240106 What I learned in my studies this morning 4

A good route helps us
Follow Nature's common paths.
Maps necessary.

Today's Meditation(s):

Meditations 2.16 (Waterfield)

Fives sins: resentfulness; enmity; dissolution; dissimulation; desultoriness with lack of cosmopolitanism.

RE the fourth sin, Cicero allows for feigning emotions when necessary (e.g. if you need to appear angry to motivate someone) so long as you are simulating only. Actually feeling these passions is unnecessary and usually unproductive. 

Marcus seems to forbid even that.

I like to combine Cicero's approach with Aristotle.

Don't really be angry. When you must pretend to be angry, do it with this admonition in mind:

Anyone can become angry…That is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way—that is not easy. 

(Nicomacean Ethics.)

(See also.)