PHIL 1F91 Lecture Notes - Lecture 50: House Mouse
Document Summary
Fortune is used rather broadly by marcus: it certainly denotes wealth but also includes bodily pleasures and reputation. Or do we see wealth out of avarice (a desire to accumulate for the sake of accumulation. The first two uses are acceptable provided that one recognizes that wealth may have value but is not absolute and certainly is not necessary when it comes to caring for the self. But far more often, wealth prevents us from caring. Aesop"s fables: the miser and his gold. Marcus aurelius writes mere things stand isolated outside out doors, with no knowledge or report of themselves. The hill (country) mouse and the house mouse and the frightened scurrying of the house mouse . The fable is of the country and town mouse. The fable counsels that if we must decide between these two courses then choose the life of the country mouse. Do not be like the house mouse.