【每日斯多葛】10月30日

October 30th 

WHO GETS THE LION’S SHARE?

“Aren’t you ashamed to reserve for yourself only the remnants of your life and to dedicate to wisdom only that time can’t be directed to business?”

—SENECA, ON THE BREVITY OF LIFE, 3.5b

In one of his letters, Seneca tells a story about Alexander the Great. Apparently as Alexander was conquering the world, certain countries would offer him pieces of their territory in hopes that he’d leave them alone in exchange. Alexander would tell them, writes Seneca, that he hadn’t come all the way to Asia to accept whatever they would give him, but instead they were going to have to accept whatever he chose to leave them.

According to Seneca, we should treat philosophy the same way in our lives. Philosophy shouldn’t have to accept what time or energy is left over from other occupations but instead we should graciously make time for those other pursuits only once our study is finished.

If real self-improvement is what we’re after, why do we leave our reading until those few minutes before we shut off the lights and go to bed? Why do we block off eight to ten hours in the middle of the day to be at the office or to go to meetings but block out no time for thinking about the big questions? The average person somehow manages to squeeze in twenty-eight hours of television per week—but ask them if they had time to study philosophy, and they will probably tell you they’re too busy.

10月30日 

谁应该得到最大的一份？

“难道你不感到羞愧吗？你只把生命中剩余的时间留给自己，只把那些无法用于处理事务的时间奉献给智慧？”

——塞涅卡，《论生命之短暂》，3.5b

在一封书信中，塞涅卡讲述了一个关于亚历山大大帝的故事。据说，亚历山大征服世界时，一些国家为了换取他的退兵，主动提出割让部分领土。但据塞涅卡记载，亚历山大告诉他们，他千里迢迢来到亚洲，并不是为了接受他们愿意施舍的任何东西；恰恰相反，他们只能接受他决定留给他们的那一部分。

塞涅卡认为，我们在生活中也应该以同样的方式对待哲学。哲学不应该只能得到我们从其他事务中剩下的时间和精力。相反，我们应该首先完成哲学学习，然后再从容地为其他活动安排时间。

如果我们真正追求的是自我提升，为什么总要把阅读留到晚上关灯睡觉前的那短短几分钟？为什么我们每天可以专门划出八到十个小时去办公室工作或参加会议，却不肯留出一点时间来思考人生中的重大问题？普通人不知怎么总能每周挤出二十八个小时看电视，但如果你问他们有没有时间学习哲学，他们很可能会告诉你：自己实在太忙了。