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

Product Information

The author segues from history, to Stoic philosophy, to modern cognitive behavior therapy with grace and art. The sensible and peaceful mind that Marcus Aurelius cultivated was revealed and then recast into the 21st century so that we can learn to harness the power of Stoic thinking, too. You can never be certain of other peoples motives. Without knowing someones intentions we can never really be sure they're doing wrong. This book made me more wary about the right virtues I want to follow in my life. It provided me with numerous techniques which can prevent me from being angry or help me conquer my desires. It made me think more rationally about events but mainly about people whom I don't agree with. I am not going to think less of them (I hope), but rather I will try to know their intentions and life better.

It's a sort of mashup between history, historical fiction, self-help and philosophy manual. That may sound funny, but it works! and the different genre like aspects are blended seamlessly, artfully, and beautifully. Some first person narratives are quite poignant (i.e. yeah, I cried!). Stoicism is a practical philosophy that emphasizes rationality and virtue as the only true goods. Unlike other religious or spiritual practices, Stoicism does not require that you abandon reason or strain your grip on reality; rather, it provides an ethical orientation to life that is fully consistent with our nature as rational, social beings. The technique of exposing yourself to stressful situations repeatedly in small doses so that you build up a more general resistance to emotional disturbance is known in behavioral psychology as "stress inoculation"It's necessary to learn a great many things about another person before we can deliver a firm opinion concerning their personality and motives. In the first chapter you will learn about the general idea of Stoicism (philosophy) and how does it differ from stoicism (mental trait of toughness). The use of reason is the only way to modify unhealthy habits, which are usually the result of blindly following our emotions. Our most natural reactions are often the most harmful. Marcus, for example, had to battle with severe outbursts of anger when he was younger. However, despite being predisposed psychologically to bouts of anger, Marcus trained himself to act more reasonably and calmly, even in the face of betrayal by his general Gaius Avidius Cassius, who declared himself emperor and started a civil war. Marcus reminded himself that people act according to what they think is right, and if they act dishonorably, they do so in error and therefore deserve our sympathy rather than our contempt. Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius was the last famous Stoic philosopher of the ancient world. The Meditations, his personal journal, survives to this day as one of the most loved self-help and spiritual classics of all time. In How to Think Like a Roman Emperor, cognitive psychotherapist Donald Robertson weaves the life and philosophy of Marcus Aurelius together seamlessly to provide a compelling modern-day guide to the Stoic wisdom followed by countless individuals throughout the centuries as a path to achieving greater fulfillment and emotional resilience.

The stoics didn't view joy as end of life, that would be wisdom. But they saw joy as by-product of if, so they believed that pursuit it directly might lead to wrong path. I had never read a “modern Stoic” book before this and considered them superfluous cash-ins to an already vastly oversaturated “Stoic self-help” genre. The original three big Roman Stoics, who I had read extensively (Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Seneca), were all I or anyone should read or need at all. I was wrong about this book though and it now sits side by side my copy or Marcus’s Meditations, Epictetus’ Discourses, and Seneca’s Letters on my shelf, aka a very nice place to be. With the current state of the world, this is an interesting and sensible outlook that many people are adopting. Discussing the core concepts of stoicism alongside cognitive behavioural therapy is a thought-provoking approach and is exceptionally well written and researched, it appears. Often philosophy books can alienate those who want to educate themselves on these ideas but Mr Robertson keeps it down to earth and concise. This is a book that has the potential to be life-changing and the comparison made between stoic wisdom and CBT absolutely fascinated me. The helpful hints of how to incorporate stoicism into your day to day life are a great way to move towards emotional resilience and hopefully a happier and more fulfilled life. Joy in the Stoics sense is active rather than passive, it comes from virtuous quality of our own good deeds, the things we do, whereas the bodily pleasures arise from experiences that happen to us, even as consequences of actions like (eating, having sex) How to conquer anger. Stoics believed that anger is a form of desire. A desire for revenge on one who seems to have done an injustice inappropriately.Using the life of Marcus Aurelius, Robertson – a professional psychologist – try to show how we can surpass emotional obstacles that hurt us. Do not act as if you will live 10,000 years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good Stoics argued that humans are first and foremost thinking creatures, capable of exercising reason. Although we share many instincts with other animals, our ability to think rationally is what makes us human….It allows us to evaluate our thoughts, feelings, and urges and to decide if they are good or bad, healthy or unhealthy.” This philosophical attitude toward death didn’t come naturally to Marcus. His father passed away when Marcus was only a few years old, leaving him a solemn child. When he reached seventeen, he was adopted by the Emperor Antoninus Pius as part of a long-term succession plan devised by his predecessor, Hadrian, who had foreseen the potential for wisdom and greatness in Marcus even as a small boy. Nevertheless, he had been most reluctant to leave his mother’s home for the imperial palace. Antoninus summoned the finest teachers of rhetoric and philosophy to train Marcus in preparation for succeeding him as emperor. Among his tutors were experts on Platonism and Aristotelianism, but his main philosophical education was in Stoicism. These men became like family to him. When one of his most beloved tutors died, it’s said that Marcus wept so violently that the palace servants tried to restrain him. They were worried that people would find his behavior unbecoming of a future ruler. However, Antoninus told them to leave Marcus alone: “Let him be only a man for once; for neither philosophy nor empire takes away natural feeling.” Years later, after having lost several young children, Marcus was once again moved to tears in public while presiding over a legal case, when he heard an advocate say in the course of his argument: “Blessed are they who died in the plague.”1 His son-in-law Pompeianus, his right-hand man and senior general during the Marcomannic Wars, is there as always. His lifelong friend Aufidius Victorinus, another one of his generals, is also present, as are Bruttius Praesens, the father-in-law of Commodus, and another of his sons-in-law, Gnaeus Claudius Severus, a close friend and fellow philosopher. They gather solemn-faced around his bed. Marcus stresses to them that they must take good care of Commodus, his only surviving son, who has ruled by his side as his junior co-emperor for the past three years. He has appointed the best teachers available for him, but their influence is waning. Commodus became emperor when he was only sixteen; Marcus had to wait until he was forty. Young rulers, such as the Emperor Nero, tend to be easily corrupted, and Marcus can see that his son is already falling in with bad company. He asks his friends, especially Pompeianus, to do him the honor of ensuring that Commodus’s moral education continues as if he were their own son.

As the hubbub outside grows louder, the nervous guards ask their tribune, “What did he say?” The officer looks like he’s about to speak but then pauses for a moment. 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.”5

How to follow your values. Have an mentor, who can be even imagined. This chapter describes very helpful routines: Marcus Aurelius was one of the “Big Three” roman stoics philosophers. These days we’re seeing a sort of revival of the Stoic School. Like others philosophical schools from ancient times, it emphasizes the practice of philosophy. It’s, more than anything else, a way to have a better life, to be a better person. This book was life changing honestly. I had no idea what Stoicism truly was and how closely related to modern day therapeutic practices it is. Written by a therapist who has extensively studied philosophy, this book has not only given me new insight on dealing with anxiety but also on living your life with perspective and and in accordance with your own values. Marcus wrote that nobody is so fortunate as not to have one or two individuals standing by his deathbed who will welcome his demise.4 He says that in his own case, as emperor, he can think of hundreds who hold values at odds with his own and would be only too glad to see him gone. They do not share his love of wisdom and virtue, and they sneer at his vision of an empire that makes the freedom of its citizens its highest goal. Nevertheless, philosophy has taught him to be grateful for life and yet unafraid of dying—like a ripened olive falling from its branch, thanking both the tree for giving it life and the earth below for receiving its seed as it falls. For the Stoics, death is just such a natural transformation, returning our body to the same source from which we came. At Marcus’s funeral, therefore, the people will not say that he has been lost but that he has been returned to the gods and to Nature. Perhaps his friends voiced this sentiment in their eulogies because it sounds like a reference to the Stoic teachings Marcus held dear. Never say that anything has been lost, they tell us. Only that it has returned to Nature. Marcus, of course, was not only a Stoic philosopher; he was also a leader, the emperor of Rome. If anyone deserves the title of Plato’s “philosopher king,” it’s Marcus Aurelius, and if any Stoic is truly worth emulating, it’s also probably him.

So what can Marcus teach us? Since Marcus modeled his behavior according to a hypothetical Stoic ideal, we can all use Marcus’s own character traits as a model for our own character development. In that respect, what follows is a brief summary of the character traits and habits of mind of Marcus Aurelius that we would all benefit from emulating. How to think like a Roman emperor breaks downs Aurelius life in different chapters each chapter reflects and pinpoints how Marcus was challenged emotionally and physically during his reign as emperor. It brings in the stoic teachings and shows the reader how Marcus saw and used these methods to overcome some very hard moments in his life but also giving the reader the ability to understand and use it as well in their day to day struggles. Of course, one of the reasons for this approach is the complexity of the subject - how otherwise to present Stoicism and the contemporary behaviour therapy findings - without indulging the reader into a 3-year Bachelor course in Ancient Philosophy & History, Psychology and Logic?Although Marcus first began training in philosophy when he was just a boy of about twelve, his practice intensified in his mid-twenties, when he dedicated himself wholeheartedly to becoming a Stoic. Since then he has rehearsed his Stoic exercises daily, trained his mind and body to obey reason, and progressively transformed himself, both as a man and a ruler, into something approaching the Stoic ideal. He has tried to develop his own wisdom and resilience systematically, modeling himself after the philosophers who shared their teachings with him and the other great men who won his admiration, foremost among them Antoninus. He studied the way they met different forms of adversity with calm dignity. He carefully observed how they lived in accord with reason and exhibited the cardinal virtues of wisdom, justice, fortitude, and temperance. They felt the pain of loss but did not succumb to it. Marcus has been bereaved so many times, has practiced his response to it so often, that he no longer weeps uncontrollably. He no longer cries “Why?” and “How could this happen?” or even entertains such thoughts. He has firmly grasped the truth that death is both a natural and inevitable part of life. Now that his time has come he welcomes it with a philosophical attitude. You might even say that he has learned to befriend death. He still sheds tears and mourns losses, but as a wise man does. He no longer adds to his natural grief by complaining and shaking his fist at the universe. I also very much enjoyed how this played out as a history book from Marcus earlier years to his final moments he’s one of my favourite Roman emperors so it was a nice added touch! The second misconception is that Stoicism makes one apathetic to public life and civic responsibility. Marcus, being the emperor of Rome and all, should make it obvious how wrong this is. But there’s a deeper explanation for why this is incorrect. Robertson explains this best: