Pressure Your Ideas
Marcus Aurelius and the power of logical thinking
In one of the later entries of book eight of the Meditations, Marcus Aurelius sets out to remind himself of the need to “assemble” his life, action-by-action. The Stoics themselves, and many people today, believe the world functions in a deterministic way: every action leads to another action — cause and effect.
Yet even knowing this, Marcus sought to remind himself that in order to achieve what he wanted, he needed to recenter himself and remind himself to take steps that would lead to the outcomes he desired.
If one sets their goals, he says, and goes after them, taking action in ways that bring him closer to the goals, then he can get closer to achieving them.
Within the same entry, however, he counters his own argument and states that “there are external obstacles” that will get in his way of achieving those goals.
This self-dialogue he has with himself, taking his belief and pressing a thought of fear to it helps him break down the fear. He counters the fear back with logic by reminding himself:
“But if you accept the obstacle and work with what you’re given, an alternative will present itself — another piece of what you’re trying to assemble. Action by action.”
This back and forth with oneself Marcus took from Epictetus, whose Discourses are filled with this back and forth. Donald Robertson, author of How to Think Like a Roman Emperor, once wrote that we can almost think of the Meditations as a mental training Marcus created when his beloved tutor Fronto passed away and he no longer had the ability to debate on issues of importance, such as this.
We too can take advantage of this inner-debate when reflecting on events in our lives. Far too often, we have formed ideas and opinions of the world, but how often have we allowed those to be questioned and put to the test, let alone for us to do it with ourselves?
By putting pressure on our ideas, we are better able to work through whether they have a solid basis in logic or if they are standing on stilts.