Marcus Aurelius and The Meditations

The classification of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius as a spiritual exercise by Pierre Hadot has been widely accepted and exerts a strong influence on any interpretation of the text. However, such genre categorization is by itself an interpretative choice excluding other possible readings. The present thesis offers a new reading of the Meditations based on Gilles Deleuze's interpretation of stoicism and on his philosophy of event. This reading avoids any genre classification and focuses instead on the text itself by analyzing the changes of linguistic person. The Deleuzian interpretation of linguistic person and his concept of event allow for explanation of this particular feature of the Meditations and thus for addressing the problem of person and individual in stoic philosophy. Furthermore, the Deleuzian framework makes it possible to explore significant, but up to now marginalized themes recurring in the text that are directly linked to the problem of individuation - non-tragic theatre and death