Can We Make Anger Useful?
Practical Stoicism
Tanner Campbell
4.7 • 723 Ratings
🗓️ 9 March 2026
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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In this episode, I explore Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations 6.27 and what it teaches us about anger. Marcus reminds us that when people do wrong, they do so because they believe their actions are beneficial or appropriate. Our task, therefore, is not to react with anger but to teach, explain, and correct with patience.
That idea opens the door to a deeper question: what is anger actually for? Some modern thinkers claim anger is necessary for progress, even suggesting that it fuels social change. I disagree. Anger is not a driver of wise action. It is a signal.
Anger alerts us that something has happened which does not accord with our expectations, values, or understanding. That is its only real utility. Once the signal appears, the work begins. We must translate that signal into usable information by asking questions: What happened? Why did it happen? What assumptions am I making? Could I be mistaken?
This process turns anger into data. The signal draws our attention to an impression. Rational questioning extracts information from it. And our willingness to revise our own assumptions ensures that we do not simply act on emotional certainty.
Seneca makes the Stoic position clear in On Anger: anger itself contributes nothing useful to action. Virtue never requires the assistance of vice. Anger is not a helpful fuel for moral progress. It is a destabilizing force that clouds judgment and pushes us toward impulsive decisions.
The goal, then, is not to eliminate anger entirely, since it is part of our human psychology. The goal is to refuse to act while under its influence. Socrates captures this beautifully when he tells a servant, “I would strike you, were I not angry.” His point is simple. If the desire to punish someone appears at the same moment as anger, we cannot trust that the desire is rational. The wise response is to pause until calm judgment returns.
This is the Stoic discipline in practice. Anger may signal that something is wrong. But only reason can determine what should be done about it.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before we begin, if this podcast is sharpening your stoic practice, come sharpen it with others. |
| 0:06.1 | The Procopton community is now live on school. |
| 0:09.9 | Come join your fellow Procoptons at Stoicismpod.com forward slash school. |
| 0:16.2 | Hey there, Procoptons, welcome back. Meditations 6.27 was the focus of a few of my live streams this week. |
| 0:22.9 | I do daily live streams on Instagram and LinkedIn, usually sharing the same meditation, |
| 0:27.6 | but approaching it from different more platform-appropriate angles. |
| 0:31.0 | Those are two very different platforms, LinkedIn, and Instagram. |
| 0:33.8 | But I enjoyed discussing it so much, then I felt I had a lot more to say about it, and so I thought |
| 0:38.4 | maybe it would make a good episode of practical stoicism. Let's see if I'm right. |
| 1:00.8 | The best place to start here is probably with the meditation itself, so let's do that. |
| 1:04.7 | Again, this is 6.27 from the meditations of Marcus Aurelius. |
| 1:12.5 | How cruel it is not to allow men to strive after the things which appear to them to be suitable to their nature and profitable. And yet in a manner, thou dost not allow them to do this, when thou art |
| 1:19.0 | vexed because they are doing wrong. For they are certainly moved towards things because they |
| 1:24.6 | suppose them to be suitable to their nature and profitable to them. |
| 1:28.9 | But it is not so. Teach them then and show them without being angry. |
| 1:34.7 | So one takeaway here is pretty obvious. We should teach. Teaching requires understanding. |
| 1:40.7 | Understanding requires patience. And while anger and patience are not mutually exclusive |
| 1:45.7 | expressions, it is kind of hard for both to be the dominant expression at the same time. You get that, |
| 1:53.3 | and I probably don't need to spend too much time on it, so I won't spend any time on it. A quick |
| 1:58.7 | reminder before we continue, remember what good and |
| 2:01.4 | evil are in stoicism. There are terms applied to our choices, which are a necessary |
| 2:07.5 | reflection of either the possession of moral excellence or the absence of it. So let's address |
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