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Marcus Aurelius' Meditations: The Stoic Ideal

Marcus Aurelius' Meditations: The Stoic Ideal on HackerTube: recommended by 4 Hacker News commenters across 4 separate months, 2022–2025.

Michael Sugrue

lecture · intro · evergreen

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Michael Sugrue's lecture on Marcus Aurelius' Meditations and the Stoic ideal, covering the text and its philosophy. It is one of his humanities lectures known for their clarity.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN recommends it as a classic, clear introduction to Aurelius, with some saying it helped through hard times.

people recommended it
4
separate months
4
strong recommendations
2
discussed on HN
2022–2025
“have watched this lecture multiple times (each time I was going through some bad things in my life) and it helped me tremendously.”
— ViktorRay, Mar 2025, in “Stoicism's appeal to the rich and powerful (2019)”

What HN commenters said

4 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.

ViktorRayMar 2025Strongly recommends

If anyone is interested in stoicism then this classic lecture by Dr Sugrue is ▶ this video have watched this lecture multiple times (each time I was going through some bad things in my life) and it helped me tremendously. Stoicism in general has many excellent philosophical ideas that you can apply to your life. Maybe this lecture and stoic ideals will help you if you are in times of despair and sadness the way this lecture and those ideals helped me.

in “Stoicism's appeal to the rich and powerful (2019)” · View on HN

aamarguliesJan 2023Strongly recommends

Humanities: anything by Michael Sugrue ▶ this video He also has a podcast “The Idea Store”: [link] He can speak off-the-cuff on any philosophical school of thought or historical period. The clarity of the lectures is amazing. What a stone-cold badass.

in “Ask HN: What's the best lecture series you've ever seen?” · View on HN

apienxFeb 2023Recommends

“Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control." -- Epictetus In 2023, I think we can achieve a level of control that's incomprehensible to Epictetus. The goal is to maximize equanimity, freedom, and control over one's time/destiny. Money can get you quite far on that path. I sometimes feel that Massimo's just bitter at the success of people like Ryan Holiday (who just took Massimo's work and "packaged" it). P.S. Warmly recommend this lecture about Marcus Aurelius (a classic): ▶ this video

in “The Varieties of Bad Stoicism” · View on HN

p3rlsSep 2022Recommends

BTW, while I have the top comment, I'll give those here a better introduction to Aurelius's stoicism, Dr Segrue's lecture: ▶ this video

in “Stoicism is not enough” · View on HN

Topics & tags

Philosophy & ethicsUniversity lectures & coursesmarcus aureliusstoicismmeditationsmichael sugruephilosophy