Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.11

To the rational animal the same act is according to nature and according to reason.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 7 (tr Long)

Ah, human nature! We speak of it as an explanation of why we act as we do, for good or for ill, and when we say that something is “only natural” we offer it as a justification or an excuse for how we are living. Sometimes we appeal to it as a thing of great strength, and sometimes we are ashamed of it as a thing of great weakness. So we are proud to speak of our “nature” to strive, to love, or to sacrifice, but we shudder at our “nature” to conform, to hate, or to destroy.

But now I ask myself, what is truly natural for me? As with so many profound terms, I may be quite happy to use it, but hard pressed to understand it. With the whole tradition of Classical wisdom, I can say that a nature in anything is how it is disposed, and to what sorts of actions it is ordered to. This isn’t just a matter of how other things move it, but how it moves from within itself. I can perhaps discern this by first simply asking what something does, and how this reflects its identity and purpose.

Now I have a body, but I share that with any physical being. My nature is surely something more than that. I have a living body, but I share that with any plant. I have senses, and I have instincts, and I have feelings, but I share that with any animal.

What is distinctly my own as human, in addition to all the other powers I possess, is my power of understanding. Because it acts consciously, and not unconsciously, this is a power that may rule over the others and direct them. It is one thing to act, it is another think to act with awareness, which is itself what makes it possible for me to freely choose how I will act.

What is natural for me is to be rational. I am not determined by what I possess, or by what circumstances surround me, or even by what I sense or feel, but rather by how well I think, and by how well my actions proceed from my knowledge of what is true and good.

Now my own nature, like the nature of all things, is in and of itself good, because it is ordered toward what is good. Yet because I am the conscious cause of my own acts, it is within my power to both choose well and to choose poorly.

This is why, I would suggest, we sometimes see what is wonderful in our nature, when we use it for what it was intended. We are made to know and to love. It is also why we see what is terrible in our nature, when we abuse it contrary to what was intended. This happens when we follow ignorance and hatred.

Man can indeed be the greatest of creatures when he embraces his own nature, and he can be the worst of creatures when he rejects his nature. Since he is a creature of reason and choice, which one he becomes will depend entirely upon him.

Written in 9/2007