ABSTRACT
Today, for specialists and nonspecialists alike, Marcus Aurelius's Meditations tends to be held up as putting forward a new idea of philosophy as a way of life. The work of the French historian Pierre Hadot in particular has been welcomed as a bracing, acute, and historically informed assault on the theoretical pretentions of much contemporary academic philosophy. There is a growing scholarly trend in support of the view that Meditations should be seen within a long tradition of thought in the antique world, the world of Greece and Rome, in which philosophical inquiry should structure and guide practical living. It is a remarkable feature of the contemporary reception of Meditations that almost no historian or scholar has offered any serious objections to the principles and world view that it urges its readers to adopt. A striking number of contemporary political figures have engaged with and derived much value from the advice that Marcus offers in Meditations.
