Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 6.33

Neither the labor that the hand does nor that of the foot is contrary to nature, so long as the foot does the foot's work and the hand the hand's.

So then neither to a man as a man is his labor contrary to nature, so long as it does the things of a man.

But if the labor is not contrary to his nature, neither is it an evil to him.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6 (tr Long)

To understand what something is requires understanding what it is for. What is its end, purpose, function, or goal? Philosophers will sometimes speak of this as a final cause, and it is in practice inseparable from its efficient cause, where it came from, its material cause, what it is made out of, and its formal cause, its inherent structure and identity.

When I was a child, I would often enjoy going down to my great-grandfather’s basement to sort through all the strange and wonderful things he had collected over his life. He had been a carpenter, and so he had many unusual woodworking tools, many of them of a manual sort that had fallen out of favor when power tools became the norm. I would look them over, wondering what they were all supposed to do. Sometimes I would figure it out for myself, but more often my Pipa would explain it to me, perhaps even demonstrate its use.

Because I now understood why it had been made the way it was, what at first seemed a confusing collection of strange pieces of wood and metal with mysterious edges, screws, knobs, and latches, now took on a meaning for me. By seeing what it was intended to do, I also saw why the parts were made the way they were.

The best I can manage is to sit out back with my set of Mora knives and whittle animals from blocks of wood, but I can imagine his voice telling me which shape of blade would be best for the task at hand.

Just as a man makes a tool for a purpose, so too Nature makes all things for a purpose. The form follows the function, and I can learn the nature of a thing by discerning what it rightly does. The hand is ordered in such a way that it is made for grasping, and the foot is ordered in such a way that it is made for walking. Every part of man has a specific function, and the whole of a man, with all the parts joined together, also has a unified function. We might add further that all men, an all the things in this world, animate and inanimate, serve a role within the order of the whole Universe.

A hand acts according to its nature when it helps us to manipulate things, and a foot acts according to its nature when it helps us to get from place to place. Could I use my hands to walk, or my feet to pick something up? Certainly, and this would hardly be unnatural, unless it somehow hindered or obstructed either of them from what they were meant to do in the first place.

What are the actions of a whole man intended to do? Not merely to live or to feel, but because he is a creature made with reason and choice, he is made to know what is true and to love what is good, and to then have all of his actions proceed from these principles. What else can he do? Anything he chooses, as long as it does not hinder or obstruct him from wisdom and virtue.

Some people would like you to think that you must pursue only one very narrow and specific sort of path in life in order to live well, but what they are really telling you is that they want you to choose exactly the same way they do. Do not be deceived, because Nature has given you one great and noble task, to live with understanding and with charity in all things.

The rest is all relative, including your profession, your politics, how you eat your eggs and cut your hair, or whether you even eat eggs and have any hair on your head at all. Good and decent people are simply good are decent people, regardless of their status and what tribes they happen to belong to. You know full well who the good and decent people are.

What will help me the most in being a man charged with character? I should choose whatever will aid me in that ultimate goal, and that particular choice is rightly my own. It is natural if it assists me in practicing wisdom, fortitude, temperance, and justice. It is only unnatural if it drags me into ignorance, cowardice, lust, and greed.

Don’t make a tool any more complex than it has to be, and don’t make life any more difficult than it has to be.

Written in 4/2007