Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.73

Whatever the rational and political faculty finds to be neither intelligent nor social, it properly judges to be inferior to itself.

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

The trend of our age is to denigrate reason, to push it aside, or to explain it away. The irony that explaining anything is itself an act of reason is hardly lost on me.

Aristotle famously defined man as a rational animal, but we now like to make man just an animal. I recently read an article in a fancy psychology publication that argued how human beings aren’t really driven by their thinking at all—it’s all about our instincts and our feelings. So we see the author confidently using a rational argument to insist that we aren’t really rational. Got it.

But the Classical understanding of man as rational doesn’t mean that we don’t have emotions, or that they do not influence us, or that possessing reason automatically means we will all act in the most reasonable way.

A human being is hardly a Cartesian mind in a vat, and human nature is not either rational or emotional, but both rational and emotional.

Nevertheless, even as human nature is markedly passionate, it is our judgment and choice that will determine what we make of our passions. Even if I allow myself to be ruled by my feelings, I have still made the conscious decision to do so. The higher power of intellect has authority over the lower power of the appetites.

As a creature of mind, I can know myself, I can know what I do and why I do it, and I can distinguish true from false, and right from wrong. I am not merely moved by what is around me, but I am the mover of my own actions. This is why reason is the superior power.

Furthermore, as a being who can understand what is good, I am also a being who can consciously and freely share in the good of others. I am made to live with my fellows, to cooperate with them, and to assist them, because we can all understand that we are ordered toward the same end.

I am here to be conscious of my purpose, to be conscious of the purpose of my neighbors, and to use that awareness for our common benefit. I am rational, so I am therefore also social. These are at the pinnacle of my existence, and anything else must take a lower place.

A friend was once trying to explain a choice she had made to me, and she grew exasperated with my questions. Many people I know have unfortunately felt that very same frustration.

“I need you to understand what I’m feeling!” she said.

“Yes,” I replied as patiently as I could. “I’m sorry, I am trying to make sense of it.”

“It doesn’t need to make any sense! I just did it because I felt that way!”

I could only give her a friendly hug, because there is no point in trying to understand something that doesn’t make sense. I could only think of all the times I too have flipped my own priorities, and confused the superior and the inferior in my life.

Just because I surrendered my reason did not make me a creature lacking in reason; I had simply misused and misdirected the power within me. 

Written in 1/2008