[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-40305-en":3,"doc-seo-40305-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},40305,2336464648322,"Aria","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/2200025388227c56fec?_k=1778556882303663488",9,"Religion & Spirituality","A Guide to Marcus Aurelius and Stoicism","A Guide to Marcus Aurelius and Stoicism presents Stoicism as a practical philosophy focused on psychological resilience. It explains the Stoic goal of life as arete—virtue and moral excellence—and challenges the common tendency to treat health, wealth, and reputation as ultimate goods. The text describes “living in agreement with nature” through rational, wise, and virtuous living, and outlines the four cardinal virtues—wisdom, justice, fortitude, and temperance—as frameworks for moral action across life’s situations.","1  \nA GUIDE TO  \nMARCUS AURELIUS AND STOICISM  \nThe Philosophy of a Roman Emperor  \nby Donald J. Robertson  \nContents  \n1.The Stoic Goal of Life  \n2.Three Stoic Practices  \n3.Who were the Stoics?  \n4.Who was Marcus Aurelius?  \n5.The Imperial Succession  \n6. Marcus’ Friends  \n7. Marcus’ Enemies  \n8. Questions, Quotes, and Reading  \n9. About the Graphic Novel  \n[donaldrobertson.name](donaldrobertson.name)  \nCC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Design by Rocio de Torres. Artwork from Verissimus by Zé Nuno Fraga.  \nTHE STOIC GOAL OF LIFE  \nIn 399 BC, Socrates, the most important philosopher of antiquity, was executed for impiety and corrupting the youth. His death sent shockwaves through the ancient world. In the centuries that followed several “Hellenistic”schools of philosophy rose to prominence, including  \nStoicism. It flourished for nearly five centuries altogether, originating in Greece at the end of the 4th century BC, and later spreading throughout the Roman empire.  \nThe Stoics’ main rivals were Platonism, Aristotelianism, and Epicureanism, although Cynicism and Skepticism were also important movements in philosophy at this time. Stoicism, though, was the school most focused on training in psychological resilience, and even resembled modern psychotherapy in many ways. Stoicism is a practical philosophy – philosophy as a way oflife.  \nThe Stoics taught that the supreme goal of life is arete, meaning “virtue” and “excellence”, or rather a type of moral wisdom. Indeed, the word philosophy (philosophia) literally means “love of wisdom” in Greek. The majority of people, however, mistakenly view “external” advantages such as health, wealth, and reputation, as the most important things in life.  \nThese are not good in themselves, say the Stoics, but only become so insofar as they are used wisely. In the hands of a foolish and vicious man, by contrast, wealth merely provides more opportunity to do foolish and vicious things, and the same arguably goes for other such“external” advantages.  \nLIVING IN AGREEMENT WITH NATURE  \nThe Stoics described the goal as “living in agreement with nature,” by which they meant living in accord with human nature, whose highest faculty they considered to be reason. For Stoics, living in accord with nature therefore means living rationally, wisely, and virtuously.  \nThey treated the “four cardinal virtues” of Greek philosophy as broad categories referring to the  \ndifferent forms that moral wisdom takes in different areas of life. Wisdom is the central virtue but takes the form of justice when applied to our dealings with other people. We require both courage and temperance to act consistently in accord with justice throughout life, because otherwise our fears and desires would threaten to draw us in a contrary direction.  \n• Wisdom, knowing what is really good (for us and others) as opposed to what merely appears so  \n• Justice, applying wisdom (plus fairness and kindness) to society and our relations with other individuals  \n• Fortitude (aka Courage), acting with wisdom in the face of things that most people fear  \n• Temperance (aka Moderation), exercising wisdom in relation to things we typically desire  \n![image](https://weboffice-doc-exporter-sg-prod.obs.ap-southeast-3.myhuaweicloud.com:443/exporter_2563fb1df86dbbc90817f5ccc25ca34c34d57b4a_12.png?","cbCaioHAXtyPyRk4","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaioHAXtyPyRk4","pdf",9780044,4,1,21,"English","en",105,"# The Stoic Goal of Life\n## Three Stoic Practices\n## Who were the Stoics?\n## Who was Marcus Aurelius?\n# The Imperial Succession\n## Marcus’ Friends\n## Marcus’ Enemies\n## Questions, Quotes, and Reading\n## About the Graphic Novel","[{\"question\":\"What is the Stoic goal of life according to the text?\",\"answer\":\"The supreme goal of life is arete, meaning virtue and excellence, a form of moral wisdom.\"},{\"question\":\"Why do Stoics treat health, wealth, and reputation as less important?\",\"answer\":\"They are not good in themselves; they become good only when used wisely, otherwise they can enable foolish and vicious behavior.\"},{\"question\":\"What does “living in agreement with nature” mean?\",\"answer\":\"It means living in accord with human nature, whose highest faculty is reason—therefore living rationally, wisely, and virtuously.\"}]",1783310220,53,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"a-guide-to-marcus-aurelius-and-stoicism","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,51],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":50},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/religion-spirituality/",3,{"item":52,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/a-guide-to-marcus-aurelius-and-stoicism/40305/",{"url":52,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-21","2026-07-06",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"What is the Stoic goal of life according to the text?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"The supreme goal of life is arete, meaning virtue and excellence, a form of moral wisdom.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"Why do Stoics treat health, wealth, and reputation as less important?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"They are not good in themselves; they become good only when used wisely, otherwise they can enable foolish and vicious behavior.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"What does “living in agreement with nature” mean?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"It means living in accord with human nature, whose highest faculty is reason—therefore living rationally, wisely, and virtuously.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":52,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":52},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":25},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,101,105,110,115,120,125,128,131,135],{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":47,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":121,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":122,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":124},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":127},20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":126,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":130},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":132,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":133,"show_sort_weight":132,"slug":134},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":136,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":137,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":138},19,"General","general"]