Marcus Aurelius

I'm very pleased to report the publication of my new book on Marcus Aurelius. You can read more about it here. The opening paragraph of the Preface sums up what it is trying 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”.

I have also written a piece online that say a bit more: 'Marcus Aurelius, The All-Round Philosopher'.