The Hidden Structure of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius are a classic of Stoic literature. They can be read without any prerequisite: it is not necessary to know the biography of the emperor-philosopher, the geopolitical situation of the Roman Empire in the second century or the history of Stoicism to enjoy the writing. So why should we read Pierre Hadot’s study, which is presented as an Introduction to Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations?

The implicit structure of The Meditations

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius does not seem to have a particular structure. The twelve books can be read independently, and the reflections have no logical links between them. Yet, for Pierre Hadot, the Meditations are structured according to an “extremely rigorous conceptual system” (p.89). Therefore, the first interest of this introduction is to offer a key for reading that allows us to discover the implicit structure of the work.

In this case, the Meditations are organized according to the tripartition conceived by Epictetus between the discipline of assent, the discipline of desire and the discipline of action and, more obviously, according to the four traditional virtues: prudence, justice, courage, temperance. This does not mean that one can detect a precise plan in each of the books. For the author, the structure of…