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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Roman Collector, post: 3917500, member: 75937&quot;]Concerning &quot;opinion&quot; in the works of Marcus Aurelius, &quot;opinion&quot; is how some translators have rendered the Greek ὑπόληψις. The word appears twice in Aurelius&#039; Meditations: at <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0641%3Abook%3D4%3Achapter%3D3%3Asection%3D4" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0641%3Abook%3D4%3Achapter%3D3%3Asection%3D4" rel="nofollow">4.3.4</a> and again at <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0641%3Abook%3D12%3Achapter%3D8%3Asection%3D1" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0641%3Abook%3D12%3Achapter%3D8%3Asection%3D1" rel="nofollow">12.8.1</a>. As [USER=93416]@EWC3[/USER] notes, the quote in English probably comes from the latter, as the former ends a discussion of the mutability of things, whereas the latter deals with interpretation of various experiences.</p><p><br /></p><p>The problem is that ὑπόληψις has a <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Du(po%2Flhyis" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Du(po%2Flhyis" rel="nofollow">very broad semantic range</a>. Its primary meaning (see previous link) is &quot;<i>taking up,</i> esp. <i>taking up the cue, taking up the matter</i> where another leaves off.&quot; From this comes the meaning &quot;<i>rejoinder, reply</i>.&quot; Another meaning is &quot;<i>taking in a certain sense, assumption, notion</i>,&quot; from which the connotations of &quot;<i>hasty judgement, prejudice, suspicion,</i>&quot; &quot;<i>estimate formed of</i> a person or thing, <i>good</i> or <i>bad reputation, public opinion,</i>&quot; and &quot;<i>estimate, plan</i>&quot; are derived. Lastly, debatable rare connotations include &quot;<i>subvention, subsidy</i>&quot; and &quot;<i>payment in advance</i>.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>The clause in 12.8.1 translated as &quot;how all is opinion&quot; is ὅτι πάντα ὑπόληψις. Taking ὅτι in its typical sense of &quot;that&quot; rather than &quot;how&quot; (for which there is a separate Greek word), this can be translated a number of ways: &quot;that all things are an assumption,&quot; &quot;that all things are an answer,&quot; &quot;all things are a response,&quot; &quot;that all things are a judgment,&quot; &quot;that all things are a continuation,&quot; or -- as I believe best fits the context of the passage -- &quot;all things are subjective&quot; because the passage speaks of how individuals feel pain and pleasure, which are, of course, subjective experiences. C.R. Haines translates it as &quot;nothing is but what thinking makes it.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>It is a stretch to take the post-modernist approach that Marcus Aurelius is denying the existence of objective reality or facts here. Marcus Aurelius&#039;s view wasn&#039;t that there are no facts. Rather, he believed there are facts but that properly understood, none of the facts of the external world should disturb us. </p><p><br /></p><p>And to make it numismatic, here&#039;s a denarius of Marcus Aurelius:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1032589[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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