Enchiridion Marcus Aurelius Analysis

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Philosophy has a way of trying to explain just about every aspect of life one can think of, and philosophers often see themselves as the agents of which to do so. Stoicism is a branch of philosophy in which life is often viewed from an emotionally detached perspective. Because of this, their view on the meaning of life and how it should be lived is, at times, emotionless. Stoicism often veers away from emotional attachments to material or physical things. Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus were great Philosophers from the first and second centuries who became great teachers of Stoicism and its beliefs. Marcus Aurelius wrote the Meditations which contains his own personal ideas on Stoic philosophy. Epictetus wrote the Enchiridion- a word which translates…show more content…
This point is also made in both the Meditations and the Enchiridion. When something dies, it is not lost, but restored. This is exactly the point Epictetus makes in the Enchiridion. He writes, ““Never say of anything, "I have lost it;" but, "I have restored it." Has your child died? It is restored. Has your wife died? She is restored. Has your estate been taken away? That likewise is restored. "But it was a bad man who took it." What is it to you by whose hands he who gave it has demanded it again? While he permits you to possess it, hold it as something not your own; as do travelers at an inn”” (Epictetus, 11). This section is telling the reader that to truly be a stoic, life must be valued, but death must not be feared. Death should be accepted as a fact of life. The Stoic should just accept it and move on. Marcus Aurelius talks about something very similar in book four of the Meditations. He writes, “Death, like generation, is a mystery of nature; a composition out of the same elements, and a decomposition into the same; and altogether not a thing of which any man should be ashamed, for it is not contrary to the nature of a reasonable animal, and not contrary to the reason of our constitution” (Aurelius, 4-5). This is functionally stating the same thing. Death is not something that is bad. Death is inevitable, and it should be as accepted and appreciated as

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