Marcus Aurelius by John Sellars

Author:John Sellars
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2020-07-23T16:00:00+00:00

Here Marcus draws a threefold division between (i) necessary fate (heimarmenê), (ii) providence (pronoia) that can assist, and (iii) blind chaos. He goes on to say that if fate is true, there is no point resisting; if providence is true, act worthy of receiving assistance; if chaos is true, follow your own inner reason. While at first glance this distinction between fate and providence might seem to go against Stoic doctrine, it does not. The Stoic account of providence does not admit of divine intervention within the order of causes, something that would be a problem for some later Christian readers who wanted to retain space for miracles.8 Within the terms of the division that Marcus makes, the Stoic position is squarely (i). We might identify (ii) with traditional Greek and Roman theology,9 and (iii) with Epicurean atomism. The real point Marcus wants to make here, though, is that whichever of these positions might be true, simply complaining about what happens is never an appropriate response.

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