Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius AntoninusMarcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome
PhilosophyPhilosophy
Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome
Ethics; Life; Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome, 121-180; Stoics
The Stoics made three divisions of philosophy,--Physic ([Greek:
phusikon]), Ethic ([Greek: êthikon]), and Logic ([Greek: logikon])
(viii. 13). This division, we are told by Diogenes, was made by Zeno of
Citium, the founder of the Stoic sect, and by Chrysippus; but these
philosophers placed the three divisions in the following order,--Logic,
Physic, Ethic. It appears, however, that this division was made before
Zeno's time, and acknowledged by Plato, as Cicero remarks (Acad. Post.
i. 5). Logic is not synonymous with our term Logic in the narrower sense
of that word.
Cleanthes, a Stoic, subdivided the three divisions and made
six,--Dialectic and Rhetoric, comprised in Logic; Ethic and Politic;
Physic and Theology. This division was merely for practical use, for all
Philosophy is one. Even among the earliest Stoics Logic, or Dialectic,
does not occupy the same place as in Plato: it is considered only as an
instrument which is to be used for the other divisions of Philosophy.
An exposition of the earlier Stoic doctrines and of their modifications
would require a volume. My object is to explain only the opinions of
Antoninus, so far as they can be collected from his book.
According to the subdivision of Cleanthes, Physic and Theology go
together, or the study of the nature of Things, and the study of the
nature of the Deity, so far as man can understand the Deity, and of his
government of the universe. This division or subdivision is not formally
adopted by Antoninus, for, as already observed, there is no method in
his book; but it is virtually contained in it.
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