Marcus Aurelius

Routledge, 2020. Hardback ISBN 9780367146061 / Paperback ISBN 9780367146078. ​Further details at Routledge. 

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Here's the publishers blurb: 

• In this new study, John Sellars offers a fresh examination of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations as a work of philosophy by placing it against the background of the tradition of Stoic philosophy to which Marcus was committed. The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius is a perennial bestseller, attracting countless readers drawn to its unique mix of philosophical reflection and practical advice. The emperor is usually placed alongside Seneca and Epictetus as one of three great Roman Stoic authors, but he wears his philosophy lightly, not feeling the need to state explicitly the ideas standing behind the reflections that he was writing for himself. As a consequence, his standing as a philosopher has often been questioned. Challenging claims that Marcus Aurelius was merely an eclectic thinker, that the Meditations do not fit the model of a work of philosophy, that there are no arguments in the work, and that it only contains superficial moral advice, Sellars shows that he was in constant dialogue with his Stoic predecessors, engaging with themes drawn from all three parts of Stoicism, logic, physics, and ethics. The image of Marcus Aurelius that emerges is of a committed Stoic, engaging with a wide range of philosophical topics, motivated by the desire to live a good life.

This is the opening paragraph of the Preface, which sets out what it hopes to do: 

• This book is a study of the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius, as presented in his work widely known as the Meditations. Its aim is to present Marcus as a serious philosopher. It tries to do this in a number of ways. First it tries to show that Marcus was a committed Stoic philosopher and not, as some have suggested, a confused eclectic thinker. Second it reflects on how Marcus understood what it meant to do philosophy, rather than anachronistically judging him by present day standards. Third it examines the unique literary form of the Meditations and asks what sort of philosophical text this might be. Fourth – and most important of all – it examines the philosophical content in the Meditations, placing it within the wider context of previous Stoic philosophy. As we shall see, Marcus engaged with a wide range of material spanning the three traditional parts of Stoic philosophy – logic, physics, and ethics – and bringing this out will hopefully also challenge the claim that Marcus was merely interested in what is sometimes called “practical ethics”.