Interlocutore di se stesso

What concept of knowledge and moral development makes it possible to write and at the same time to turn to one’s self? And what kind of style characterises the words we address to the most intimate of all possible interlocutors? This book examines such problems in the light of Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations. The first part looks at the theoretical background to the emperor’s writings – their view of philosophy and knowledge in relation to practical ethics and against the background of stoicism. In the second part the structure of the Meditations and the rationale of the individual chapters are analysed from the perspectives of rhetoric, philosophy and textual criticism. By examining the means with which Marcus Aurelius sought to achieve the aim of his text, this study contributes to an interpretation which is original and at the same time takes account of the unique quality of the meditations.