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MED. 4.4Discipline of assent
George Long · 1862EN · Long

If our TERMintellectual part is common, the TERMreason also, in respect of which we are rational beings, is common: if this is so, common also is the reason which commands us what to do, and what not to do; if this is so, there is a common law also; if this is so, we are fellow-citizens; if this is so, we are members of some political community; if this is so, the DOGMAworld is in a manner a state. For of what other common political community will any one say that the whole human race are members? And from thence, from this common political community, comes also our very intellectual faculty and reasoning faculty and our capacity for law; or whence do they come? For as my earthly part is a portion given to me from certain earth, and that which is watery from another TERMelement, and that which is hot and fiery from some peculiar source (for nothing comes out of that which is nothing, as nothing also returns to non-existence), so also the intellectual part comes from some source.

Original · ancient Greek

Εἰ τὸ νοερὸν ἡμῖν κοινόν, καὶ ὁ λόγος, καθʼ ὃν λογικοί ἐσμεν, κοινός· εἰ τοῦτο, καὶ ὁ προστακτικὸς τῶν ποιητέων ἢ μὴ λόγος κοινός· εἰ τοῦτο, καὶ ὁ νόμος κοινός· εἰ τοῦτο, πολῖταί ἐσμεν· εἰ τοῦτο, πολιτεύματός τινος μετέχομεν· εἰ τοῦτο, ὁ κόσμος ὡσανεὶ πόλις ἐστί· τίνος γὰρ ἄλλου φήσει τις τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων πᾶν γένος κοινοῦ πολιτεύματος μετέχειν; ἐκεῖθεν δέ, ἐκ τῆς κοινῆς ταύτης πόλεως, καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ νοερὸν καὶ λογικὸν καὶ νομικὸν ἡμῖν ἢ πόθεν; ὥσπερ γὰρ τὸ γεῶδές μοι ἀπό τινος γῆς ἀπομεμέρισται καὶ τὸ ὑγρὸν ἀφʼ ἑτέρου στοιχείου καὶ τὸ πνευματικὸν ἀπὸ πηγῆς τινος καὶ τὸ θερμὸν καὶ πυρῶδες ἔκ τινος ἰδίας πηγῆς (οὐδὲν γὰρ ἐκ τοῦ μηδενὸς ἔρχεται, ὥσπερ μηδʼ εἰς τὸ οὐκ ὂν ἀπέρχεται), οὕτω δὴ καὶ τὸ νοερὸν ἥκει ποθέν.

Leopold · Teubner 1908
Commentary

Genre and place in the book. A sorites — a chain of conditionals ("if this, then…") — a rare instance in Marcus of an extended syllogistic demonstration. After the imagistic physics of the ruling part (04-01), the methodological maxim of action (04-02), and the programme of retreat into oneself (04-03), here is the theoretical foundation of the whole social ethics: a deduction of the doctrine of the DOGMAcosmopolis.

The chain of argument. Seven links, each resting on the one before: a common TERMrational part (τὸ νοερόν) → a common TERMλόγος → a common "commanding" reason (what to do and not to do) → a common law (νόμος) → we are citizens (πολῖται) → we share in some civic constitution (πολίτευμα) → the cosmos is "in a manner a state" (ὡσανεὶ πόλις). The conclusion is not a rhetorical figure ("citizen of the world") but a necessary consequence of the premise of shared rationality.

The "whence?" turn. Marcus then reverses the direction: if we are citizens of a common City, then the reason in us also comes from there — "from this common polis." The proof is a physical analogy.

The physical analogy and conservation. A person's bodily portions — the earthy, the watery, the hot-and-fiery (three in Long; in the Greek four, including the airy-breath τὸ TERMπνευματικόν, which Long drops) — are each apportioned (ἀπομεμέρισται) from their own cosmic element-source (TERMστοιχεῖον). The principle of conservation operates: "nothing comes out of nothing, nor passes into non-being." Hence the inference by analogy: the rational part too has come "from some source" — from the cosmic mind.

Welding two doctrines. 4.4 welds together the DOGMAcosmopolis (a political-ethical doctrine) and the DOGMAunity of the cosmos (an ontological one): the individual TERMνοῦς is literally a "fragment" (ἀπόσπασμα) of the cosmic Logos (see the divine portion). Reason is therefore common to all not by convention but by nature — and so the cosmopolis is a fact of physics, not a metaphor. This is what distinguishes 4.4 from 4.3: there the unity of the cosmos was present only by hint (the "providence or atoms" disjunction), whereas here it is directly argued through the mind's origin from a common source.

σκοπός, τέλος, and the discipline of action. To be a citizen = to live by the common law = the τέλος of rational beings (programmatically, 02-16). The cosmopolis is the ontological ground of the discipline of action (Hadot, The Inner Citadel, ch. 8, "in the service of mankind"): from shared citizenship follow concrete duties to fellow-citizens — justice (dikaiosyne), affection, action for the common good.

The disciplines. The principal one is assent: the passage establishes a doctrine to be held as true. The secondary is action: from the demonstrated citizenship follows the norm of justice toward fellow-citizens.

Parallels. The cosmopolis formula — 02-16; Med. 3.11; 6.44 ("as Antoninus, Rome; as a human being, the cosmos"); 10.15; 12.36. Common reason as the law of gods and humans — Cic. De leg. I.22–23; II.19; Sen. De otio 4.1. Diogenes the Cynic, the first κοσμοπολίτης — DL 6.63; Zeno's Politeia — SVF I 262; LS 67. The mind as an ἀπόσπασμα of the Logos — Med. 2.1; 5.27; 12.26; Epict. Diss. I.14.6. "Nothing from nothing" and the return of the parts to the elements — Med. 4.21; 8.18; 02-03.

DisciplineDiscipline of assent
Record added2026-06-24
Statuspublished
Read·Book IV
Discipline of assent

George Long · 1862· EN · Long

If our TERMintellectual part is common, the TERMreason also, in respect of which we are rational beings, is common: if this is so, common also is the reason which commands us what to do, and what not to do; if this is so, there is a common law also; if this is so, we are fellow-citizens; if this is so, we are members of some political community; if this is so, the DOGMAworld is in a manner a state. For of what other common political community will any one say that the whole human race are members? And from thence, from this common political community, comes also our very intellectual faculty and reasoning faculty and our capacity for law; or whence do they come? For as my earthly part is a portion given to me from certain earth, and that which is watery from another TERMelement, and that which is hot and fiery from some peculiar source (for nothing comes out of that which is nothing, as nothing also returns to non-existence), so also the intellectual part comes from some source.

Original · ancient Greek

Εἰ τὸ νοερὸν ἡμῖν κοινόν, καὶ ὁ λόγος, καθʼ ὃν λογικοί ἐσμεν, κοινός· εἰ τοῦτο, καὶ ὁ προστακτικὸς τῶν ποιητέων ἢ μὴ λόγος κοινός· εἰ τοῦτο, καὶ ὁ νόμος κοινός· εἰ τοῦτο, πολῖταί ἐσμεν· εἰ τοῦτο, πολιτεύματός τινος μετέχομεν· εἰ τοῦτο, ὁ κόσμος ὡσανεὶ πόλις ἐστί· τίνος γὰρ ἄλλου φήσει τις τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων πᾶν γένος κοινοῦ πολιτεύματος μετέχειν; ἐκεῖθεν δέ, ἐκ τῆς κοινῆς ταύτης πόλεως, καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ νοερὸν καὶ λογικὸν καὶ νομικὸν ἡμῖν ἢ πόθεν; ὥσπερ γὰρ τὸ γεῶδές μοι ἀπό τινος γῆς ἀπομεμέρισται καὶ τὸ ὑγρὸν ἀφʼ ἑτέρου στοιχείου καὶ τὸ πνευματικὸν ἀπὸ πηγῆς τινος καὶ τὸ θερμὸν καὶ πυρῶδες ἔκ τινος ἰδίας πηγῆς (οὐδὲν γὰρ ἐκ τοῦ μηδενὸς ἔρχεται, ὥσπερ μηδʼ εἰς τὸ οὐκ ὂν ἀπέρχεται), οὕτω δὴ καὶ τὸ νοερὸν ἥκει ποθέν.

Leopold · Teubner 1908
Related6
TERMνοῦς (τὸ νοερόν у Марка)intellect, mind, the rational facultyTERMλόγοςreason, word, the cosmic LogosTERMπνεῦμα (πνευμάτιον у Марка)pneuma, breath, spiritTERMστοιχεῖαelements, first principlesDOGMACosmopolis — the single city of gods and human beingsDOGMAThe unity of the cosmos — all things bound by a single Logos
Commentary

Genre and place in the book. A sorites — a chain of conditionals ("if this, then…") — a rare instance in Marcus of an extended syllogistic demonstration. After the imagistic physics of the ruling part (04-01), the methodological maxim of action (04-02), and the programme of retreat into oneself (04-03), here is the theoretical foundation of the whole social ethics: a deduction of the doctrine of the DOGMAcosmopolis.

The chain of argument. Seven links, each resting on the one before: a common TERMrational part (τὸ νοερόν) → a common TERMλόγος → a common "commanding" reason (what to do and not to do) → a common law (νόμος) → we are citizens (πολῖται) → we share in some civic constitution (πολίτευμα) → the cosmos is "in a manner a state" (ὡσανεὶ πόλις). The conclusion is not a rhetorical figure ("citizen of the world") but a necessary consequence of the premise of shared rationality.

The "whence?" turn. Marcus then reverses the direction: if we are citizens of a common City, then the reason in us also comes from there — "from this common polis." The proof is a physical analogy.

The physical analogy and conservation. A person's bodily portions — the earthy, the watery, the hot-and-fiery (three in Long; in the Greek four, including the airy-breath τὸ TERMπνευματικόν, which Long drops) — are each apportioned (ἀπομεμέρισται) from their own cosmic element-source (TERMστοιχεῖον). The principle of conservation operates: "nothing comes out of nothing, nor passes into non-being." Hence the inference by analogy: the rational part too has come "from some source" — from the cosmic mind.

Welding two doctrines. 4.4 welds together the DOGMAcosmopolis (a political-ethical doctrine) and the DOGMAunity of the cosmos (an ontological one): the individual TERMνοῦς is literally a "fragment" (ἀπόσπασμα) of the cosmic Logos (see the divine portion). Reason is therefore common to all not by convention but by nature — and so the cosmopolis is a fact of physics, not a metaphor. This is what distinguishes 4.4 from 4.3: there the unity of the cosmos was present only by hint (the "providence or atoms" disjunction), whereas here it is directly argued through the mind's origin from a common source.

σκοπός, τέλος, and the discipline of action. To be a citizen = to live by the common law = the τέλος of rational beings (programmatically, 02-16). The cosmopolis is the ontological ground of the discipline of action (Hadot, The Inner Citadel, ch. 8, "in the service of mankind"): from shared citizenship follow concrete duties to fellow-citizens — justice (dikaiosyne), affection, action for the common good.

The disciplines. The principal one is assent: the passage establishes a doctrine to be held as true. The secondary is action: from the demonstrated citizenship follows the norm of justice toward fellow-citizens.

Parallels. The cosmopolis formula — 02-16; Med. 3.11; 6.44 ("as Antoninus, Rome; as a human being, the cosmos"); 10.15; 12.36. Common reason as the law of gods and humans — Cic. De leg. I.22–23; II.19; Sen. De otio 4.1. Diogenes the Cynic, the first κοσμοπολίτης — DL 6.63; Zeno's Politeia — SVF I 262; LS 67. The mind as an ἀπόσπασμα of the Logos — Med. 2.1; 5.27; 12.26; Epict. Diss. I.14.6. "Nothing from nothing" and the return of the parts to the elements — Med. 4.21; 8.18; 02-03.

DisciplineDiscipline of assent
Record added2026-06-24
Statuspublished