6/27/2023 0 Comments Marcus aurelius meditations bookBut Meditations is a core text for Modern Stoics, and in a sense they are exactly the kind of reader for whom the book is intended. My acquaintance with this Modern Stoicism is minimal, and I have deliberately kept it so because I want to try to understand Marcus on his own terms and in his own day. Stoicism, an ancient philosophical system, has been rediscovered in recent years, and many thousands of people around the world consider themselves Stoics and try to put it into practice. So the notes serve, as it were, the short-term function of explaining passages as they are read, whereas the Introduction has a more general purpose. The Introduction covers general issues that illuminate the book as a whole, and I wrote notes wherever I felt that Marcus’s meaning would not be immediately clear to at least some readers. The intention of the Introduction and the notes is that they should deepen anyone’s understanding of Marcus’s work while falling short of hardcore philosophical commentary. The justification of this book, however, is not just an improved translation but an increased degree of annotation. It has often been translated into English, but the Greek in which Marcus wrote is frequently so difficult that there is always room for another version. Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations is high on the list of the most famous and widely read works of philosophy in the world.
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