Essentials of Philosophy: The Basic Concepts of the World's Greatest Thinkers 076078180X, 9780760781807

Citation preview

Essentials of

Philosophy THE BASIC CONCEPTS OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST THINKERS

ARISTOTLE

LUTHER

CALVIN

DESCARTES

HOBBES

SPINOZA

LEJBNIZ

LOCKE

HUME

MONTESQUIEU

VOLTAIRE

KANT

HEGEL

NIETZSCHE

CAMUS

BENTHAM

MILL

DERRIDA

RUSSELL

FREUD

MARX

EMERSON

JAMES MANNION THOREAU

KIERKEGAARD

JUNG

Essentials of

Philosophy f

you've always wanted to learn about

i philosophy but were get

to

past

the

first

too intimidated

word ending

in

"ism," Essentials of Philosophy provides

simple and clear explanations of

all

the

major philosophic ideas and concepts.

This entertaining but authoritative

book

offers a

broad overview of

many

— from

antiq-

diverse schools of thought

uity up through the present day. In plain

English, author James all

Mannion

explains

of the world's great philosophies

— and

even provides contemporary examples help put

them

to

in perspective.

Interspersed throughout the text are fascinating sidebars that offer helpful

hints

toward understanding complex

concepts

— from

Ockham's

Razor

Kant's claim that "perception ty"

is

to

reali-

— and also provide little-known facts

about the lives of great philosophers

such

as Socrates

and Descartes.

(continued on the back flap)

Essentials of

Philosophy

Essentials of

Philosophy The

basic concepts of the world's greatest thinkers

James Mannion

Barnes &Noble NEW YORK

© 2002, 2006 by James Mannion & Noble F+W Publications, Inc.

This 2006 edition published by Barnes

by arrangement with

All rights reserved.

No part of

this publication

Publishing, Inc.

may be

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any

reproduced,

form or by any means,

electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,

without prior written permission from the publisher.

2006 Barnes

& Noble Publishing

ISBN- 13: 978-0-7607-8180-7 ISBN-10: 0-7607-8180-X

Printed and

bound

13579

10

in

China

8642

Contents Introduction

Chapter

It's

1

xi

Greek to

Me

l

Presocratic Efforts Pluralists: All

2

Kinds of Stuff

6

Leucippus and Democritus: The Atomic Spin City-States:

Chapter

The

7

Sophists

8

The Three Sages: Socrates,

2

Duo

Plato,

and

Aristotle

Socrates

n 12

Plato

18

Plato's Republic

21

Aristotle

22

Chapter

3

The Decline and

Fall

of the Hellenistic Period

27

The End of Greek Prominence

28

The Cynics

28

Epicureanism: The Pleasure Principle

30

Stoicism

33

Skepticism: Perception

Is

Reality

36

Cicero and the Eclectics

37

Neoplatonism: End of an Epoch

39

Chapter

4

The

The Medieval Mind Christian

Church and Philosophy

41

42

Augustine of Hippo

43

Anselm's Ontological Argument

45

Thomas Aquinas

46

John Duns Scotus

49

Roger Bacon

50

William of

Ockham

50

ESSENTIALS OF PHILOSOPHY

Chapter

The Renaissance Period

5

Creativity

Abounds

53 54

Cosimo de Medici

54

Nicholas of Cusa

55

Bernardino Telesio

55

Giordano Bruno

56

Niccolo Machiavelli

57

Chapter

6

What's

Humanism

59

About?

60

It

All

Francesco Petrarca

60

Desiderius Erasmus

61

Thomas More

61

Sir

Chapter

The Protestant Reformation

7

The

Fall

of the Catholic Church

63 64

Martin Luther

64

John Calvin

65

The Catholic Counter-Reformation

67

Chapter

8

The

Scientific Revolution

The Heliocentric Theory

69 70

The Return of Skepticism

71

The Invention of

71

Chapter

9

Francis

the Printing Press

Approaching Modern Times

73

Bacon

74

Rene Descartes

75

Thomas Hobbes

77

Baruch Spinoza

79

Gottfried Leibniz

80

inmji Chapter

10

British

Empiricism

81

The Concept of Innateness

82

John Locke

82

George Berkeley

84

David

Hume

85

Chapter 11b The French Enlightenment

87

The Philosophes

88

Montesquieu

89

Voltaire

89

Jean Jacques Rousseau

91

Chapter

12

German

Idealism

95

Immanuel Kant

96

Johann Gottlieb Fichte

98

Friedrich

Wilhelm Josef von Schelling

George W.

F.

Hegel

Arthur Schopenhauer Friedrich

Chapter

13

99 99 101

Wilhelm Nietzsche

104

Utilitarianism

in

Jeremy Bentham

112

John Stuart Mill

113

The Feminist

115

Chapter 14

The American Transcendentalists

117

Transcendentalism Today

118

Ralph Waldo Emerson

118

Henry David Thoreau

120

William Ellery Channing

121

Amos Bronson Alcott

122

ESSENTIALS OF PHILOSOPHY

Phenomenology and Chapter 15 Edmund Husserl

Existentialism

123 124

Soren Kierkegaard

124

Martin Heidegger

127

Albert

Camus

Jean-Paul Sartre

Chapter

16

Modern and Postmodern Philosophers

128

130

133

Bertrand Russell

134

Ludwig Josef Johan Wittgenstein

136

Michel Foucault

137

Jacques Derrida

139

Chapter

17

Sociology and Anthropology

141

Sociology

142

Marx

142

Karl

Max Weber

144

Emile Durkheim

145

Anthropology

146

Chapter

18

Psychology

149

The Roots of Psychology

150

Sigmund Freud

150

Carl Gustav Jung

1

Behaviorism

158

Humanistic Psychology

159

And the

Rest

159

Eastern Schools of Thought

163

Chapter

19

54

Hinduism

164

Buddhism

167

Taoism

172

Confucianism

177

nnH,m Shinto

180

Sufism

181

Chapter 20

The Big Three Religions

183

For Better and for Worse

184

Judaism

184

Christianity

186

Islam

189

Final

Thought

193

Objectivism and the Right Livelihood

Chapter 21

Objectivism: Looking

Out

for

No.

Right Livelihood: Doing the Right Thing

Chapter 22

195 196

1

The Forgotten Philosophers

199

207

"Primitive" Cultures

208

African Philosophy

208

Native American Philosophy

210

Black Elk Speaks

212

The Medicine Wheel

213

Chapter 23

Twelve Steps to a Better

Life

219

Alcohol in Society

220

The

Alcohol

220

to Rehabilitation

220

Effects of

The Path

New Hope for the Alcoholic The Philosophy Behind AA

221

The Twelve Steps

227

AA and God

228

223

Twelve Traditions

229

Anonymity

229

as a

Philosophy

Remaining Financially Independent

230

Adaptation by Other Organizations

231

JnJLJMIl.UJ'lH.lMJ'LJ

Chapter 24

Everything Old

So Just What

Not

It's

Is

New Age Again

New Age?

233 234

New at All

234

Reincarnation

234

Soul Mates

237

Ching

240

Astrology

241

Numerology

244

Mandala Drawing

246

I

Chapter 25

Philosophy and the Couch Potato

249

Philosophy Beyond the Classroom

250

Star Trek

250

The Prisoner

256

The

Appendix

259

Fugitive

Emma Peel:

A

Appendix B Index

Is

Feminist Icon

Glossary of Philosophical Terms

Who's

Who

in

Philosophy

259

261

269

283

Introduction:

What's

It

About?

All

Those familiar with the opening scenes of Stanley Kubrick's A Space Odyssey know that for eons, mankind was just another player

2001:

scratching for survival in a cruel primordial ecosystem, living and dying instinctually in the unrelenting circle of

foraging for food and warring with

Or were

philosophers in that crowd.

Neanderthal

Man

life.

it

apelike hominids,

to say, there

were no

there?

woman) was

(and

Humans were

rival packs. Suffice

the Big

Kahuna from about

Neanderthals were, until very recently, perceived

200,000 B.c-40,000

B.C.

as the stereotypical

cavemen from the movies, bedecked

in fur, sporting

the proverbial big stick, and only able to counter a Socratic query with an

insouciant "Ugh!" Yet there

was much more

to these

heavy-browed ancestors

than heretofore known.

Recent archeological findings indicate that the Neanderthals comprised

complex

culture. Ancient burial sites reveal that

and that these

body a

rituals

included floral arrangements and the placement of the

in a fetal position.

These

rituals clearly indicate a faith

same

left

to

decompose. For millions of

thing. Yet

developed

somewhere along

a sense

Around was

years,

human

10,000

B.C.,

is

descendents did the

the line, this tradition changed.

Mankind had

of spirituality and an appreciation of the mysteries of

life.

the wandering hunter-gatherers started to settle

down in communities. They began It

of some kind and

regard for fallen comrades and loved ones. In the animal kingdom, a body

simply

a

ceremonies were performed,

to plant crops

in these ancient civilizations that

man's

and domesticate

first

livestock.

forays into mathematics,

astronomy, and the written word began. Within these communities, social classes developed. Agriculture

development of of indolence

—

and animal husbandry allowed for the gradual

leisure time. This free

theirs was,

with dangers. Yet with

time was certainly not an idolatry

by today's standards,

this

still

a struggle fraught

chance to stop and smell the roses,

philosophizing naturally followed. Leisure time was not

filled

as

it

were,

with Sony

PlayStations and cyberchat rooms. People thought and probed, and the

human mind

continued to expand and grow.

ESSENTIALS OF PHILOSOPHY

Ancient man's attempt to explain the world and his place in

form of what you might consider primitive

new

age again. As you venture forth into the

wisdom of

that the

and

fact that

indicates that they sprang

new

millennium, you

may

is

find to,

missed in the modern age. The gods,

each with their singular characteristics and

And the

took the

was no mere mumbo-jumbo. Closeness

the ancients

a reverence for, nature are sadly

personalities.

it

superstition, but everything old

foibles, are

archetypes of

human

gods from divergent cultures are so similar

from the depths of the human psyche; the kingdom

of the gods was within.

A rich oral tradition of myths and tall tales began even before the written word. The epic of Gilgamesh, Homer's Odyssey and

and no doubt

Iliad,

countless others that have not survived were an attempt to explain

human

experience was

this rich

all

mythology, superstition, and nature worship, the

emerged and attempted

what the

about, or at least to pose pertinent questions.

to look at the world

centric perspective. Perhaps the

from

a

more

first

From

philosophers

scientific

and human-

sun was just the sun and not a god; maybe

man was not a mere puppet of the fates but rather a creature in control of his own destiny. Mythology was followed by philosophy, upon which the sciences were founded, and

Now, is

closing.

a

schism

split

the mystical and the empirical.

new millennium, the chasm betw een spirituality and science Quantum physics reveals that the atom is not the smallest particle

in this

measurable, and at the subatomic

level,

those fascinating

little

do things that defy the laws of space and time. Science and not be mutually exclusive after In this book,

you hear from the your

experts,

Philosophy

it all

means

and sophia (wisdom).

prompt you

the robed sages of antiquity

letters after

You don't need

your name to ask the big

about?"

"love of I

may

from the Presocratics of ancient

From

local diner, everyone's a philosopher.

an advanced degree and a string of question, "What's

of matter

all.

Milesia to the twentieth-century thinkers. to the denizens of

bits

spirituality

hope

wisdom," from the ancient words philos

this

primer

may

to delve deeper into the great

inspire

(love)

your love of wisdom and

minds of the

ages.

Chapter

It's

1

Greek

to

Me

ROM THE QUASIMYSTICAL MONISTS TO THE comparatively contemporary atomists, the

F|

evolution of thought

Greeks was

among

a giant leap in the thinking processes

of mankind. Chuckle though you their theories, at the time they

and innovative, and followed.

the ancient

may

at

some of

were cutting edge

a big influence

on those

that

ESSENTIALS OF PHILOSOPHY

Presocratic Efforts We label as Presocratics men who

the world's

beginning in the seventh-century

seem

B.C.

While many of

mind of man

deal of credit for taking the

While entrenched

in a rich

They sought

into an exciting direction.

what

sometimes

it's all

about via a

called Monists,

which

all

reality

scientific

meaning

one thing, usually one of the elements

as the basic stuff to

orally transmitted tales of

the Presocratics took baby steps into natural law.

to explain

Presocratics are

(earth,

Their ancient efforts paved the

ridiculous

move away from

way

for the scientific

and philosophies of the Presocratics were

in stone. Unfortunately, only

method.

literally

written

fragments of these slabs survive. In

complete work of any Presocratic philosopher remains are snippets

and water)

gods and demons to explain nature and

primitive explanations of

ideas

air, fire,

may seem

their theories

today, should be given credit for their efforts to

The

method. The

that they sought to

could be reduced.

The Presocratic philosophers, while

reality.

a great

mythic tradition involving

anthropomorphic gods and monsters and the

Homer and others,

may

their theories

and just plain wrong, these thinkers deserve

naive, primitive,

isolate

philosophers, a group of

first official

taught and expounded mostly in the Greek city-states of Ionia

and fragments, the ancient equivalent of

fact,

no

intact. All that's left

little

yellow sticky

memo sheets stuck to your computer monitor or refrigerator. Yet their efforts should not be underestimated. superstition to science

was

formed

grew

a genesis that

a

quantum into

many

The evolution from

leap in thinking, and their philosophy

of the truths

we now hold

to be

self-evident.

Thales: Water,

Water Everywhere

Thales of Miletus

often designated as the

He

is

is

first official

regarded as the founder of natural philosophy.

philosopher.

He proposed that

CHAPTER

everything

is

composed of

the source of

On a visceral level,

water.

1:

GREEK TO ME

IT'S

Thales saw water as

an indispensable necessity for survival. In the form of

life,

floods and torrents, water could take

life

as well as sustain

could also

it. It

change form. Even metals and rock could be reduced to a molten, or liquid state.

Water and other

were

liquidities

a formidable force of nature.

Though Thales could not have known composed of mostly water, he was on theories

may seem

today. His rational

approach of not attributing anything

and everything to "the gods" paved the way

was revered

as a sage in his lifetime

Anaximander: Anaximander,

a

all

method. He

after his death.

Philosopher of Boundless Energy was

familiar elements that

he believed that

element he called

and

for the scientific

and long

younger contemporary of Thales,

was one of the four Instead,

A

human body is

that the

to something, simplistic as his

all

those elements and

didn't believe that

more comprised

"The Boundless." All things

dpeiron, or

water

the basic stuff of the world.

arise

common

a

from apeiron,

things return to apeiron. This belief foreshadows Einstein's dictum

that "Matter can neither

be created nor destroyed."

Anaximenes: Air Apparent Anaximenes was

a pupil of Anaximander.

theory by singling out

air as

the root of

much as water. He believed that the While water could change rarefication

matter. In

Modern

its

its

in

most ephemeral form,

simply energy in

(and

its

soul

digressed from his mentor's

things.

its

it

Humans need

was composed of

composition,

and condensation. Air

scientists

He

all

air is

air as

air.

capable of

densest form would be solid

would be the atmosphere

itself.

New Age gurus) will tell you that solid matter is

densest form.

Though Anaximenes a ridiculous proposition,

movement away from

called his stuff dujour "air,"

what

is

important

is

and

this

the principle.

It

may seem was

a

the supernatural and an attempt, like his fellow

Milesian scholars and thinkers, to look at things from a scientific perspective. This perspective

is

what makes the

figures in the history of the world.

Presocratics important

ESSENTIALS OF PHILOSOPHY

Anaximenes had another theory

was heading

that

was linked

the body,

to the concept of the soul,

to dwell within the body. In olden days,

believed the soul

why people It

was

was

air

for sure, old this

back inside the body. Perhaps,

called Monists. By definition,

Pythagoras: By the

it

air, fire,

thing,

Numbers

nature, Pythagoras proposed that

life

that everything could be explained

made

determined that the basic

and so on, was one

was numbers.

Rather than suggest that the basic stuff of

also

is

Monist philosophy.

that, in their philosophy, they

though Pythagoras thought

He

believed

Anaximenes was talking about more than

"stuff" of reality, such as water,

formulae.

is

sneezed, they

danger of being expelled from the body, which

when he espoused

means

exhales from

you" or some equivalent when someone sneezes.

The Presocratic philosophers are also this

it

which was and

when people

originally a call for the soul to skootch

and no one knows

mere

in

"Bless

say,

more

in a

sophisticated direction. In those days, the breath, because

was

reality

a

was an element of

numbers game. He taught

through mathematical theorems and

a connection

between mathematical order and

music, even going as far as to state that the orbits of celestial bodies were

accompanied by tuneful harmonies he dubbed the "Music of the Spheres." This one was quite a claim, because Pythagoras never popped his ear above the stratosphere to verify this theory.

The Pythagorean school of thought was enormously popular and lasted

whose

hundreds of years. In disciples

were sworn

his lifetime,

to secrecy

Pythagoras was a cult figure

upon pain of

death.

He

also

believed in reincarnation, and his followers were vegetarians.

Heraclitus Nicknamed as if

and Parmenides: Ionian Odd Couple

the Obscure, Heraclitus

something of

a

was

a philosopher

downer. His theory that everything

taken metaphorically,

is

who was known

is

composed of

expressed in his belief that everything

is

fire,

in flux.

CHAPTER

There

is

no constancy

for Heraclitus.

There was no

in the universe.

You could not even

step into the

IT'S

1:

GREEK TO ME moment

living in the

same

river twice,

he

said,

because the flowing water was not the same water you dipped your big toe

mere seconds

into

before. Life

is

a never-ending sequence of birth

and

death, creation and destruction.

Heraclitus the at

human

felt

spirit.

that this cycle of combustibility

Are you the same person

twenty? Probably not.

If

taken to heart,

melancholy: Youth fades, loved ones

you

die,

at

this

philosophy can lead to

you were

Pythagoras and

and unto dust

his followers believed in reincarnation

He was

followers were penalized

has

it

that

when they

if

crossed the No.

much

for society

the oft-quoted

one of the

also

they revealed

some found themselves

Heraclitus lived

contempt

his

sleeping with the

of his

an

was

is"

that "Character

is

Rumor

fishes

is

is

He had famous

also

for

destiny."

is

no

Being

his credo.

Aegean

an eccentric hermit.

as

life

Parmenides was the anti-Heraclitus; he wrote

stagnant. "It

leaders. His

numerical secrets.

and the feeling was mutual. He

maxim

and were

first cult

guy.

1

Simply put, he believed that there

flux

and

in direct

response to him.

that, in fact,

everything

is

immutable and constant, and change

illusion.

Parmenides wrote an epic else

dust,

shall return.

practicing vegetarians.

is

also applicable to

is

age forty that you were

from the

poem

called "Truth,"

Presocratics, exists only in fragments.

which

like

Enough

everything

survives,

however, to piece together the basics of Parmenidian philosophy.

According to Parmenides, you can look

You ask yourself whether thinking about

it,

Parmenides

"it is"

or

"it is

at the

not." If

world

it "is

in

not,"

two ways: you cannot be

because you can only think about something that

also believed that

all this

and fading away that you see

in

The more

more they remain

things change, the

exists.

coming and going and blossoming

your daily

life is

an illusion of the senses. the same.

ESSENTIALS OF PHILOSOPHY

Zeno: The Tortoise and the Hero Zeno

is

best

known

famous paradoxes, which

for a couple of

in the real

world make no sense whatsoever, but were extremely popular

The

first

one explains how,

between two points

the door. If the distance

number of points, then you can bisect the areas

an

you previously bisected ad

infinite

amount of space

in their day.

your room, you can never

sitting in

that line.

infinitum.

in a finite distance

really reach

composed of an

is

And you

infinite

can keep bisecting

Hence, you potentially have

between two points and

can never really get anywhere. Think about that as you get out of your chair,

walk to the door, and

leave the

The second Zeno paradox from one place

to another,

room.

deals with motion.

When you move

you reach the midway point before the

final

And before you get to the halfway mark, you reach the halfway mark of the midway point. Ergo, you have to travel an infinite number of points in a finite amount of time. And that is impossible, right? The example Zeno uses to make this argument is a race between the destination.

mighty hero Achilles (of

Iliad

and heel fame) and a

graciously gave the tortoise a head turtle

start,

tortoise. If Achilles

he could never catch up with the

based on the preceding argument. Nevertheless,

vou would be

ill

advised to bet

Pluralists: All

on the

if

you're a gambler,

tortoise.

Kinds of Stuff

The next group of philosophers

are called Pluralists.

They

differed

the Monists in that they believed reality could not be reduced to

whether

it

be an element,

constancy As they saw

it,

a

one

from thing,

mathematical equation, or a theory of flux or

the world

was composed of many elements.

Empedocles: The Root of the Matter Empedocles can be compared scientific

and

to Pythagoras in that

spiritual, yet his area

mathematics. Legend has

it

that he

he combined the

of expertise was medicine rather than

was

a charismatic celebrity

who

performed medical "miracles" that astounded the populace and was gifted poet

and orator.

a

S

Empedocles the center of earth,

also offered the theory that

it all,

and water

it

but rather that the roots of

—could be found

exist in different degrees.

GREEK TO ME

was not one element all

in everything.

four elements

—

The four roots would

Obviously water would have a preponderance

of water "roots," but the others would be there to a lesser degree. in

at

fire, air,

And

an ancient Greek variation on the yin/yang belief of coexisting

complementary opposites, he added

that the entities he called

Strife

were complementary forces that impacted on the world

knew

it.

Love and as they

Anaxagoras: Seeds of Knowledge Anaxagoras took the theories of four roots that reality can be reduced to an infinite

a step further

number of

by declaring

"seeds."

Not unlike

Empedocles's hypothesis, these seeds contain elements of everything and are in everything, yet certain elements are there in greater abundance,

creating

life's

And

myriad

in lieu

diversity.

of Empedocles's Love and

Strife theory,

Anaxagoras

postulated on the existence of a "Nous" or omniscient yet impersonal

Mind

that gave order

and constancy to the universe.

Leucippus and Democritus: The Atomic The philosophers Leucippus and Democritus were was composed of

that the world particles

were

the

first

tiny particles called atoms.

Duo

to theorize

These

human eye yet ubiquitous in their myriad comprising what is commonly called reality. Between the

invisible to the

combinations,

two, Democritus was apparently the one with the better sense of humor,

because he was nicknamed "The Laughing Philosopher" and "the mocker."

He was

allegedly never without a quip or a cackle at the expense of his

fellow citizens.

Democritus

atoms were

mankind forever.

built

on the theories of Leucippus by suggesting that

indivisible.

split

the

This was accepted as fact until August 1945,

atom and unleashed

And quantum

a conflagration,

when

changing the world

physics has proven that there are things even

niiumi

i

iiiHiiiJL

smaller than the atom. But this theory had a

worth of

good

several millennia's

fashionability.

Spin City-States: The Sophists The next school of philosophy, with

its

cynicism. a

the Sophists,

contemporary blend of philosophy,

The quest

for

spirit

wandering educrats known connotation these days, and

would be

with manic

in

as

wisdom, the growth of

good old entrepreneurial

Sophists

is

modern

politics,

brought forth

as the Pluralists

opportunism, and

a political system,

and

a professional class of

as the Sophists. Sophistry has a negative it is

largely deserved. In this

competing infomercials, pitching

day and age, the

their platitudes

intensity.

The word sophistry entered the English language with

a decidedly

negative definition courtesy of the Sophists. These ancient equivalent of self-help gurus For a fee, they skills

were more motivational speakers than philosophers.

would help people use

tools of rhetoric

and debating

to help advance one's career.

The

Sophists did things that other philosophers found unconscionable:

They charged

for their services,

accommodate any stock in trade.

They could prove day

the toga-clad throng awestruck.

persuasion, and ambitious Sophists had their pulse

popular and influential

However,

and they could spin philosophy to

political situation. Linguistic

as

is

legerdemain was their

night and black

is

white and leave

They had impressive powers of

young men paid

on the Grecian

to learn these

Zeitgeist

skills.

The

and were enormously

celebrities.

with the Presocratics, very

writings by and about the Sophists survive.

little if

any information and

The primary source

is

Plato,

man who hated the Sophists and everything for which they stood. What has come down through the millennia is a distinctly one-sided view of the a

Sophists.

-

H FUHimmimiM i

To put

a positive spin

on the notorious

Sophists, they considered

themselves to be teachers and businessmen. They a skill to

felt

that they

had

impart on others, and they charged a fee for their service.

That's a respectable deal, a fair trade of

good and /or

services for

money.

Or

their belief

is

something that was

someone

mere Sophistry? There

freely given to

else for a fee.

The

men learn

romance, and success valuable

to

They were pragmatists helping

like.

and use very earthly in ancient Athens.

from the

skills

a spiritual principle that

Sophists, however, did not deal in notions

of Truth, Beauty, Logic, and the ambitious

is

you should not then be imparted

skills

to find happiness,

A lot of average

citizens got

Sophists.

Protagoras Protagoras

is

generally regarded as the

first

Sophist.

career and enjoyed great fame in his lifetime.

mean

little

to a Sophist.

spiritual matters. In fact,

The

He had a

successful

Posthumous acclaim would

Sophists were not

all

that interested in

Protagoras was charged with impiety, a serious

offense in those days and one that hastened the

end of the mighty

Socrates.

"Man

is

the measure of

all

which was not to suggest the

things"

nobility

of the species.

It is

and otherwise.

It's

what's true for

me may not be

was the credo of Protagoras, and evolutionary- superiority

actually an extreme case of relativism,

it.

If

it

gets

you ahead even

where

true to you, and vice versa. 'Anything

goes" was the natural devolution of such a principle.

do

moral

a dismissal of Big Picture Universal Truths,

at the

If it feels

good,

expense of another, go for

it

anyway. Protagoras also had an apathetic view toward the gods. His attitude

was

that

you

can't really

know

if

know, they do not reaDy matter as well forget

about them

death sentence.

they

much

exist,

in

and because you can never

your day-to-day

—hence the "impiety-

"

life

so

you might

charge and subsequent

1

IfH'UMllUJ IHHU Uh I

i

Gorgias Gorgias, a.k.a.

put

much

The

Nihilist,

was an accomplished public

stock in the notion of virtue and instead

felt

speaker.

that the

He

didn't

power of

persuasion was key: Master that and the world was your proverbial oyster.

His philosophy

Nothing

is

summed up

in this

three-pronged theory:

exists.

you could not know about

If

anything did

If

something existed and you knew about

exist,

it,

it.

you couldn't communicate

that awareness to others.

Gorgias also wrote a

Which

Is

satirical

poem mocking Parmenides called "That many things that you

Not." In the poem, he demonstrates the

can think about that do not exist and never

will.

Prodicus Prodicus was a rhetorician who, according to most accounts, was

unabashedly in

it

for the

money. Plato frequently

satirized

pedantic lecturer on the niceties of language above

proof that

if

you

can't

popular as he was, the

him

all else.

as a

His fate

is

do the time, don't do the crime. Eloquent and officials

of Athens saw

fit

to execute

him

for

corrupting the youth, a charge that would also be leveled at the nobler Socrates.

Chapter 2

The Three Sages Socrates, Plato,

and

AS

Aristotle

THE OLD ADAGE

student

is

ready,

SAYS,

"WHEN THE

the teacher will appear."

After the Sophists, perhaps ancient Greece

was ready

to raise the bar

to the next plateau.

on philosophy and take

Ready or not, along

came

it

three

of the most influential and revered thinkers of theirs or any age.

ESSENTIALS OF PHILOSOPHY

Socrates The

ancient world had

moral relativism and

become an

a lack

Socrates (469-399 B.C.)

ethically arbitrary place, rife

of regard for the Eternal Truths

came on

with

when

dynamic and

to the scene. This

controversial Athenian figure spent a lifetime in the public square,

engaging in dialogues with the young classic eccentric

by

reports not very

all

men

of Athens. Socrates was your

philosopher type: Not concerned with his appearance and

handsome, but eager

to

engage

in a philosophical

debate anytime, anywhere.

His

Background

Socrates

was from what would be considered

ancient Athens. His father

midwife.

was

a

a middle-class family in

stonemason, and

his

mother was

a

We know virtually nothing about his youth. We know that he

served in the military during the Peloponnesian

War and

distinguished

himself on the battlefield with great courage and Herculean physical

He

endurance.

also

performed mandatory public

with most Athenians. Athens was a like

—

a city in size

to the state

city-state,

service, as

which

is

what

was the it

case

sounds

but also a self-contained nation. Loyalty and service

were mandatory, and

for the

most part undertaken without

complaint. Socrates had a wife but almost nothing

is

known about her,

other than her name, which was Xanthippe.

Socrates

compared himself to

a gadfly, a nasty insect that

horses by stinging their buttocks. The horse would

shoo the gadfly away, but gadfly always society

was the

horse's rear end,

torments

flick his tail

and

returns. In the analogy,

and Socrates was the

relentless

gadfly. Unfortunately, society eventually turned the flyswatter

on

Socrates.

As a young man, Socrates had apparently studied the

naturalist

philosophers, including Empedocles and other Presocratics.

Of

course,

they were not called Presocratics at the time, since Socrates had not yet

CHAPTER

become

2:

a pivotal focal point in the classical age. Socrates

versed in the

aplomb

THE THREE SAGES: SOCRATES, PLATO, AND ARISTOTLE

if

work of

employ

the Sophists and could

he so chose.

He

something that could be manipulated through verbal and

What we know

with

of Socrates's

from about age

life is

was Truth intellectual trickery.

forty until his death

age of seventy. Living modestly and relying on an inheritance and

was

state subsidies, Socrates

able to live the

and journeyman philosopher. "local color" in Athens. all

also well

ultimately rejected both schools of thought,

believing that Truth did not he in the natural world, nor

at the

was

their techniques

who would

He was

of a gentleman of leisure

life

also the

most prominent example of

He wandered about town

conversing with any and

engage him.

Socratic Dialogue Socrates's singular

method of posing questions

to his intellectual quarry

and drawing responses, which made people think Socratic Dialogue. This

of opposing views

is

made

more

do

this

accurately,

called

mentor

making his

was adept

Of

at

subject figure

out of malice or an attempt to

truth for truth's sake.

to the

young men of Athens.

the fellow conversationalist squirm and writhe in

intellectual discomfort. Socrates

or

is

logical debate

called dialectic.

Socrates served as a coach and

His dialogues often

for themselves,

form of question and answer and the

showing ideas to be out for himself.

it

feel superior.

He was

foolish,

He

did not

interested in

course, not everyone likes to be exposed as a

philosophical lightweight, even with the noblest of intentions. Hence,

Socrates

made

a

few enemies along the way.

He

Socrates fancied himself a midwife to ideas.

analogy because he saw his mother

make

probably liked the

a living as a literal midwife.

did not originate deep thoughts, he maintained. Rather, he

of the person with

His

He

drew them out

whom he was conversing.

Demeanor

Because Socrates never put

quill to

papyrus,

and interpretation of Socrates the man.

It is

all

we

have

is

Plato's reportage

generally accepted that the

early Socratic dialogues are a truer picture of Socrates.

The Socrates of

the

ESSENTIALS OF PHILOSOPHY

more

later dialogues serves

mouthpiece

as a fictional character, serving as the

for Plato's philosophy.

Socrates in essence

was using

a

form of Sophistry

to further his points.

But Socrates never accepted a drachma for the wisdom he imparted. This lack of

payment

didn't gloat

distinguishes

when he

search of Truth with a capital

wealth, fame, and

him from

the mercenary Sophists.

handily bested his debating opponent.

T He was not in

And Socrates

He was

in

for the self-aggrandizement,

it

power cravenly craved by the

He

Sophists.

modestly

also

claimed no wisdom, only ignorance and an ever-questioning nature. The Oracle at Delphi preternaturally pronounced Socrates to be the wisest in the world. Socrates

countered that

if

he was indeed a wise guy,

because the truly wise person admits that they really Socrates's

Athenian upper over his

crust.

activities.

And

Socrates

man

was onlv

know nothing at all.

uncompromising manner and penchant

pompous appear foolish made

it

for

making

the

many enemies among the

that awful specter of impiety

7

loomed

large

Certain people were out to get him, and they ultimately

succeeded. But old Socrates had the philosophical

last

laugh, staying true

to his principles to the bitter end.

Socrates's Brought to

Apology

trial

on charges of impiety and corrupting the Athenian youth,

Socrates defended himself in an eloquent speech Plato preserved as the

'Apology" In ancient Greek, the word was more accurately defined "defense," because Socrates this speech. It It

contains the essence of Socrates's character and philosophy.

purports to be the speech that Socrates gave in his defense at his

Plato probably took poetic license, but

Socrates the

Socrates

man is in

it is

likely that the essence

trial.

of

depicted in the Apology.

Athens

Athens was

a

Sparta after

many

known

as

was hardly apologetic during the course of

democracy, but for

a brief

years of warfare.

time

as the "Thirty Tyrants" terrorized the

before being overthrown.

One of

it

was taken over by nearby

A government of what came

to be

populace for about a year

those despots was a former pupil of

THE THREE SAGES: SOCRATES, PLATO, AND ARISTOTLE

2:

Socrates,

and the re-established democracy used

He was

prosecute Socrates. intensely disliked

Socrates

by powerful elements

was linked

to

in the political establishment.

as a rejection

scientific

of the gods and the

being charlatans of the worst order. Socrates acknowledged that

libelous

rumors had been following him

Though once

for years but denied the charges.

interested in the natural sciences, his philosophy

direction, focusing

Socrates found far

He

an excuse to

both the Atomists and the Sophists, the

approach of the former being interpreted latter

this as

an enormously popular local celebrity but

on mankind and

more

from the

Sophists, stating that he didn't charge

nor did he presume to inform or enlighten.

brought that which

is

changed

myriad complexities, which

interesting than the dry notions of the Presocratics.

also distanced himself

for his services

his

dormant within

a

He

merely

person to the surface and got them

thinking. After a lifetime of cross-examining a cross section of Athens,

from

politicians to poets to craftsmen,

he observed

that,

while everyone

has pretensions to insight and wisdom, they were as ignorant as he

knew something.

so because they thought they

—more

Socrates repeated the story

of his encounter with the Oracle of Delphi wherein he claims he knows nothing. This

The

is

called the Socratic Disavowal of Knowledge.

Trial

Socrates, in his opportunity to cross-examine his accusers, used his tried-

and-true

method

to systematically

punch holes

in their

arguments. As he

scored points in logic and rationality he continued to antagonize those

who were

about to decide

his fate.

In the course of the Apology, Socrates

life.

all

Doing the

right thing

about. Being virtuous

punishment. There Socrates

is

is

is its

own reward;

Paradise, and

to live a virtuous

doing wrong

is its

life

was

own

nothing worse than being a bad person. Thus, is

a virtuous

do to him can truly harm him so long

no

to explain the central

and avoiding wrongdoing was what

convinced that he

also expressed

went on

The most important thing is

core of his belief system:

as

he

sticks to his guns. Socrates

fear of death during his speech.

why fear nothingness?

if

man, nothing his enemies can

Why fear an eternity in

ESSENTIALS OF PHILOSOPHY

Despite being an independent thinker and self-proclaimed gadfly, a big part of virtue

loyalty to the state. In fact,

is

The

distrustful of democracies.

both Socrates and Plato were

class-conscious Greeks believed that a

certain type of specially trained, enlightened citizen should be in charge

upcoming concept of

(as in Plato's

the "Philosopher King").

During the lengthy defense, Socrates seemed well aware that kangaroo court would not rule verdict.

He

He

in his favor,

and he was prepared

on the mercy of the

did not resort to throwing himself

Socrates's credo

saw

no matter how unpleasant the consequences.

it,

was "The unexamined

not worth

life is

has been the rallying cry of every philosopher Similarly,

he

is

also

court.

unbowed and unapologetically He continued doing

faced his accusers

the right thing as he

this

for their

quoted as saying, "Know

who

living." This

followed Socrates.

thyself."

Wisdom comes

not only from observation, but also through introspection.

It

was no

surprise

when

the custom of the day, the

own

say, this

punishment was summarily

and then

a larger one.

would not stop words

state for the rest

for

He

also

which he

is

most famous,

philosopher's raison d'etre: "The

Doing what

is

self- awareness

Socrates

reiterates the

though

is

are the

a

It is

Needless to

then proposed a nominal

that, if

allowed to

live,

he

here that Socrates utters the

motto

that should be every

unexamined

life is

not worth

ways

to learn

living.

what

is right.''

to death. In his final address to the court, he

themes he discussed during the Apology. He is

room and board

life.

the only path to goodness, and introspection and

was sentenced

because to die that

right

He

announced

practicing philosophy.

free

of his natural

rejected.

was

obliged to suggest his

punishment. Socrates proposed that he be given

and be supported by the

fine

the jurors returned a guilty verdict. As

condemned man was

better than to betray yourself.

his individual voice

continue to philosophize.

may be

And he

is

ready to die

correctly predicts

extinguished, philosophers will

CHAPTER

THE THREE SAGES: SOCRATES, PLATO, AND ARISTOTLE

2:

Death

His

Socrates silence,

met

his

he took

his persecutors

end

like a secular

martyr. Rather than face censure and

this belief to its logical conclusion. Systematically

look foolish did

to guarantee

little

him an

making

acquittal.

He

did

not throw himself on the mercy of the court as the powers-that-be had

hoped or beg filtered

down

would not

for exile instead

to

him

of execution. After his sentence, word was

that should he choose to fly the coop, the

aggressively hunt

him down. The

politicians

government

now confronted

were

with executing an extremely popular national treasure. Ignoring pleas from

some of in the

his followers to split the scene, Socrates

company of his adoring entourage.

described in Plato's dialogue Phaedo. Socrates

good-byes to his friends and students.

It is

is

took hemlock and died

deeply moving scene as

a

It is

quite serene as he says his

actually

an assisted

one of the assembly concocts the hemlock potion

suicide,

because

for Socrates to drink.

Socrates tries to ease the grief of the despondent group by reminding

them

that only his

shoos the tears,

body

will die.

urging them not to grieve.

and gently rebukes the

He

takes a nice long bath and exchanges

pleasantries with the prison guard with

whom he has enjoyed conversing.

His friend Crito asks him to wait until after sunset. the rest of his last day, but Socrates

would just

as

It is

his right to

soon get

Socrates drinks the poison without hesitation and without his

weeping friends

to settle

He men for their

His children are brought to him.

women out of the room

down

it

enjoy

over with.

He asks He covers

fear.

so that he can die in peace.

himself as his body grows numb, but manages to say his famous, and very

mundane

for so great a philosopher, last words, "Crito,

Asclepius; will said,

now

His

Legacy

you remember

to pay the debt?"

And

I

owe

a

cock to

then, as Shakespeare

cracked a noble heart.

Socrates was a larger than

life

person

in his

time on earth. After his death,

he achieved mythic proportions. Many schools of philosophy arose

after his

death that claimed to corner the market on Socratic teachings. Thev were often of conflicting philosophies. Most, however, stressed one aspect of Socrates's teaching:

ESSENTIALS OF PHILOSOPHY

The Megarians focused on The

logic.

Elian School continued

working with the technique of the Socratic

dialogue, or dialectic.

The Cynics

rejected formal education and

saw the road to wisdom

as

an

inside job.

The Cyrenaic School was

the forerunner of the philosophy of hedonism,

or the pursuit of pleasure.

All these schools,

however, were mere pieces of the giant philosophical

jigsaw puzzle that was Socratic thought.

It

was only

Plato

who

kept the

one of

definitive Socratic tradition alive, as well as establishing himself as

the great minds of antiquity.

Plato Plato

was

Socrates's

most famous protege. He continued the Socratic

legacy while building

on

it

with

his

own theories. He

school of philosophy rather generically called

also

founded

The Academy. The

a

basis

of his mission and his goals can be found in his allegory of The Cave.

The Cave This story veil

is

meant

to illustrate

how the

things as Truth and Beauty. Imagine a a

majority of people

live

with a

over their eyes, with only a distorted and shadowy notion of such

dimly

lit

group of shackled individuals

cave illuminated only by a large

fire

in

behind them. These cave

people can only see shadows of themselves and other images flickering

on

a wall before

Most reality

them. This

is

their reality.

are either unimaginative or apathetic

and simply accept

this

without speculation. The more inquiring minds observe the

patterns

more

clearly

and

try to

understand their world. Yet Truth

eludes them.

One of

the prisoners

manages

to break free

from

his shackles

escape the cave. Emerging into the light of day this escapee the light, again only seeing a

shadowy representation of

is

and

blinded by

reality.

Over time.

-

j!nijj.»MJ!i*jii.N*iH4»Mrnn however,

this

more

things

person will acclimate his senses to his surroundings and see

and the sun's illumination.

clearly: the landscape, the sky,

Eventually, this

spread

PLATO, AND ARISTOTLE

word of

newly enlightened soul returns

to the cave

and

tries to

new world that exists beyond the claustrophobic What will the response of the cave dwellers be? Will

the brave

confines of the cave.

they boldly go where

this citizen

had gone before and take the arduous

yet rewarding journey out of darkness and into the light? No, according to Plato.

They

are

more

likely to kill the prophet,

because he

is

a threat to the

status quo.

This

an obvious reference to Plato's mentor Socrates, and

is

commentary on humanity's

predilection to choose the

way

are usually

existence,

And

the easier and the softer way, the don't-rock-the-boat mentality

philosophers that lead the

a

fogbound

the

denounced, derided, and often

end up dead.

Forms In his eighty years (a very long as the

philosopher

all

life

in those days), Plato established

other philosophers look to for inspiration.

himself

Some

concurred with, adapted, and expanded upon his theories, others disputed

and countered them, but Plato called,

was

all

were influenced by him.

a firm believer in Ideas

with a capital

Forms. Plato believed that while

windswept beach, or the buff bods on in the ether, the

imbues

all

Form of

the beauty

we

Beauty.

The

we

or, as

I

said beach, there exists, out there

was an

Idea of Beauty

see in physical reality.

The

that in

its

we

can never

ephemeral splendor. Of course, Plato could never prove

some unearthly

floating

entity that

cast of Baywatch:

Hawaii are mere shadows of the Form of Beauty that perceive in

they are also

can admire the beauty of a

around casting

realm, Beauty and Truth and Love and Virtue are their

shadows on us mere mortals

who

see

them

only as flickering, tantalizingly transient images in the cave wall. Man,

according to Plato

Forms, but various

is

by nature

a seeker

his perception falls short. Plato does,

modes of knowledge

Knowledge

is

who

of truth, struggles to grasp these however, catalogue the

available for the perceiving.

fourfold, according to Plato.

ESSENTIALS OF PHILOSOPHY

The knowledge from imagination, dreams, and what was

later called the

unconscious

Our perceptions of

the outside world

Mathematical knowledge

was Big Picture knowledge, an awareness

Philosophical knowledge, which

of absolutes, universal truths in the form of those elusive Forms

Plato called the

may be

reality,

first

two mere

opinions, because while perception

The

things are perceived differently by different people.

second two were True Knowledge, because Plato believed that two plus

two

will

never equal

five,

and Forms are immutable, eternal truths not to

be messed with.

Where does God fit in this picture, you may ask? Plato believed that was one Form among the Forms called the Good, and this has been

there

interpreted as God. This mysterious realm true reality, according to Plato, and

shadowy cave of our

where the Forms dwell

is

we poor creatures merely loom

the

in the

reality.

Reincarnation Plato, like all

and

is.

will live again.

Forms and we can

Once we return

comprehend

in the

finally "get it."

to the

meantime,

we

is

have access to the realm of

something greater than ourselves out

potential philosophers of us

all. it is

in their theology,

among us do not

condemned

For those seeking a

is

there.

And

what makes

little hellfire

worth noting that Plato believed

and that the

life.

They

forever.

The world of

is,

we can

all

have the option to return in another

the senses, and of sensual pleasure, actually inhibits

finding true happiness, because

world, which

between time,

Aye, but there's a rub, as there always

never-ending quest to reclaim that lost knowledge

truly evil

in

earthbound realm, we forget about

brimstone

are

in the

heavenly realm, only retaining a dim and nagging

awareness that there this

And

death and before rebirth,

in the period after

the

We have

Pythagoras before him, also believed in reincarnation.

lived before

it

makes us more grounded

according to Plato, not the highest

reality.

in the real

CHAPTER

2:

THE THREE SAGES: SOCRATES, PLATO, AND ARISTOTLE

Republic

Plato's

One of

Plato's

most famous works

is

called The Republic,

wherein he puts

forth his political philosophy. Plato, having seen his beloved

Socrates unjustly murdered by an out-of-control for that

needed to be part of the felt

that citizens

and

state

were

a contributing

within a body

cells

Plato conveniently assigns classes, or citizens will

that Plato

He felt that everyone member of the state. and that the jobs

politic,

were to be determined by the

responsibilities that people held

more

state.

accurately castes, within which

be organized. Given his chosen profession,

made

on

the Philosopher class the highest

The Philosopher

pole.

use

like to live in Plato's "ideal" sociopolitical state.

Plato did not believe in rugged individualism.

and

little

form of government. After reviewing the following, think about

whether you would

He

mentor

democracy has

class will rule the state, the

it is

not a surprise

his societal

Warrior

totem

class will

protect the state, and the Producer class will serve the state with goods

and services and

skills.

This "republic" doesn't sound very democratic, does ruling class of philosophical aristocrats

would be

it? It isn't.

state,

with the famous Platonic concept of the Philosopher-King

head.

The Philosopher

in

class

A

directing the affairs of at its

guides the other classes, keeping the military

check and keeping the producers honest, while they contemplate the

world of the Forms and

try to

make

reality as Form-friendly as possible.

In a bit of upper-class snobbery toward the workers, the Producer class

would be denied the for the Philosopher

benefits of public schooling. This

and Warrior

Though people would study have

much respect

for the arts.

the arts in Plato's Republic, he did not

Art was a copy of

a pale representation of the exalted

belong

in

an ideal

state.

prominently displayed

"No

would be reserved

classes.

Artists

at the gates

Forms.

Beyond

He

reality,

which

in turn

this Point"

would be

of Plato's Republic.

Poetry would be banned as well.

It

speaks of the heart and inflames

emotions, things that further entrench people in the material world. the objective of the citizenry

is

is

believed that art did not

to strive for the Ideal

passions that enslave people to this seriously flawed

And

and avoid the animal

reality.

Plato did not

UIHUMllUJHHlHJ and poetry

see art

them

i

Li

as inspiring

and

uplifting the

human

spirit.

He viewed

as corrupting influences.

You probably would not want to

live in Plato's

vision of the perfect society. There

no upward mobility and

all

arts

would be

Republic, his Utopian

a rigid caste

system with

would be banned, because they are

pale imitations of Truth. The cry of

"I

want my MTV!" would

on

fall

deaf aristocratic ears.

Plato

would

also have children taken

raised in state-run foster

away from

homes supervised by

their parents

the Philosopher

and

class.

He

believed that the state could do a better job raising (and indoctrinating) children than could their

own parents. He

also believed in

property. This applied only to the Philosopher class,

and

meager possessions, because they did not

their

area other than

Oh,

what they could

yes, Plato

communal

really

The

their kids

matter in any

contribute.

not only believed in community property, but also the

sharing of wives! Plato's "ideal" hardly sounds ideal to

ears, yet nevertheless

And just

private

classes.

manual laborers and the workers, could keep

Producer

the

no

and Warrior

as Socrates

modern

he remains one of the three great sages of antiquity.

mentored

Plato, Plato in

turned mentored Aristotle.

Aristotle Aristotle studied

twenty

years.

under Plato

He was

as a student at the latter's

a prodigy

Academy for

and generally regarded

as Plato's heir

apparent. However, Aristotle disagreed with the master on several key points. After Plato's death, Aristotle traveled the five years as the tutor

make

a

name

for himself in

world conqueror.

known

of a precocious thirteen-year-old

an area other than philosophy

Aristotle's pupil

Great,

who went on to

young

age.

world, and spent

who went on

to

—that of

was none other than Alexander the

capture the

known world before dying

at a

CHAPTER

THE THREE SAGES: SOCRATES, PLATO, AHD ARISTOTLE

2:

Aristotle eventually established his

Lyceum.

Aristotle liked to

His students became

walk

known

as

own academy and

called

it

the

he philosophized, eager students

as peripatetics,

which means

in tow.

"to walk."

Aristotle's Challenges to Plato Aristotle disagreed with Plato

consider

it

on many

Though some may

theories.

"bad form" to challenge one's mentor, Aristotle did just that

on the Platonic notion of Forms.

whole other dimension was out there with

Plato believed that a

bunch of Forms were actual

floating around. Truth, Beauty, Love,

entities that existed separate

a

and other concepts

of the humanly perceived concepts

of these ideas. Aristotle thought the theory of Forms to be impossible to prove. Plato believed that what

we

call reality

illogical

was

and

less real

than the ethereal realm of the Forms. Aristotle held that the substantial here and

now was

characteristics

quite real and that

embodied

in

called his revised version of the truths,

Forms,

are not separate things, but

Universals.

but they could be found without our

Plato believed that there

The

Forms

what we can perceive with our

were

Ideals

and

own

senses.

He

There were universal space-time continuum.

their pale imitations.

Presocratic Parmenides and Heraclitus believed respectively that

everything was stagnant and everything was in

flux. Aristotle

was

able to

draw upon and adapt these opposing viewpoints and come up with own,

a radical belief at the time

philosophy. This

is

and perhaps

his

his

major contribution to

the theory of potentiality.

The Theory of Potentiality Potentiality

means

that within everything, people included, there exists a

its own potential, in essence becoming own Form. A movement in nature and in humans from imperfection to

natural evolution toward fulfilling its

perfection, or as close as anything can get to perfection. This

component in

The universe

all

is

things that

is

is

a

hardwired

an involuntary process, according to

in a constant progression

Aristotle.

of being and becoming, from the

Big Bang to the inevitable Big Chill on a cosmic scale to the cycle of birth

and death

in the

human

condition.

ESSENTIALS OF PHILOSOPHY

Aristotle speaks of causes in the process

and

The the

means

material cause

new

The

potentiality to actuality

efficient cause

is

The

what

final

cause

first

is

cause of

separate from is

what he

Nous.

calls

all its

absorbed

is

what

is

natural state. potential.

Aristotle defines as

Unmoved Mover. God

is

the

first

God. God

thing ever to

God

especially

Aristotle

your

is

exist,

the ultimate (and only, as far as

essentially

is

pure mind,

looms around out there somewhere,

concerned with the doings on planet Earth,

the Aristotelian God. Perhaps

you have met more than

self-

a

few

life.

human soul as an integral part of the body, He believed in what is now called the "bodymind" we are one human organism comprised of physical and

viewed the

not a separate

—that

entity. is,

spiritual matter. is

is

its

it fulfills its

time in endless, eternal self-contemplation. Totally

like that in

concept

things

in

when

can become

concerned) Form. God, by Aristotle's reckoning,

spending

soul

all

it

other matter, and

all

removed and not

people

something

that certain

Aristotle calls the

Aristotle

creating or initiating

is

the process of creation.

is

The

that an external force

thing.

The formal cause

what

or

from

identifies four:

Hence, the soul did not

imbued with

within you would

a piece

fly off

exist after death.

However, each

of the Nous, or universal mind, and that Nous

into the ether at the time of physical death.

Happiness and Friendship Aristotle's ethical

philosophy

is

that happiness

is

the ultimate goal of

humankind. This does not mean "anything goes," however. For true happiness can only

happy medium

from

vice

and

age, people

in

all

free to

may

come from

things.

Moderation was

work toward

mistake

leading a virtuous

this for

a

major

life.

Aristotle,

He believed in

virtue.

It

a

kept one free

one's potentiality. In this goal-oriented

ambition and getting ahead in the material

world. Aristotle was referring to an innate forward motion of potentiality

CHAPTER

THE THREE SAGES: SOCRATES, PLATO, AHD ARISTOTLE

2:

that unconsciously drove

all

things in the universe, people included. So,

are constantly "potentializing,"

and the goal of the person

Aristotle truths,

Socrates

living the truly virtuous

or not. This

and happy

is

we

the path

life.

argument that takes two

for the syllogism, an

is

"All

men

are mortal. Socrates

is

a

man. Therefore,

mortal." Aristotle believed that the syllogism

is

was the best

to lead to absolute knowledge.

Aristotle places a high

are to

it

connects them, arriving at a third truth. The most celebrated

syllogism

means

famous

is

whether we know

premium on

friendship as well. True friendships

be cultivated and treasured. Your true friend

doppelganger,

the mirror

your

up

spiritual double.

to nature; to

show

is

almost

A true friend is there

virtue her

own

like

your

"to hold, as 'twere,

feature, scorn her

own

image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure." In other words, Aristotle advocates a virtuous buddy system. In politics, Aristotle sees

seeks out community. rules apply.

The

loan,

humankind

society

felt

like

as a naturally social

was an egregious obscenity

from

ours. Aristotle

a piece of property that

had no

said that usury, or collecting interest

—

pay their credit card

animal that

an extended family and certain

was

that the slave

commercial dealings, he

attest as they

is

rules of Aristotle's day are different

accepted slavery and rights. In

The

as

on

many modern men and women will

bills.

Government Aristotle stated that the three best aristocracy,

forms of government are monarchy.

and constitutional republic, and when perverted, they

degenerated into tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy. a negative in Aristotle's mindset.

masses, just as oligarchy

means

He believed it

a rule

by

constitutional republic, not a democracy.

a

few

to

Yes,

democracy was

be a chaotic rule of the

rich

elitists.

America

is

a

a

ESSENTIALS OF PHILOSOPHY

Art and

Drama

Aristotle differed is

the sincerest

reality

from Plato

form of

in yet

flattery,

another area: art appreciation. Imitation

and humankind

from everything from Manet and Monet

likes representations

to Elvis

on

velvet

of

and

bulldogs playing poker. Aristotle, unlike Plato, did not believe that art was a

weak imitation of reality

Aristotle

saw

striving in

art as a

(itself a

means

our limited

to

weak imitation of

enhance and

human way to touch

a higher reality).

idealize reality, therefore

the Ideal.

He though

it

was

ennobling and not a waste of time. In

drama, Aristotle believed that comedy helped people see

human

absurdity and foolishness and tragedy in the classical sense allowed the

audience to achieve a catharsis

—that

is,

a cleansing

emotional response

within the safe confines of the Greek amphitheater. Seeing mankind represented in

all its

splendor and stupidity had a therapeutic

according to Aristotle.

effect,

Chapter 3

The Decline and

Fall of

the Hellenistic Period

THE

GLORY DAYS OF THE GREEK PHILOSOPHERS

ended with the death of intellectual

life

of

Aristotle,

but the

humankind was

just

beginning. The four main philosophies of the

Roman world

(Epicureanism, Stoicism, Skepticism,

and Neoplatonism) sprang from the rich Greek philosophical tradition.

Rome,

the age

is still

(or Greek) period.

Though we now look

to

referred to as the Hellenistic

ESSENTIALS OF PHILOSOPHY

The End of Greek Prominence The deaths of Aristotle and Alexander

the Great

more or

with the beginning of the end of Greek prominence

in

less

world

coincided affairs.

Alexander the Great, a Macedonian ruler and a former student of Aristotle,

conquered most of the known world before

his early death.

While invaders overran the Greek world, the Greek culture and philosophical tradition survived, courtesy of Alexander's education and

immersion

in the

Greek classics.

After Alexander's death, political chaos and plagues crippled this once thriving civilization.

the predominant

When the

power

in the

dust settled, the

Mediterranean.

reduced to second-class citizenry in the global mythology, and culture influenced the are simply the

Roman Empire was now

Though village,

the Greeks were

Greek philosophy,

Roman world. The Roman gods

Greek gods with new names.

Hellenic schools of philosophy introduced

many words

that have

stayed with us to the present day. Epicurean, Stoic, Skeptic, and Cynic

were

all

schools of philosophy

whose names

are

now

in

common

usage to describe types of personalities that are more or

less similar

to their philosophical forbears.

The Cynics The Cynics were philosophy.

a Socratic sect

The word

cynic

who had

comes from

a very radical

the

approach to

Greek word

for "dog."

life

It

believed that the Cynics were called this because they had a freedom of

expression that

deemed

was more

like that

of the animal kingdom than was

appropriate in polite society.

The Cynics were not philosophers

in the sense that they

put their

system on papyrus. They were more a living testament to a philosophy of nonconformity They were believed to be wandering wise guys and sarcastic stand-up comics,

poking fun

at the hypocrisies

of

society.

and

was

CHAPTER

Stoicism, a

the

wacky

THE DECLIHE AND FALL OF THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD

3:

more formal

philosophy,

embraced many of the

tenets of

Cynics.

Antisthenes He

Antisthenes was the founding Cynic.

studied with the Sophist Gorgias

but eventually embraced Socratic principles. Antisthenes would travel far to listen to the wise Socrates hold court. a

He was

a

shabby young

man with

shaggy beard and rags for clothes. The always wise and shrewd Socrates,

keen to expose pretensions, accused him of reverse narcissism and affectation with this ancient variation of the "grunge" look. Nevertheless,

the Cynics

who

followed

him

also affected a dirty

demeanor.

Antisthenes followed the Socratic precept that Virtue a

happy

life

and was

its

own

governs the universe, but

was not

He

this divine

to be given

much

wearing

rebelling against

was an amalgam of many gods;

this force

many

his

other philosophers,

world was inherently unknowable and hence not

what he preached,

a ratty old cloak,

what he

many ways,

were, in

the key to

thought.

also practiced

lifestyle,

is

believed in a divine force that

a monotheistic religious view. Like

he believed

He

reward.

living a simple

were the extravagances of

felt

and primitive

and never shaving. Antisthenes was his age.

Cynics

the hippies of the Hellenistic era.

Diogenes Diogenes was the most famous of the Cynics. be a disciple of Antisthenes, but the

house with

dogged

a stick. Antisthenes

desire to study

He

latter initially

desperately wanted to

chased him out of his

was eventually charmed by Diogenes's

under the master, so he was accepted into the

Cynical fold.

Diogenes

lived the

life

of a homeless man, wearing tattered robes,

begging for food, sleeping on the

which

is

a large tub or barrel.

street,

when he was captured by pirates and block, he

announced

that he

purchased by someone

and occasionally

As an old man, he was on

was

sold into slavery.

a natural leader, so

who wanted a

master.

in a pithos,

a sea voyage

On the

auction

he should be

A wealthy man in the

MHUf

OF PHILOSOPHY

crowd found

this to

be hilarious and promptly bought him, freed him, and

made Diogenes the tutor of his children. During this period, it is said that he met Alexander the Great, and the eccentric Cynic asked the world conqueror to move because he was blocking the sun. This apparently thoroughly charmed Alexander. If all

these anecdotes

and playwrights such

seem

like tall tales,

as Juvenal

they very well

may be.

Poets

and Plutarch recounted much these long

after the fact.

Even the story of Diogenes's death may be apocryphal.

Legend has

he

it

and the monument

lived to the ripe old age of ninety

of a dog was erected

at his gravesite.

Epicureanism: The Pleasure Principle Epicurus (341-270

B.C.) is

perhaps one of the most misinterpreted

philosophers in the pantheon of great thinkers. His

name and philosophy

became synonymous with wanton hedonism. The Epicurean

lifestyle is

widely considered to be a celebration of sensuality, the indulgence in pleasure for pleasure's sake, a shameless enjoyment in

all

manner of

debauchery and gluttony.

True Epicureanism The humble, that

quiet,

and

retiring Epicurus

went on and continues

to

go on

would be aghast

in his

name. While

at the revelry

it is

true that

Epicurus put great stock in the pursuit of pleasure, his definition of pleasure as

would be more akin

opposed

to the delights enjoyed

by the couch potato

to the libertine.

Epicurus led a

restful,

contemplative

life,

eating modestly, drinking

moderately, and philosophizing for the most part from a prone position

on

his

hammock. Though he would have considered himself an Atomist,

following Democritus's dictum that reality can be reduced to indivisible particles

he called atoms, science was not Epicurus's main area of

Epicurus can in no

way be

Atomist mind told him

decomposing

called a

that,

collection of

upon

man

of spiritual

death, the

body

belief.

is

atoms that return to the

reduced to

earth.

interest.

His rational,

No

a

mention

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE

3:

is

made of

atoms you

it

Still,

this did

not distress Epicurus. There

and when you're dead, you're dead. You

in nothingness,

of

You were atoms, and unto

the existence of the soul after death. shall return.

imiimi-mrca

because you will no longer

exist,

so there

is

Epicureanism actually means the opposite of

will

is

no pain

not be aware

no reason

to fear death

common

usage today.

its

While the original philosophy did mean a pursuit of pleasure, pleasure

was defined

as moderation, reading, and introspection, not the sensual

indulgences that the word implies today.

The with

it

religious leaders of the day thought Epicurus's philosophy carried

the whiff of atheism. Epicureans steadfastly denied their fearless

may explain while almost none we must rely on secondhand sources.

leader's lack of religiosity. This controversy

of his writing survives today, and

When

Christianity

Roman

Empire,

became

it is

the pre-eminent faith and philosophy of the

possible that the early

Church

may have

ending quest to stamp out heresy,

fathers, in their never-

tried to consign Epicurus to

the ash heap of history.

The Role of the Senses Epicurus believed that everything

we know we

get

from the senses

and he thought the senses are trustworthy, unlike the Skeptics,

who

alone,

held

precisely the opposite opinion.

La life

dolce vita

was what

it

was the name of the game was

all

about.

He

felt

for Epicurus: Living the

good

that mankind's modus operandi should

be the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. Epicurus believed that desires could be divided into the following categories:

Natural desires that are essential and mandatory for survival (food and shelter)

Natural desires that you can Narcissistic desire Cwealth

live

without sex

and fame that should be avoided )

IJAlJ.'liMM.IJJilll.M.lJII'l

The

natural desires are relatively easy to satisfy and the vain desires are

difficult to

achieve and indicative of a shallow personality.

The vain

desires

should be expunged from your character because they are an obstacle to true inner peace.

Leisure

Time

Epicurus also was a big proponent of quiet time, pleasant conversation

with a small

of like-minded friends, and the joys of reading. The

circle

most

pleasures of sex were, for the usually

with

come

at

many minefields, and the

heartbreak was not worth the

Such anxiety would say that he rarely,

present

part, to

interfere

if ever,

its

is

charms

fraught

potential for profound angst and crushing effort, as far as

with

Epicurus was concerned.

his quest for inner peace.

invited a guest to swing with

safe to

It is

him on his

ever-

hammock.

One of the worst things you can do, the uncertain future. If

day

be avoided, because

an exacting price. The rocky road of romance

at a time,

eminendy

then

we

we

can

according to Epicurus,

the

live in

now and achieve

are in the best possible "space,"

is

fret

tranquility

and the

about

one

elusive yet

desirable ataraxia (inner peace) will be ours.

Justice, according to Epicurus,

can be reduced to the simple adage,

"do unto others." People assemble in communities to to observe this precursor to

live in

peace and

"The Golden Rule."

One of the most important and wonderful things is friendship. The down your life for a friend,

ordinarily passive Epicurus believes in laying if

necessary. Friends are the only people

you can count on, and they

be held in your heart of hearts. The pleasures of sex are

fleeting,

are to

while the

rewards of friendship are immense.

Live

Unnoticed

Epicurus was not a differed

from

political life as

pursuit of

political animal.

Aristotle's ethical

and

His definition of happiness dramatically social activism.

Epicurus saw the

adding to the agita that would detract from his serene

modest

pleasures.

He was

a

stay-at-home kind of guy. "Live

CHAPTER

3:

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD

He and his

unnoticed" was a main precept of Epicureanism.

were laid-back and low

followers

profile.

Epicurus lived and died quietly in a

home

with a garden outside of

The Garden and its

Athens, where he received guests and taught students. teachings and traditions lasted for almost 500 years.

Epicurean

communes were

Men and women were

quite egalitarian.

treated as equals, and socioeconomic distinctions

were ignored. Even the

were treated with equanimity. This was unheard of

slaves

Roman world, and some might today. Needless to say, they

argue that

it

were regarded

they probably did not worry too

isn't

as outcasts

much about

in the

Greco-

even completely practiced

and oddballs, but

that because they

had

little

use for mainstream society.

Meanwhile, over in Rome, Epicureanism was taking on a decidedly different

bent

whether

it

frat

—the one

house, those

to the

it

continues to be

known

for to this day.

However,

be an orgy in Caligula's palace or a toga-party in a contemporary

man

who would call themselves

Epicureans bear no resemblance

or his philosophy.

Stoicism Zeno of Cyprus (334-262 from

B.C.;

his porch, called a stoa,

Epicureans, Stoicism took

were Atomists, the

its

firej.

who

Stoic.

used to lecture

(as the

Epicureans

with Heraclitus in the belief that everything

The word stoic has remained

accepts

He

As was the case with the

cue from the Presocratics

Stoics sided

could be reduced to defines a person

founded the Stoic school.

hence the name

life's

slings

in the

language and

and arrows without whining about

Knowledge and Wisdom A Stoic would have

agreed with an Epicurean that

all

knowledge comes

from sensory experience. They did not accept the Platonic notion of Forms. The mind are imprinted. is

is

a tabula rasa, or blank slate,

And because

no Eternal Truth

all

in the Stoic

knowledge handbook.

is

upon which experiences

subjective, so

is

truth.

There

it.

— 11I1UM

OF PHILOSOPHY

1

The

came

saw wisdom

Stoics

bravery, self-restraint,

as the greatest virtue,

and from wisdom

and justice. There were no shades of gray

good or

in the Stoic philosophy. People are either totally

And

completely wise or perfectly foolish.

who

those

who were

of civilization can identify with the Stoics,

utterly evil,

decry the decline saying the same

thing 2,000 years ago.

The Divine The

Stoics believed in a Divinity that shapes our ends. This Divinity,

however,

was

like the Stoics themselves,

called Logos, or

was not of the warm-fuzzy

variety.

Logos's program and stay on the same page with the Divine Mind.

word pneuma, or breath, which is

Stoics also introduced the

universe.

The

It

Mind, and the path to happiness was to get with the

individual souls

all

derive

from

The

the soul of the

breathy Oversoul. This

this

is

an early form of monotheism, with a dash of Presocratic monism thrown into the mix. Stoics put

on the path were

no great stock in worldly

to

to be kept in check.

good orderly

direction

The most famous

was in

a

pleasures; they

wisdom. Passionate emotions got

An

ascetic lifestyle

was the

and avoided distracting

Stoic

was

also a

in the

were a hindrance

way

ideal.

as well.

the

histrionics.

Roman emperor. Marcus

foremost Stoic whose collection of journal

and

Aurelius

entries, written

between vanquishing barbarian hordes, Meditations,

quintessential distillation of Stoic thought

They

promoted

It

is

a

practice.

"Everything happens for the best, and you can usually expect the worst"

was the

Stoic philosophy. If a Stoic

saw

would

naturally be to try to save their

cessful

and the loved one perished

all,

and the person

a loved

life.

But

c'est la vie!

died, then this death

one

if

must have been

illogical. If

world and you

Doing your best

so be

it.

was unsuc-

Because the Divine governs

respond with sadness would be still fail,

in peril, the response

the attempt

for the best.

you have done your best is its

own

reward.

To in this

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD

3:

The Stoic The

Stoics

Ideal

took

a principle

of Aristotle to an extreme degree. Aristotle said

human psyche,

that passions have their place in the rule.

The

nature as

evil

but that reason should

on the other hand, saw the passionate

Stoics,

and something to be eradicated. In

psychologists like Freud and Jung

would

side

human

of

later centuries,

modern and

see this as an impossibility,

an unhealthy thing to even attempt. You can never rid yourself of these impulses and

you

if

try,

they will only lay dormant, poised to surface

at

inappropriate moments.

For the Stoic, deal with

it

and

you were consigned

if

still live

a

life

to a

of goodness. In

life

of suffering, you could

you had the advantage

fact,

over your wealthy counterpart, because material things often got in the

way One virtue

of the famous

Stoics, Epictetus,

and did not lament

dealt, as did

his lot in

was

in fact a slave.

He made do

scale.

Pleasure

only good and vice the only

The Greek expression

is

evil.

not good. Pain

And duty

not

evil.

for those at

Virtue

is

the

everything.

for negative emotions, such as fear,

were antipathe, and the word used

these emotions has

is

is

He believed in

with the deck he was

Marcus Aurelius, an emperor. Stoicism worked

both ends of the

Stoics

life.

to describe their

was pathe.

approach to

come to us through the ages. The Stoics were The truly wise and good man was apathetic.

big time

advocates of apathy. Stoics

were

Seneca, the fell

also

not averse to suicide under certain conditions.

Roman playwright and noted

Stoic,

took

out of favor with the notorious emperor Nero.

indifferent

his

Stoics

were

if it is

own life when he

you have

and apathetic outlook, which was the Stoic

meaningless and a small loss

The

If

ideal,

a perfectly

your

life is

snuffed out.

also pantheists.

Pantheism

is

the belief that

God is

present in everything, not a bearded figure seated imperiously on his

throne on the other side of the Pearly Gates.

Both the Epicureans and the inner peace.

Stoics sought the principle of ataraxia, or

The Epicureans sought

and the pursuit of pleasure. The

demeanor and

a

grim

it

through withdrawal from society

Stoics

found

it

in a Clint

Eastwood

fatalism, perceiving themselves as inconsequential

cogs in a cold and indifferent mechanism.

Some

Stoic principles

were

HTHJUmiUJilHIMJIH adapted by the newly emerging religion of Christianity. Others, including

pantheism and the advocacy of

suicide,

were obviously

rejected.

And, of

course, Christianity found nothing nice to say about Epicureanism.

Hannibal Lecter a Stoic?

Is

Hannibal tutors Clarice

in

The Silence of the Lambs by introducing

her to Stoicism 101, "First Principles, Clarice. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius.

Of each particular thing, ask what

nature?"

It

The person who

A Sage was

lived the Stoic ideal to the fullest

a rare bird indeed,

its

What

is its

classics.

was

called a Sage.

and when discovered, followers flocked

around him. Nowadays, sage simply means

word has

is it itself.

would seem that even cannibals read the

a wise

man

or

woman, but

the

genesis in the Stoic tradition.

Skepticism: Perception Is Reality The

Skeptics have also contributed a

the Skeptics were indeed a skeptical

know

word lot.

to the English language.

They believed

that

anything about anything. The only thing you can

your perceptions

tell

you, and your perception

is

And

you could not

know is what

highly suspect and not

to be trusted.

One person may medium height; another might say he was taller than average. One witness may tell the police that the suspect had brown hair; another may claim to have seen a blond-haired suspect. He Think of

it

in

terms of witnesses of a crime scene.

report having seen a culprit of

fled the scene in a sky blue Audi, or as

many

was

it

a

gray

BMW? There are usually

descriptions of such events as there are witnesses.

Consider the

classic Japanese film

participants in a robbery

and rape

tell

Rashomon, where three different the story three different ways, each

equally valid to the individual telling the story. For those of

with

same

this film,

plot.

you may

This

is

recall the

you unfamiliar

episode of The Odd Couple that has the

the basic premise of Skepticism.

CHAPTER

3:

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD

The founder of He,

Because

the Skeptic school

saw the road

like Epicurus,

we wander largely

white and day

is

night (or

was Pyrrho of

clueless

maybe

through

not),

a

life,

one might

360-272

Elis (c.

to happiness as doing as

little

B.C.).

as possible.

world where black is

as well

not do much.

Repose was the only recourse for the truly wise man. The only path to peace was to suspend judgment, because no worldview another.

Do not believe

opinions. There

is

anything you see or hear.

no such thing

as

good or

evil.

Do

is

Rather than promote

chaos and confusion, Pyrrho believed that to accept them to

live.

Nothing can be proved, so what

is all

any better than

not have any

is

the only

A humorous and probably apocryphal legend

has Pyrrho, founder

of the Skeptics, wandering around like an ancient Mr.

Magoo,

oblivious to the world around him as his disciples protect

from charging

chariots, wild beasts,

way

the fuss about?

and assorted other

him

perils

of antiquity.

Cicero and the Eclectics Cicero was a famous lived

Roman senator,

lawyer, orator, and philosopher

and died during some of the most turbulent times

who

in ancient history.

when power was reserved for the aristocracy he rose from the the Roman senate. He favored the Republican form of government in a society that was headed toward dictatorship. He was exiled and almost executed more than once. He witnessed the assassination of Julius Caesar and was eventually executed under the orders of Mark Antony. In a time

less exalted classes to

Even though

on philosophy

it

was

a culture in decline, Greece

in the ancient world. Cicero

still

had the monopoly

"Romanized" the Greek

philosophers in Latin translations designed to bring the classics to the

Romans.

It is

said

he was inventive

in his translations,

and

as a lifelong

lawyer and politician, he had ulterior motives in his efforts to bring philosophy, to the

Roman

Empire. Ever the pragmatist, he intended to use

philosophy as a tool to further his political goals and advance the glory

ESSENTIALS OF PHILOSOPHY

was Rome. Though he was

that

was

Skepticism, he

"When you

Roman branch

largely linked to the

of

premier practitioner of Eclecticism.

also a

eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however

improbable, must be the truth," was the philosophy of detection employed

by Sherlock Holmes. This

Wading through

essentially

is

what the

Eclectics

had

in

mind.

the weighty thoughts of the Epicureans, Stoics, and

Skeptics, the Eclectics sought to find

Truth amidst that conflicting jumble.

Cicero examined the major philosophies of the day and, politician that he was, selected his belief systems from the philosophica

Who were the The

who

name

suggests, were a group of thinkers

an effort to devise a new and improved philosophy.

in

Cicero had

public

the

picked and chose from a variety of philosophical schools of

thought,

would

Eclectics?

Eclectics, as

little

life

embrace

and recommends

In fact, Cicero

was

And

use for Epicureanism.

a career politician

a

life

that

makes

sense.

Why

a philosophy that calls for a rejection of

of anonymous and quiet contemplation?

largely responsible,

through

his translations, for the

misrepresentation of Epicurean thought, giving

it its

undeserved

reputation as a coven of party animals.

Cicero embraced certain aspects of Stoic teaching to politics.

The extreme

cannot trust politico.

his

when

it

came

Skeptic advocates total inaction, because one

own perceptions, and that,

So Cicero took one from Column

of course,

A

is

anathema

to a

and one from Column B

in his philosophy.

Cicero believed that chaos would ensue

own

would be no Roman Empire first,

if

people did

philosopher a distant second. Hence,

with the Skeptics

was

if

everyone casually did his

thing and did not wholeheartedly embrace the rule of law. There

—

it

was time

for a

little

that,

and Cicero was

when it was

good old-fashioned

active role

Roman

Stoicism.

It

He incorporated the they played in human affairs, bestowing

often, however, Stoicism according to Cicero.

Roman gods and the

a

convenient, the heck

CHAPTER

3:

and

blessings

THE DECLIHE AHD FALL OF THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD

afflicting

And he endorsed the

punishment.

pursuit of

Of

pleasure in moderation as opposed to the ideal of ascetic self-denial. course, Cicero

was

diluting the

This adaptation of philosophy Sophistry

almost as eternal

is

message by adapting

is

as

Rome,

right

up

End

Plato's

established a school in

It

Forms.

on the teaching of Plato and

belief designed to help

It

sounds

was

you prepare

won out money

it

and

this

as the

name

the last

suggests, relied

and the

spirit

flesh.

And

meet your maker, which

was

a

its

However, Neoplatonism was

eventually, of course, but

One

it

in

One.

it?

was major competition

Neoplatonists believed that the intelligence),

to

a perfect divinity, the

Christianity its

It,

lasted well into the sixth century a.d.

like Christianity, doesn't

pagan monotheism, and

run for

many

appears in

was the founder of Neoplatonist

spoke of the dichotomy between the

interpretation

It

be in ancient Greece or

it

Rome. Neoplatonism was

shout of ancient Greek philosophizing. heavily

ends.

of an Epoch

Plotinus of Alexandria (a.d. 205-270)

He

own

and including the current sociocultural climate.

to

Neoplatonism: thought.

to his

not unlike our old friends, the Sophists.

one of

and guises through the millennia, whether

faces

it

to Christianity.

Neoplatonism gave

blesses creation with

animates the universe.

Human souls

it

Nous

a

(divine

are parts of this

universal soul, just as cells in the body, and are created in the

image of the

Man in his own image," doesn't it? God is an unknowable mystery beyond human understanding, and we must have faith. Again, this is very familiar to Christian precepts. No wonder there One. Sounds

was St.

like

"God

a hostile rivalry

created

and

also a cross-pollinating

of ideas. Augustine, later

Augustine, acknowledged the influence of Neoplatonism in the shaping

of his theology. In a

world where religion was poised to become the driving force

shaping world new.

It

was

a

affairs,

Neoplatonism was

a bridge

in

between the old and the

combination of the principles of Plato and the influence of

eastern religions and the emerging Christian Church.

Chapter 4

The Medieval Mind

When

the Roman Empire fell

A.D. 476, the subsequent

not say that

life

a

time

was

nasty, brutish,

and the giant shadow of

growing

faith

thrived.

To

and short would

Rome was

a.d. 313,

thinkers.

Dark Ages were

when philosophy

be an understatement.

in

Christianized in

this

new and

fast-

loomed ominously over independent

ESSENTIALS OF PHILOSOPHY

The Christian Church and Philosophy During the Dark Ages, the Christian Church firmly established pre-eminent religion of the Western world. Christianity professes a dogma.

Dogma

is

a

itself as

the

theology that

a doctrine of belief presented as absolute

is

truth in an authoritarian manner.

The

prominence of the Christian Church can be divided into

rise to

three periods:

The Evangelization spread through the

spread

like wildfire, ultimately

formerly

The

Period, as the name suggests, was when the faith known world by missionaries. The word by and large

its

the official

Church of Rome,

Period comprises the second through the eighth centuries.

Patristic

The Church

becoming

chief nemesis.

leaders codified and systematized church

picked a wealth of gospels (chronicles of the

life

dogma. They

of Jesus) and chose

four "official" gospels. Depending on your bent, the Church was either

"defending" those

who

itself against

disagreed with

lighting a fire

The

under

their

the pagans and the heretics or crushing

them by branding them bad heathen

Scholastic Period lasted

as

all

blasphemers and

selves.

from approximately the ninth

to the

sixteenth century. In this period, Christian philosophy evolved, based

Platonic and Aristotelian principles, and yet designed to be

on

harmonious

with Church dogma. This synthesis between philosophy and theology

was the main school of thought of the Medieval Age and forever changed the world.

Scholasticism began at the University of Paris and Oxford University in

England. The rallying cry was "Learn everything," a noble and

open-minded

goal. These universities established first courses of

study from which in

modern

liberal arts

programs are derived.

It

was

these schools that the shift from Plato to Aristotle took place.

CHAPTER

4:

THE MEDIEVAL MIND

Augustine of Hippo During

many

this time,

a

philosopher prudently kept his thoughts to

However, some deep thinkers appeared

himself.

dark days. The

in those

major philosopher of the Christian era was Augustine of Hippo

first

(a.d. 354-430).

and he serves

He was born and died in the last days

as a bridge

between the

classical

of the

Roman

Empire,

and the medieval worlds.

Background

His

Augustine was a pagan born in North Africa who, though a scholar and

called

guilt

He was

of a libertine in his misspent youth.

a teacher, led the life

without

and he wrestled with

his sensual nature,

embracing

evil.

me

chastity

.

.

.

famous and

a

to study

little

older,

Manichaeanism no longer

Neoplatonism, the popular

eventually converted to Christianity,

installed as the

As

is

became

Bishop of Hippo, in what

is

rival

stale

and

would get quite

revival of his

"God

satisfied

rigid

over time. Such

a priest,

now Algeria

a shake-up, however,

was the

and was ultimately in

North

Africa.

it

fate of Scholasticism.

and old Plato would get

own, as the Middle Ages drew to

him,

of early Christianity.

always the case, once a thing becomes institutionalized,

becomes It

ironic prayer,

but not yet."

As Augustine got and he began

He

between good

Augustine's candid autobiography, Confessions, chronicles his

struggles in this arena and contains the

grant

a faith

Manichaeanism. Manichaeanism was an amalgam of Christian and

Persian philosophies and emphasized the eternal struggle

and

not

a

a close.

Augustine used Neoplatonic philosophy to defend, endorse, and affirm Christian theology Philosophy and faith

would be intermingled throughout

the Middle Ages. Augustine attempted to explain

some of

adapted Platonic principles to neatly

fit

into Christian

many Of course, he

the

mysteries of Christianity through the philosophies of Plato.

dogma. Remember,

he was operating from a faith-based starting point, and for him, the

ESSENTIALS OF PHILOSOPHY

precepts of Holy

Mother Church were

inviolate.

That was the starting

point for his philosophy and not a source of speculation, rumination, or debate. Augustine sought to "Christianize" Plato, just as a future philosopher-saint,

Thomas

Aquinas, sought to Christianize Aristotle.

Plato spoke of the Forms, Eternal Truths, and says they

all

intellectual pursuits, there

Augustine believed that

brainpower alone.

God and One

must be

real insight

The Good; Augustine

More important than

spring forth from God.

speculation and

divine illumination. In other words,

does not

come from mankind's

A little divine intervention goes a long way.

Free Will

of the age-old enigmas that has had theologians and laymen alike

scratching their heads

does

this

world?

If

is this:

God is

If

all

knowing and

all-powerful,

how

gibe with the notion of free will and the existence of evil in the

God knows in advance what people will do and allows it to God allows evil to exist and people should not be held

happen, then

responsible for their actions, for those actions existed in the

mind of God

eons before they were born. Augustine suggests that time, as

God no

past and

no

future.

There

In today's hectic world,

exhort us to

"live in

now. Yesterday

is

the

and

it is

fashionable for the

history,

and tomorrow this

a limitation that

is

is

meaningless to God.

does not

New Age

sages to

afflict

state.

Linear time

God. God's

infinite

is

tells us.

an

wisdom

free will. Personal responsibility

human condition. Yet God is there to guide us if we seek we can only take partial credit when we are good and blame when we are evil.

rules in the

Him

out.

assume

Hence,

all

the

Original Sin Given flesh.

his lustful youth,

He was

a

is

try in vain to stay in the

a mystery, the old adage

God's natural

and omniscience has no bearing on our still

it, is

only an Eternal Present, the Big Now.

is

moment." People often

According to Augustine, illusion

we measure

an Eternal realm where linear time has no meaning. There

exists in

Augustine was keenly aware of the

firm believer in Original

Sin. Original Sin

is,

sins

of the

of course,

HIMiHilfiJIUHIh'ni'lllll the

unwelcome

gift

bestowed upon us by

described in the Old Testament's

Adam

Book of

and Eve

in the

Garden,

as

Genesis. Eve ate the apple at the

prompting of that snake, Satan. Augustine, while endorsing the concept of

on the nature of

Original Sin, has a different take

Again, the big question created the world,

how

is this: If

a perfect

can such rampant naughtiness flourish? Taking a

page from Plato, Augustine espoused that ravaging the souls of the

Augustine, later

and theologian

St.

libertine in his

chastity

.

.

Not every

.

sinful,

evil is

it

not a diabolical force

but rather the absence of good.

Augustine, was the

who sought

essence, Christianize

evil.

and perfectly good God

first

Christian philosopher

to take the philosophy of Plato and,

conform to Church dogma. He was

to

youth and

famous

is

for the prayer,

in

a

"God grant me

but not yet."

Christian agrees with this idea.

Even today depending on

whom you talk to, modern Christians still maintain that Hell is either the fire-and-brimstone inferno of legend or merely the absence of God. inability to

terrifying

bask

in the

warmth and

and abysmal prospect to

free will to

embrace the

light,

darkness of sin and despond, is

and

we

love of

men and women of faith. We have the we eschew its beacon and skulk in the

if

have no one to blame but ourselves. Such

the price of free will. Just as goodness

punishment

it is

is

is its

own

reward, sin

is its

own

—a descent into the maelstrom of nothingness—because,

according to Augustine, sinner

The

God for eternity is in itself a

sin,

the absence of good,

more harmed than anyone he may

only through God's grace that

we

afflict

is

a terrible void.

through

The

his actions,

and

can be saved.

Anselm's Ontological Argument Anselm of Canterbury 1033-1 109) was (

who

ultimately

became

a Benedictine

monk and teacher

the Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest

religious office in England.

He

is

the

most

significant philosopher of his

ESSENTIALS OF PHILOSOPHY

He

century.

sought to distinguish between philosophy and theology.

The famous maxim of Anselm was "Credo "I

believe that

I

may understand."

world around you truly get to the

He

to the next level.

is

word

Anselm.

"ontological"

existence of

first;

understanding the

faith-based philosophy of Augustine

most famous

It is

for his

'There

is

no

argument has fascinated the philosophers called Anselm's Ontological

God holding that the

god.'"

and took

Argument. The

defined as "Of or relating to the argument for the

is

starts off

order to

argument which "proves"

existence of the concept of

the existence of God." In other words, thinking about

Anselm

faith in

things.

the existence of God. This that followed

means

ut intelligam," which

comes

secondary and must be infused with

is

bottom of

Anselm continued the it

Faith

with

a

quote from Psalm

Anselm then

14:

it

makes

God entails it

so.

"Fools say in their hearts.

says that even a fool can conceive of the

notion of something "than which nothing greater can be conceived."

can be conceived in the mind of man, has

it

can

some conception of what God might be

argument, they called

Anselm

is

Even

exist. like.

is

If

exist.

an inherent contradiction in denying the

we must

existence of God. In order to deny the existence of God,

God is.

it

Naturally, for the sake of

God the most perfect being that could possibly

suggesting that there

conception of what

If

a fool, or a heretic,

the limited

mind of man can

the existence of so perfect a being, then that said being

have a

speculate

must

on

in fact exist.

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas

(1225-1274) was a primary Catholic thinker

who sought He also,

to Christianize Aristotle just as Augustine adapted Neoplatonism. to the satisfaction of many, reconciled the

dilemma of

Faith versus Reason.

Augustinian thinking was the accepted school of the day, and see any distinction

between philosophy and theology, yet

it

did not

steadfastly stuck

to the theory of illumination. In other words, divine intervention

was

necessary for profound intellectual advancements.

Thomas Aquinas In regard to

rejected both illumination and the

Double Truth.

Averroism, he believed that religion and reason did not each

m a \u .mm \i\

—there

one Truth. Philosophy and theology are not

is

thev are on parallel courses.

Some

1

i

n il

two opposing and competing

represent a separate truth. There cannot be truths

i N ui ii 1

j ii

in opposition;

things are self-evident, and others

require a leap of faith.

The Averroist theory of the Double Truth stated that philosophy

and theology were mutually

exclusive.

There

is

truth that

comes

from philosophy, and the truth that comes from theology, but they are parallel truths.

Thomas Aquinas did.

Mankind

One can

gave

more

credit to the

human intellect than Augustine

did not need divine intervention to think profound thoughts.

ascertain the

Form by

observation of the

reality.

of the exalted notions of Truth and Beauty without a fact,

mankind cannot

Aquinas

felt

the

Form was embedded

Christian pride,

little

Aristotle can figure

nudge. In

truly grasp the Forms, because like Aristotle, in the corporeal reality

free-floating entity out there in the ether.

with a

We can conceive

celestial

all this

Harkening back to

Thomas Aquinas

believed that

out, Christians certainly could.

if

Thomas

and was not Aristotle,

"pagan"

a

Old

a

and like

Aristotle did

not have the advantage of divine assistance, pagan that he was.

Another welcome contribution of Thomas Aquinas was approach to the body-mind-spirit that makes a less

of "the

spirit is willing,

but the flesh

philosophy than in Augustine's and

Thomas Aquinas

is

his holistic

human being. There was

weak" thinking

in his

Plato's.

also postulated five

ways

that

we

can prove the

existence of God:

Motion is

is

a reality, at least to

a prior impetus that set

it

human perception. For every motion, there motion. Go back far enough, and you

in

have the Primary Mover. This Similarly,

new things come

events, there

the

first.

must be

There you

is

God.

into being

all

the time. For each of these

a cause. Regress cause after cause until

will find

God.

you get

to

ESSENTIALS OF PHILOSOPHY

and

All things change,

all

things are contingent

for their existence. Ultimately there will is

not contingent on anything else for

Thomas Aquinas there

is

all

himself

Order

its

you take

else

existence. Therein lies a

God.

look around you and note that

an inherent perfection to the nature of things, to greater and

lesser degrees.

which

suggests that

upon something

be something original that

There must be something that

is

purely perfect, from

other things descend in a perfection pecking order. Mr. Perfect

is

God.

exists

everywhere. There

is

a

profound order to the universe.

Ergo, there must exist an intelligence responsible for this magnificent orderliness. This

is

God.

Motion, cause, contingency, perfection, and order are Aquinas's five proofs for the existence of God. it,

but

was

it

a big hit in

Thomas Aquinas

its

Many have

Thomas disagreed with

day.

did for Aristotle

what Augustine

did for Plato,

making the "pagan" philosopher appear to seamlessly blend with the teachings of the Christian Church. Aquinas

many faith

as the

man who

right in

regarded by

ended the discrepancy between

and reason.

In addition to the in

successfully

is

dilemma of

Faith versus Reason, the other

problem

medieval philosophy was the problem of the Universals. Universals are

Aristotle's

that

attempt to

Forms were

floating

make

sense of the Platonic Forms. Plato believed

divine entities (called Truth, Beauty,

around out there

in the ether,

and so on) that are

and that earthly notions of truth

and beauty are mere shadows of the forms.

Aristotle felt that there

were

Universals within substantial objects, and that these Universals were not separate entities.

Because lost

much

of the

classical writings

of Plato and Aristotle were

during the Dark and Middle Ages, to be rediscovered later during the

iMiJiirini

ni

i

Renaissance, the medieval philosophers were debating this notion

over again. Aquinas comes to the same conclusion as Aristotle,

900 years

later.

simultaneously composed of both it

all

some

Aquinas also concurs with the Aristotelian view that physical

(what

mi

will

become). This

physical reality

is

is

its

actuality

(what

reality

is

and potentiality

it is)

an Aristotelian/ Aquinian principle. Also,

composed of both matter and form

—

Aristotle's

Universals theory.

Aquinas divided knowledge into two Sensitive

knowledge

Intelligence

is

is

stages, sensitive

grasping the abstract concept of "rock."

intelligence into three processes: abstraction,

Though Aquinas was

young

died

philosophy and theology as

and

intelligent.

simple awareness of something, such as a rock.

his physical girth.

is

(he

was only

significant.

He

divided

judgment, and reasoning. his legacy in

fifty),

His body of work

is

both

enormous,

Rewarded posthumously with sainthood by the

Catholic Church, even secular humanists continue to marvel at his keen intellect

and contribution to philosophy.

John Duns Scotus There were other contributors to the expansion of the medieval mind.

One

of them was John

The

Subtle Doctor.

Duns Scotus

Scotus was a Franciscan

(c.

monk who

1265-1308)

endorsed

He was nicknamed

many

of the precepts

of Augustine, yet differed on other key elements, including the necessity

Humans

of "illumination."

wonders without time,

dogma

rules as far as Scotus

is

Being a

concerned.

Universals by suggesting that they exist as

mind of God) and perceived in the

over the intellect.

as part

He

and

a

spins the notion of

(to

be found

of the physical things they represent

Scotus said that will

is

in the (as

the intellect pre-eminent

more important than

This led to a great medieval debate

Scotist controversy.

cleric

Forms

mind of man). Aquinas has

human will;

God and his man of his

have the intellect to comprehend

a celestial cheat sheet.

known

as the

Thomist-

n

i

l

nU LJMIl.UJ

H

'

il

H. 1 J

'

!

L

J

Roger Bacon Another important philosopher of the age was Roger Bacon

Bacon was

modern

monk who

a Franciscan

scientist.

He

(c.

1214-1294).

regarded as a forerunner of the

is

sought to incorporate the academic disciplines of

mathematics and language into theology and philosophy though

his

book

Opus Major.

Bacon proposed authority, reason,

that there are three

and experience.

ways

He breaks

the internal and external. External experience reality

and the world of the

William of

(c.

Ockham's Razor. This

similar to

is

help from the person upstairs.

little

1300-1349)

is

most famous

is

the belief that

crazy world, the simplest answer

Razor, simply put,

is

is

reiterated

numerous times

when

all is

the belief that

in

for the theory said

and done

known

in this

usually the right one.

considered, the simplest explanation is

awareness of physical

Ockham

Ockham

Ockham's

is

senses. Internal experience

Augustine's "illumination," a

William of

knowledge:

to gain

experience into the realms of

is

when

things are

all

the truest one. This theory

the Jodie Foster science-fiction

movie Contact.

In a

little

more

detail,

x'Yristotelian

—and was —was that the Platonic Forms and

what Ockham was saying

viewpoint to have in the Middle Ages

a radical

it

Universals were a lot of nonsense. There

is

a physical reality

of concrete things, both animate and inanimate. They exist in and of themselves.

comes

Any

solely

significance or importance that

humans

from the human mind. Any knowledge

man would be from

direct sensory experiences

to

and certain

conclusions, like the instinctual sense not to step off a

hand

in a fire. This

philosophy was

a

assign

them

be acquired from

cliff

logical

or stick your

form of nominalism. Nominalism

as

J!HiJJ:»»J!IJ