"For the Stoics, the fact that people behave badly has a strikingly obvious explanation: they have 'no knowledge of good and bad' [Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.1]. Difficult people simply do not see things the way the Stoic does. Rather, they value indifferent things and feel threatened when the indifferent things in which they are interested are themselves threatened" (Seddon, 87).
"People pursue what they believe will benefit them. Their capacity to judge what is truly beneficial may be, as the Stoics think, flawed, but all the same says Marcus, they have the right to 'strive after what they regard as suitable and beneficial' (6.27):
"Our becoming upset at the actions of others, Marcus suggests, denies them the right to do as they see fit. This idea is expanded upon in 7.26 where Marcus talks in terms of a 'conception of good and evil.'
"Clearly, those aiming to perfect their characters as Stoics hold a very different view of what is truly good and bad ... , and it is perfectly obvious why bad people do bad things; from their own perspective what they do is good, since they benefit from what they do, or at least they think they do. Seeing that this is the case, not only can we understand why people do bad things, we begin to anticipate what they are likely to actually do. If we attempt to answer Marcus' question, 'What ideas does this person hold on human goods and ills?' (8.14) we may even be able to second-guess someone's actions.
"If we do this well, what they do 'will not seem extraordinary or strange', indeed, what they do can be regarded as inevitable, given their beliefs, to the extent that those beliefs 'constrain' the agent to act as they do. But in trying to understand other people, we must not loose sight of trying to understand ourselves:
"In 10.37 Marcus reminds us to examine ourselves before we examine others. With respect to our own actions it is imperative that we ask of ourselves, 'What is my aim in performing this action?'" (Seddon, 88).