged political theory, at least as “politics” is understood today.

Keywords

EN

Marcus Aurelius; Meditations; politics; ethics; leadership.

• Publisher: Akademia Ignatianum w Krakowie
• Journal: Horyzonty Polityki
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 79-93

Dates

published

2013-01-31

Contributors

author

Cheikh Mbacke Gueye