AC Grayling, The Times 27 March 04

Do there still remain any "good brave causes" (the phrase belongs to John Osborne's original angry young man)? To those wearied by the ceaseless uproar of conflict in the world, and especially by the bitter cycle of murder and revenge in the Middle East, all causes doubtless now seem dangerous frauds. Fanaticisms of various kinds are obvious candidates for the charge, but when ideals of democracy and human rights are invoked as cover for policies that are really about neither, and when we remember that the aspirations of most people in the rich countries of the world are fundamentally banausic and self-serving, we see how they, too, merit the label.

There is an apparent parallel between the Western world today and the Indian summer of Rome under the last great Antonine emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Both were rich and internally stable, and enjoyed a flourishing culture. But both also faced dangerous pressures from without, and the borders of both - in Rome's case, its physical frontiers; in the contemporary case, lines of cultural difference - were affected, some would say compromised, by giving welcome to the cousins and brothers of those mounting the external threat. In Rome's case, this took the form of allowing whole tribes related to Rome's most dangerous enemies, the Marcomanni and Quadi, to cross the Danube and live under Roman rule. Later, when the Marcomanni and Quadi invaded, they found their relatives ready to help, and Rome soon fell. Of course, the parallel is superficial, and it would be wrong to draw an inference from it to, say, the idea that Europe's 17 million Muslim inhabitants are a Trojan horse from among whom al-Qaeda creeps out to wreak destruction. Rather, the one respect in which the parallel holds is in the idea that navigating difficult times needs a good brave cause to steer by, but that none seems to offer itself beyond defending, and revenging attacks on, one's own interests. In his own day Marcus Aurelius was conscious of that fact, so, as a votary of Stoicism, he devoted his preciously limited leisure to formulating ideals to live by, his good brave cause being the aim of self-improvement as a contribution, however small, to improving the world.

The point of having a philosophy is that it helps one take possession of one's life, to save it from being governed by mere passions, or chance, or the decisions of others. To have values and aims is to have hold of a thread that guides one through both bad times and good. Aurelius had read, when young, the teachings of Epictetus, and had been struck by sentiments such as these: "Every matter has two handles, one of which will better bear grasping than the other. So if your brother does you wrong, don't grasp the fact that he has wronged you, but grasp the fact that he is your brother, for that is far the better handle to resolve all." Teaching of this kind works by enjoining a manner of living rather than a set of rules (for codes often fail to accommodate complexities).

This appeals to reflective minds, even though it involves more difficulties because it demands that each problem or opportunity be treated on its merits. But it offers more depth and nuance to moral experience, too, and this, inspired Aurelius. He set himself to live the considered life, keeping notes in Greek all through his arduous
campaigns on the Danube.

Known today as the Meditations, these writings are a classic of private philosophy. Aurelius was not an idealist, though he sought ideals; he saw life as "a moment between two infinities", sometimes more open to sorrow than joy, but not lacking the latter; and vulnerable to defeat if not lived watchfully, He knew the terrible examples of such forerunners as Caligula, Nero and Domitian, and in his notebook described his alternative ideal: "a polity in which there is the same law for all, administered with regard to equal rights and free speech, and in which government respects the freedom of the governed." That is not bad for the second century AD. And he admonished himself to be tolerant of others and strict with himself, and to remember how quickly things pass, for that shows that "too much self-importance or distress is foolish, for the things that glorify or trouble us can never last long".

As one seeking a brave good cause in troubled times, he sets a good brave example.