{"id":106191,"date":"2019-08-26T11:07:05","date_gmt":"2019-08-26T16:07:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=106191"},"modified":"2026-09-24T13:34:48","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T18:34:48","slug":"marcus-aurelius-stoic-philosophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/manhood\/marcus-aurelius-stoic-philosophy\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #537: How to Think Like a Roman Emperor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius was one of the last Stoic philosophers and today is arguably the best known. Thanks to his personal writings that eventually became Meditations<\/a><\/em>, Marcus left us with concrete exercises to put Stoicism into action. <\/p>\n

My guest today explores this Stoic tradition and connects it with modern psychotherapy in his book How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius<\/em><\/a>. His name is Donald Robertson<\/a>, and he’s a Scottish philosopher and cognitive psychotherapist. We begin our conversation discussing the history of Stoicism and the overlooked beliefs the Stoics had. We then discuss the end goal of Stoicism and how it differed from other ancient philosophies like Aristotelian virtue ethics. Donald then explains the Stoic approach to emotions and the common misconceptions people have about Stoicism in that regard. We then dig into Stoic practices taken from Marcus Aurelius and discuss how modern cognitive psychology backs them up. Donald shares how the Stoics used language and daily meditations to manage their emotional life, and how they went about the psychology of goal-setting and dealing with success and failure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius was one of the last Stoic philosophers and today is arguably the best known. Thanks to his personal writings that eventually became Meditations, Marcus left us with concrete exercises to put Stoicism into action.  My guest today explores this Stoic tradition and connects it with modern psychotherapy in his book How to Think […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":195297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[502,42387,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character","category-manhood","category-podcast"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/537-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/537-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/537-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/537-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/537-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"\nMarcus Aurelius and Stoic Philosophy | Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius was one of the last Stoic philosophers and today is arguably the best known. I talk with Donald Robertson about his life.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/manhood\/marcus-aurelius-stoic-philosophy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #537: How to Think Like a Roman Emperor | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius was one of the last Stoic philosophers and today is arguably the best known. I talk with Donald Robertson about his life.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/manhood\/marcus-aurelius-stoic-philosophy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-08-26T16:07:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-24T18:34:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/537.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/manhood\\\/marcus-aurelius-stoic-philosophy\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/manhood\\\/marcus-aurelius-stoic-philosophy\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brett\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\"},\"headline\":\"Podcast #537: How to Think Like a Roman Emperor\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-08-26T16:07:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-24T18:34:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/manhood\\\/marcus-aurelius-stoic-philosophy\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":197,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/manhood\\\/marcus-aurelius-stoic-philosophy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/08\\\/537.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Character\",\"Manhood\",\"Podcast\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2019\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/manhood\\\/marcus-aurelius-stoic-philosophy\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/manhood\\\/marcus-aurelius-stoic-philosophy\\\/\",\"name\":\"Marcus Aurelius and Stoic Philosophy | Art of Manliness\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/manhood\\\/marcus-aurelius-stoic-philosophy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/manhood\\\/marcus-aurelius-stoic-philosophy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/08\\\/537.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-08-26T16:07:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-24T18:34:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\"},\"description\":\"Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius was one of the last Stoic philosophers and today is arguably the best known. 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