Initially this article was going to be about what the emperor Marcus Aurelius said, not about what Marcus Aurelius never said and we have made him say. Let me explain. With half a polarized country and thousands of families still recovering from the fights political-ideological-religious that accompany Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve after-dinner meals, a few days ago I decided to consult good old Marco Aurelio Antonio. What can the philosopher emperor teach us about tension?
The answer came to me like a fall from the sky (via Google):
“Everything we hear is opinion, not fact. Everything we see is perspective, not truth.”
Sage. Accurate. Poetic. A plea in favor of tolerance, respect and the ability to relativize without falling into relativism resigned. One of the many (many) aphorisms of Marcus Aurelius that invite us to listen, not give in to impulses and, definitely, flee from gratuitous quarrels.
The problem is that it is quite likely that that phrase, replicated infinite times in networks, anthologies and newspapershas never left Marco’s lips (or pen). Yes, it has been attributed to specialized accounts of X with more than 600,000 followers, yes, we have seen it in top level newspapers; but there are serious doubts that the philosopher emperor uttered it. Even that he sympathized with her.
Emperor’s word (or not)
To clear up doubts, the first and simplest thing is to turn to the great philosophical legacy of Marcus Aurelius: ‘Meditations’the work that collects his philosophical reflections. There, in point 15 of the second book, we find a more or less similar statement, although much shorter and related to another author. In fact, Marcus Aurelius recognizes its value, but with some important nuance.
“‘That everything is opinion'”. Evident is what is said referring to the cynic Mónimo. The usefulness of what is said is also evident, if the substance of the saying is accepted, to the extent that it is appropriate.”
The phrase refers to the philosopher Mononym of Syracuse (4th century BC), member of the Cynic school, and also connects with another great name of antiquity, the Greek comediographer Meander. Now… Why does Marcus Aurelius share it?
Throughout the work the philosopher returns on several occasions about that idea, although with a form (and especially a background) that does not quite coincide with that phrase we found on Google. In book
His interpretation is rather another: If you are distressed or sad, it may not be so much because of the external factors but because of the way you face them.
No trace of the famous original phrase.
Click on the image to go to the tweet.
What we did find (again on Google) are contemporary authors who warn of two things: not only is there no evidence that Marcus Aurelius ever uttered that aphorism, but that he probably would not support it.
In Medium the thinker Gregory Sadler remember the mention of Monimos in the ‘Meditations’ (“everything is what you suppose it to be”), but insists on the importance of context: “Marcus Aurelius is not really endorsing that statement as unconditionally correct. He claims that those words are clear and that they are useful if one accepts their usefulness to the extent that they are true“.
“As you read these passages, and even more so as you read and understand the Meditations Taken together, it is quite clear that Marcus Aurelius not only does not endorse any kind of relativism. It would be strange if he did, since that would contradict many other things he claims,” insists Sadler. He is not the only one who thinks this way. On the Modern Stoicism website is pointed out He cites it as the most obvious (and famous) example of a phrase “erroneously attributed” to the Roman emperor.
It is not just about putting words into the philosopher’s mouth that he never really said. The problem, remember its authorThomas Colligan, is that in this case the aphorism lends itself to interpretations that directly collide with what Marcus Aurelius did think. “It seems to deny the existence of an objective reality and instead endorses a subjective view of the world where anything goes,” he warns: “Marcus Aurelius and the Stoics would certainly not have endorsed this view.”
The emperor’s alleged phrase has also not passed PolitiFact analysis (a project of the Poynter Institute), that considers her discredited.
After seeing how it went viral on networks, PolitiFact investigated whether or not the happy quote can be attributed to Marcus Aurelius, for which it even contacted an expert from the University of Tasmania, Dirk Baltzly. Your conclusion? It turns out “vaguely possible” that the quote is a free paraphrase of a passage from ‘Meditations’.
What does the passage in question that Baltzly points out say, a quote that we find at the end of a long reflection of the third section from book IV? As follows:
“All those things that you are seeing will soon be transformed and will not exist. Also constantly think about how many transformations you have already witnessed by chance. ‘The world, alteration; life, opinion.'”
In other words, there is a certain echo, but no trace of what is probably one of Marcus Aurelius’s most shared phrases on networks. It could remain an anecdote (and a frustrated article on polarization), but how they reveal Sadler or Colligan, the problem is that this is not the only phrase falsely attributed to Marcus Aurelius, nor is Marcus Aurelius the only thinker to whom false phrases are attributed.
Not even the emperors and greatest thinkers in history are safe from fake news. On the contrary, they seem more vulnerable the greater their fame.
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