“How does your ruling reason manage itself? For in that is the key to everything. Whatever else remains, be it in the power of your choice or not, is but a corpse and smoke.”
MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 12.35
We talk a lot about reason on this site, including how to use it to melt away your self-created worries. It’s one of our most powerful abilities, and it’s one of the few things we actually control in this life.
But what rules your reason? Specifically, what are the forces that influence and guide it?
In The Daily Stoic today, the author uses a commonly-known phrase that originates from the Roman writer Juvenal: “Who watches the watchmen?” I feel like that’s a very helpful example to illustrate the question. If our reason is all-powerful — what exactly affects and shapes it? What is regulating it? This is important!
Ryan Holiday continues, suggesting that we should dive into psychology, biology, physiology, and the other life sciences to gain a fuller understanding of what impacts our reason. There could be chemicals, genetics, or environmental influences that play a role in our reason’s functioning — and it’s best that we understand these forces and how they might be affecting our mind.
So learn more about what affects the mind — both genetically and environmentally, consciously and subconsciously. This will help us learn what rules our reason, and why we make the choices we do.
