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View from above

The Stoic and Platonic exercise of imagining the world from a cosmic height, to see human affairs in proportion.

Greek philosophy and Neoplatonism

Marcus Aurelius and others practised seeing the world from above: cities, armies, weddings and funerals as tiny movements on the earth, itself a point in the cosmos. Pierre Hadot identified it as a spiritual exercise of ancient philosophy, freeing the mind from petty concerns.