《沉思录·卷九·不义与虚妄》第8条
Among the animals which have not reason one life is distributed; but among reasonable animals one intelligent soul is distributed: just as there is one earth of all things which are of an earthly nature, and we see by one light, and breathe one air, all of us that have the faculty of vision and all that have life.
注释摘要
奥勒留在这段话里展开一个典型的斯多葛类比推理，目的不是描述自然，而是论证人与人之间的合一关系。他先从无理性动物说起，说它们“分有”同一种生命；随后立即提升一层，说在有理性的人这里，分有的是“同一种理智灵魂”。动词用“分有”，意味着生命与理智不是各自独立生产的小块，而是从一个统一的源头流出来的。那个源头就是斯多葛学派所说的“宇宙理性”。它渗透一切，既把质料组…