Human Nature
This week's concept is human nature, and specifically what the Stoics believed human nature actually is. The Stoics held that every person is born with the capacity for reason and virtue, but that we arrive at wrongdoing through ignorance, poor upbringing, and the habits we absorb from those around us. Understanding this is the foundation of patience with others: when you see clearly why people do harm, indignation starts to lose its grip. The traditional term for the rational, social nature the Stoics saw in every person is "koinonia" in Greek, or more broadly what they called living "kata phusin," meaning according to nature. You will meet that idea here in plain terms as the week unfolds.
Passage
It is a property of man to love even those who stumble. This feeling ensues if it occur to you at the time that men are your kindred and go wrong because of ignorance and against their will; that in a little while both of you will be dead; but, above all, that he did you no harm, for he did not make your governing self worse than it was before.
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations VII.22
Reflection
Marcus opens with a striking claim: it is a distinctly human property to love even those who stumble. He gives you three reasons to hold onto when someone wrongs you. First, they are your kin, sharing the same rational nature you have. Second, they acted out of ignorance, not malice. Third, and most practically, they did not actually damage the part of you that matters most: your own character, your capacity to reason and choose well. Today is about naming the concept squarely. Human nature, for the Stoics, means that every person shares a common rational and social core. That shared core is why patience with others is not naive softness but a reasoned response to what people actually are.
Go deeper
Think of one person whose behaviour genuinely frustrates you right now: what would it mean to you, concretely, to accept that this person acts from ignorance rather than from a will to harm you?
Practice
The Three Reminders
Bring one difficult person to mind. Write three short sentences, one for each of Marcus's reasons: (1) This person shares my rational nature. (2) They are acting from ignorance, not deliberate evil. (3) They have not damaged my character. Read them slowly, pausing after each one. Notice what, if anything, shifts.