Marcus Aurelius: Reason and Human Fellowship

In his Meditations, Marcus Aurelius repeatedly affirms that human beings are both reasonable and social. And in Book X, Verse 2, he appears to identify a deep connection between aspects of human nature when he claims “what is reasonable is consequently also social”. In this show, we will explore the meaning of this connection. What is the nature of relationship between the reasonable and the social? Do human beings possess the natural capacity for reason to serve the social? Or are human beings social so that their rational natures can be developed? Or perhaps the reasonable and the social are inter-entailing and ‘co-dependent’ in some way. The objective of the show is to gain a better understand Marcus Aurelius’ view of the relationship between the ‘reasonable’ and ‘social’ aspects of human nature and how this facet of Marcus Aurelius’ philosophy connects with his metaphysical views about the nature of the universe and the ‘human commonwealth’