Letras in.verso e re.verso - Resenha de "Marco Aurélio: Cartas, discursos e ditos célebres"

No Letras in.verso e re.verso - Resenha de "Marco Aurélio: Cartas, discursos e ditos célebres"

- Dinucci e dos Santos Junior.

"O fundador do estoicismo, Zenão de Cítio, teria nascido em torno de 333 a. C.; Marco Aurélio nasceu em 121 de nossa era. Quase quinhentos anos, portanto, e muitas diferenças. Dos livros escritos pelos primeiros estoicos nos resta quase nada - das centenas de escritos de Crisipo, restam os títulos e alguns fragmentos. Do estoicismo romano, entretanto, temos abundante material de Sêneca, as conversas de Epicteto recolhidas em dois livros, e os diários de Marco Aurélio. E, como veremos, algo mais..."



https://www.blogletras.com/2025/07/com-marco-aurelio-o-que-dele-nos.html

Blog Letras In Verso

     Approaches to Epictetus ’ Handbook and his Diatribes – our action in a world of instability

 Recently, the Netflix series “Adolescence” became a global success for bringing to light several problems related to the new configuration between growing up, “social” networks and violence: on the one hand, parents have no time or interest in their children; on the other, the macho sphere is ready to radicalize boys, vulnerable at a time when they still need support, but are alone; other parents are concerned about providing all the material comfort, but are not capable of listening to their problems.

 The paranoia that women hate men ends up “demanding” perverse action - more or less, with proportions, as the Jewish people were described by the ideology of the 1930s as dangerous. What adults should have taught has been replaced by the teaching of screens - with their imminent fanaticism and prejudice. The ancients even had a god, Janus, with two faces, god of the portals, to observe this transition - Carl Jung paid attention to the myth of the hero.

On the other hand, there has been much talk about borderline personality disorder, so named by psychiatry because it appears to be on the border between neurosis and psychosis, in which the individual experiences constant instability and impulsivity, going from a feeling of emptiness to uncontrolled anger, to hostility, making relationships and projects difficult. The population prevalence can reach 20% in hospitalized psychiatric patients (Psychiatry DataBase). 

Capitalism also encourages impulse, which is the new Superego (a social duty internalized in education). The recent trial of the Sean Combs case (P. Diddy) also points to the excesses and lack of control of power linked to sexual abuse, obsessive control and threat culture – a video shows how the businessman kicks and drags his girlfriend Cassie Ventura through the corridors of a hotel.

Far from proposing to debate these issues, which should be guided by informed discussions or properly addressed by modern therapies, we can draw attention to the way in which antiquity reflected on similar issues and proposed self-perception in a communal sense. Self -awareness has been pointed out as a central therapeutic factor even for borderline patients.

In the Platonic Dialogue Meno , Socrates will state that it is only self-knowledge that can bring us phronesis - practical wisdom - translated prudentia by the Roman Cicero - the most important skill to be learned. Michel Foucault will speak, in the last century, of the culture of self-care, which he identified in the first two centuries of our era (for example in The Hermeneutics of the Subject ). 

For Alcibiades, a young and ambitious nobleman, Socrates will show that he does not have the wealth and education to confront his rivals in the political field - nor does he have the tékhne (art), a knowledge born of prudence that would enable him to compete with rivals and govern the city well. Foucault thinks that this self-knowledge also comes from the other (in Stoicism - a philosophy of Greek origin adopted in the Roman world - self-care is reflected in the care of the other, for example).

Flavius Arrian Xenophon (ca. 86 -160), a Roman citizen and student of the Phrygian-born Stoic philosopher Epictetus , compiled his teacher's lessons in eight books (the Diatribes ) and synthesized them into a “manual” for everyday use, related to the Stoic tradition of “daily meditation” (Introduction to the Encheirídion – Dinucci, 2021).

Early in this manual he writes: “Of the things that exist, some are our responsibility, others are not. Our responsibility is judgment, impulse, desire, repulsion – in short, everything that is our action” (Encheiridion 1.1). In Diatribe 48 we read: “Signs of one who progresses: he does not blame anyone, he does not praise anyone, he does not accuse anyone, he does not complain about anyone.” Anyone who submits to the desire for external things or to the people who can offer them becomes a “slave” (Encheiridion 1.2).

Therefore, we must focus on what depends on us, on what we can actually control, these “ our burdens”: in this context, judgment (hypolepsis) - how we evaluate what appears to us, adding an opinion that directs our conduct; impulse (horme) - active movement that results from a choice; desire (orexis) approaching something that we consider good; repulsion (ekklisis) - the action of moving away from something, avoiding what we consider bad (notes to the Encheirídion , Op. Cit., p. 73-75). 

The part of the gods in the human being would be the capacity for impulse and restraint (Diatribe 1.1.12). Not even Zeus could subdue the rational being's capacity for choice.

Flavius Arrian already places at the beginning of the Diatribes a reflection on the things we choose to care for and to which we choose to attach ourselves (Diatribe 1.1.14). If we concern ourselves too much with things that we cannot really care for, such as property, the body, relatives, we are dragged along by them. Among the capacities or arts (dynamis), such as grammar or music, all relate to external objects ("how you ought" to do), only the rational capacity evaluates itself and the use of the other arts, indicating the propitious moment and "whether or not you ought" to perform the action. Because the rational capacity is what deals with what appears to us (the representations - phantasiai ).

One of the most moving aspects of Stoicism is its advice on how to deal with suffering—to "be content with what is given" (Diatribe 1.1.27 ), to maintain good humor and serenity in the face of suffering (Diatribe 1.1.22), and to accept the consequences of one's actions when lived according to natural "logical" principles (Diatribe 1.1.18-32). Firm adherence to what seems rational to us—based on correct judgments—does not submit to the authoritarianism of other people's passions.

We see with admiration how the ancients thought about phronesis, the art of self-observation, the education of choice and the beneficial action that arises from paying attention to the reaction to what is presented. All this with the understanding that vanity, criticism and ambition end up corrupting society – a leader serves the common good (as Marcus Aurelius states in the Meditations – Book 1.17 ).

The universe of the Greek city-state or the Roman Empire evidently presents a scenario that is absolutely distant from ours (the founder of Stoicism, the Phoenician Zeno, is 2,300 years away, for example); but it would not be impossible to think about how the ethical formulations of their thinkers dialogue with our own conduct and realities. 

We can have more control over a series of factors (and even know the need to take care of our body, for example – something that the Stoics do not deny, since things that are not virtue are “indifferent” in the moral sense); the body was also divine matter, the Ordered Whole; for example, the second leader of the school (scholarchē), Cleanthes [ ca. 330 BC - 230 BC], was a boxer born in what is now Turkey; Seneca exercised with his servant and recommended simple exercises such as “running, lifting weights and jumping” – Epistulae morales ad Lucilium , XV). 

However, we still live in a world of chronic instability. The avid desire for external things, the inability to judge what we receive, and aggressiveness based on errors of judgment are all very similar – even more so if we consider a scenario of increasing militarization, irresponsible neoliberalism, and plans for livestock production in schools.

Modernity has brought us greater respect for individuality and instincts, and a greater awareness of the necessary freedom in raising children, for example. We have almost freed ourselves from fundamentalist sects and dictatorial powers that sought to domesticate women, the LGBTQIA+ community, and non-whites. But when can our achievements become shadows, such as obsession and abandonment? 

Adolescents driven by conflicting emotions, aggressive instincts, and powerful desires would need the wisdom born of correct opinions from caregivers to avoid turning impulses into violence. A sense of community would be necessary when everything revolves around increasing sales and the desire to buy. Greater self-awareness would prevent the impulsiveness that fuels so many relationships lived in criticism and aggression.

As Pepe Mujica has rightly pointed out , capitalism is a cultural phenomenon, a kind of compulsion for money – it is no wonder that governments oriented towards individual accumulation and the creation of hierarchies end the Ministry of Culture, for example. Gaining spaces of inner freedom allows us to think about spaces of political freedom – to shape the social structure so that we can grow in harmony. 

We need to create spaces and times for reflection to avoid reducing the masses to fanaticism and exploitation. Thinking about oneself means avoiding being mere characters in the dreams of others. Or, as Marcus Aurelius would say, becoming “Caesars” ourselves (which is dangerous). With prudent criticism in mind, a little “daily meditation” from the Stoic tradition would not be amiss.

Afonso Jr. Ferreira de Lima 

 Encheiridion of Epictetus (2014). Translation from the Greek, introduction and commentary: Aldo Dinucci & Alfredo Julien. Annablume publisher/ University of Coimbra Press. https://ucdigitalis.uc.pt/pombalina/item/53859

Long live Vox Stoicism (blog). https://aldodinucci.blogspot.com

Marcus Aurelius (2023) Meditations : The Personal Writings of Marcus Aurelius. Penguin -Companhia das Letras.

Psychiatry DataBase . https://www.psychdb.com/personality/borderline

Reprise: David Bowie

 

Blog Letras - Aproximações ao Manual de Epicteto e suas Diatribes

Aproximações ao Manual de Epicteto e suas Diatribes – nossa ação num mundo de instabilidade

- Flávio Arriano Xenofonte (ca. 86 -160), cidadão romano aluno do filósofo estoico de origem frígia Epicteto, compilou as aulas de seu professor em oito livros (as Diatribes)...  

https://www.blogletras.com/2025/06/aproximacoes-ao-manual-de-epiteto-e.html

Reprise - As Diatribes de Epicteto

 

Live: Orfismo e o Palimpsesto Sinaítico

 

Reprise: Literatura freudiana/ literatura psicanalítica

 

Reprise: Comédia antiga - o riso de gregos e romanos

 

Craco Paradise

Chamado - A expansão imobiliária conquistou uma nova fronteira! Após exterminio da população de rua, o cidadão de bem já pode investir em um segundo imóvel para aluguel temporário. 

Observatório - Visto em Higienopolis homem idoso sem camisa gritando: Odeio policia! Fazer concurso público para bater em morador de rua!

Filho querido - Trancado no banheiro. Jogando no lixo a cara escola. Automóvel de luxo. Morto.

Potências - No decreto, o presidente ordena que nenhuma assistência social vá para países da América Latina. Países com educação pública serão impedidos de receber créditos internacionais. Todas as importações serão finalizadas. "Logo ampliaremos a fronteira agrícola, dependemos de braços para o trabalho", afirmou. A Universidade de Chicago aprovou novo método de hipnose coletiva que aumenta a produticidade e diminui a insatisfação. 

Observatório - Muro da Craco Paradise: "Espadas, machados, armas, vejo a cabeça real dividida pelo golpe pesado da machadinha."

Afonso Lima  

“Entre o meu ser e o ser alheio”: metamorfoses contra o fascismo cultural

“Entre o meu ser e o ser alheio”: metamorfoses contra o fascismo cultural 

Roberto Bolaño no seu livro “Literatura Nazista na América” imagina uma galeria de mediocridades literárias reacionárias, algumas delas buscando referências em Philip K. Dick e Borges...

Em torno de 4 mil livros já foram banidos nos últimos anos nos Estados Unidos em lugares como a Flórida e o Texas... 

https://www.blogletras.com/2025/05/entre-o-meu-ser-e-o-ser-alheio.html?m=1

Reprise: Feminismo negro e a mobilidade antirracista

 

Cine Resenha - Homem com H - 2025

 

Live: Jornalistas e Censores: do AI-5 à Constituição de 1988

 

A ilha, os fantasmas e o despertar do imaginário (Letras in.verso e re.verso)

 A Associação Brasileira de Escritores de Romance Policial, Suspense e Terror (ABERST) realiza anualmente um encontro – o Ghost Story Challenge...

O local escolhido foi a ilha de Paquetá, no fundo da baía de Guanabara no município do Rio de Janeiro. Ainda que bastante abandonada pelo poder público atualmente, a ilha ainda é muito preservada e guarda histórias que remetem ao Império e ao romantismo. 

https://www.blogletras.com/2025/04/a-ilha-os-fantasmas-e-o-despertar-do.html 

Live: Depoimento de Flora Daemon - Grupo Folha e a Ditadura - 18/04

 

Live: Entre Deuses e Conquistas: das Cíclades à Macedônia

 

Live: Políticas de Memória, Verdade e Justiça

 

Live: VI Ghost Story Challenge - ABERST

 

Live: As emoções no Estoicismo

 

Live: Medeia - da linhagem do Sol

 

Live: Depoimento de Ana Muller - advogados na ditadura

 

Live: Cine Resenha - Nosferatu - 2024

 

Live: Sobre Eunice Paiva

 

Live: Cine Resenha - O Aprendiz

 

Live: Sêneca e suas tragédias

 

As coisas vivas

A guerra levara a grande privação.

A lua de hoje está 99,03% visível e está crescendo.

Árvore seca sem leite. 

Como uma espécie surge de outra? 

As coisas vivas estudadas, a Geometria da noite.

Nos livros elas foram pintadas.    

Suas feições continuavam as mesmas, branca como a neve, boca vermelha como o sangue e cabelos negros.

— Deixai-me levar o caixão. Vou tratá-la como se fosse minha amada.

Ela voltou à vida?

Os pássaros mecânicos trouxeram os convidados.

Sapatos de ferro já haviam sido aquecidos sobre fogo em brasas. Foram levados por tenazes e colocados bem na sua frente.

- Meu coração arde de maneira estranha.

A bruxa foi obrigada a calçar os sapatos de ferro em brasa e dançar até, finalmente, cair morta.

A rainha sentia seu coração frio como uma pedra.

87% visível e crescendo.

Extinção, o ambiente não se adaptou.   

O caixão do cavaleiro.

Os feridos da guerra. 

Sedenta e com fome - escrita na página. 

— A mais bela criança que já vimos!

Pesadelos sem lua. 

Na tempestade, o caçador com uma faca na mão.

Afonso Lima

Live: Revendo o "dualismo platônico"

 

Reprise - Tucídides e a Guerra do Peloponeso

 

Reprise: Pessoas trans na educação

 

Live - Hildegarda de Bingen

 

Estreia Nunca Mais - vídeo

 

Live: Oscar 2025 - Ainda Estou Aqui - Histórico!

 

Reprise: Joseph Goebbels, a propaganda e o n4zismo

 

Reprise: Meditações de Marco Aurélio