今天終於讀完第七章Discipline of Desire。
by means of this process of realization, the self discovers both its limitation and transcendence.
我很喜歡這段話,精要又美麗。這句話裡的limitation指的是個人受局限的目光;相對於宇宙,個人的渺小;和the limitation of the self as determined by Destiny但是在超越的部分,則是指人可以提升到universal and cosmic perspective。二是指人可以超越自我,成為moral conscience, whose value is somehow infinite。
我覺得這段用簡短文字,但涵蓋了第七章的全部重點:
The result of the discipline of desire, as we saw, was to bring people inner serenity and peace of mind, since it consisted in the joyful consent to everything that happnes to us through the agency of universal Nature and Reason. Amor fati, or the love of fate, thus led us to want that which the cosmos wants, to want what happens, and to want that happens to us.
我認為Marcus跟Stoic提出,要有transcendence,首先the self要先有意識,才能從不同的domain一直向上提升,從domain of necessity,到domain of freedom,再到domain of morality。
我目前還不太理解這裡的freedom是什麼樣的意思,以及Stoic裡的Morality,是至高的善嗎(不知道在哪個學派裡好像有讀到這個詞)。就由這樣層層轉變,最終the self會超越(transformed),進而於萬物合一(made equal to universal Reason)。
剛進入第八章Discipline of Actions。正要開始導入跟行為相關的theory。
提到有分Level,最上層是Law of Nature,下有Reason、faculty of sensation、faculty of physics。
這邊講到appropriate action。Appropriate action一是要符合universal Reason,二是要為了人類的全體福祉著想,以此為行動目標。
在斯多葛的想法裡,Kathekonta ("Appropriate actions")的基礎建立在there is no good but the moral good. 而其中的moral good有兩個要件: 在我們心中(located within humand kind),只針對depend on us的事物。
且Kathekonta一定是要符合的law of reason。
提到兩個問題: 1. 光是「想」做好的行動是不夠的;2. 在生活之中我們如何引導自己向善(moral good)。2. 我們要如何符合universal law
引出Theory of responsibility and duty。
今天只讀到這邊而已,第八章剛開始,目前還沒太多概念。