March 1, 2018: Plato

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.48: "How beautifully Plato put it. Whenever you want to talk about people, its best to take a bird's eye view and see everything all at once--of gatherings, armies, farms, weddings, and divorces, births and deaths, noisy courtrooms or silent spaces, every foreign people, holidays, memorials, markets--all blended together and arranged in a pairing of opposites."

This aspect of stoicism has been difficult for me to interpret. I think Marcus Aurelius is trying to emphasize the importance of perspective when analyzing a problem, or thinking about an action. It is easy to make a decision or action, but to make the correct one requires more information and also a perspective of both 'sides'. I have discussed this in an earlier blog post that in order to gain knowledge sometimes its best to listen, and not only listen but to understand from the other person's perspective. Even if they are opposing views to what you feel to by the only truth, you only gain true knowledge and perspective by putting yourself in the other person's position and asking yourself HOW they got to believe in their position.

I think in this statement, Marcus Aurelius is also saying that there are many opposing views when you look at it from an 'outsider' perspective. For instance if you were on the moon and looked down to Earth, you may think that politics is petty, or that buying a home is petty, but only then can you see all sides to an action/decision.