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PHILOSOPHY 2010
STUDY NOTES
PRE-SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY
1. When did “the history of philosophy” begin? A that the answer to 1. was a “thing”, i.e., “stuff”. 3.
history of philosophy would have a beginning. The The ultimate stuff—water—is active and contains
history of philosophy, even if the records were com- within itself a principle of change. This is probably
plete, would be impossible to locate. It was a gradual what he meant when he said all things are “full of
change from a kind of thinking that no one would gods.” Paradoxical as it may sound, he was tacitly
call philosophical, e.g., anthropomorphic and denying divine causality. “Things” do not require
mythic, to a kind of thinking that everyone would force applied to them from outside by the gods but
call philosophical. move of themselves, by a natural force within them.
This is the first rudimentary concept of “process.”
2. How was the Homeric heaven just a reflection of
the Homeric state? The Greek state, as Homer de- 7. What were Anaximander’s basic assumptions? 1.
scribed it, was monarchial in principle, but the king There is some “thing”—a one “stuff,” and 2. there is
was by no means an absolute monarch. Public opin- a process by which this one becomes the many
ion, as represented by the warriors and nobles—not things of everyday experience, and 3. this process is
the “people,” of course—clearly played a part in “necessary.”
limiting the royal prerogative. What was their con-
8. Why did Anaximander reject the idea that the
ception of law and nature? There was not yet any
“basic stuff” is a “element”? Because there is a
conception of law as a body of rules to which even
logical contradiction in the theory that things that are
the sovereign must bow. Nor did Homer have any
not water (rocks, fire, air, and so on) are “really” wa-
conception of nature as a system of regularly recur-
ter. The one stuff must be without particular limiting
ring sequences of events. What is fate? Homer’s
characteristics, that is, infinite or “boundless”.
gods are causal agents—that they are responsible for
“Stuffs” issue from and return to the boundless.
both the regular order of events and the interruptions
of that order. But above the gods is fate, a blind, in- 9. For Anaximander, how did the universe, life and
scrutable “will” to which even Zeus must yield. mankind come into existence? The world as we
know it was separated out of the boundless by a kind
3. What was the supreme offense for Homer? Hubris
of circular motion like an eddy. Our world is only
or insubordination. The moderate man “knows his
one of many such separated-out worlds, which are
place.” What was the supreme offense for Hesiod?
coming into being and passing out of existence as
Oppression of the weak by the strong.
eddies form and dissolve in the boundless. Hot and
4. Why is scientific advance inhibited by myths? cold were the first to be separated out in this process
Myths not only failed to inform; they actually inhib- of world formation, hot being an area of fire encir-
ited scientific advance. As long as the causes of cling cold “as the bark surrounds a tree.” The sun,
events were attributed to the will of the gods, a sci- the moon, and the stars are “wheels of fire” that
ence of meteorology, for instance, was impossible. separated from this region of fire. As the heat from
the outer fire dried up parts of the moist inner areas,
5. What was the cause of all things for Thales? Wa-
differentiation between sea and land areas occurred.
ter: liquid, gas, and solid. First, this is a single unify-
It was in the moist areas on the earth that life first
ing principle and second, it is a secular point of view
arose. Man, therefore, “was like another animal,
of natural events and processes.
namely a fish, in the beginning.” Moreover, man
6. What are the three metaphysical assumptions must have been born from animals of another spe-
that Thales held? 1. One thing is the cause of eve- cies, since man requires a lengthy period of suckling,
rything else, i.e., he was a monist. 2. Thales believed whereas other animals quickly find food for them-
1
selves. It follows, Anaximander reasoned, that in the would paint the forms of the gods like horses, and
early days of life man as he is now could never have oxen like oxen, and make their bodies in the image
survived. of their several kinds.” “One God … neither in form
like unto mortals nor in thought.” Though sounding
10. How did Anaximenes critic Anaximander’s
monotheistic he was probably a pantheistic like
boundless? Either the boundless is simply a kind of
Heraclitus. While Heraclitus and Xenophanes could
grab-bag collection of the specific stuffs (in which
worship a “world process” or a “material one,” most
case it is not really one at all, and monism is aban-
men were incapable of such rarefied abstractions.
doned), or it is an indefinite something, which, being
For the Greeks all the major sanctions that held soci-
nothing in particular, is not anything at all.
ety together and moved men to conform to the law
11. Explain Anaximenes distinction between quanti- and to act with restraint and moderation were ulti-
tative and qualitative changes as it relates to mo- mately religious. Hence the collapse of religious be-
nism. If qualitative changes (liquid to gas) are re- lief had very serious repercussions on the Greek so-
ducible to quantitative changes (changes of density) ciety.
of one stuff, monism is saved. Air can vary in den-
16. What is Euclidian geometry? Axiomatic method of
sity, that is quantitatively. Therefore air must be the
proving and systematizing a set of conclusions. Axi-
basic world stuff.
oms are self-evidently true. Greek geometers em-
12. What is the stuff the world is made of for Heracli- phasized logical reasoning from premises regarded
tus? Explain why. Fire. What does it mean to say as self-evident. Whereas the geometers reached con-
that air becomes water. Unless air remains air clusions that agreed with sense experience, the
throughout the process of rarefaction and condensa- physicists and cosmologists who first used the geo-
tion, we cannot say it is the “one”. The problem is metric method reached conclusions that collided
insoluble as long as the “one” is taken to be a mate- head-on with perception.
rial thing. But what if the oneness of the world con-
17. In addition to monism Parmenides held to two
sists in the orderliness with which things change?
new premises: 1. “What is, is” (like “A is A”) and
Then the world would have a unity of pattern. Thus
2. “What is not, is not” (Means that there is no
Heraclitus abandoned the basic concept of “stuff”
nothing, that is, that the word “nothing” does not
and substituted the concept of process, i.e., ordered
name anything. There is, and can be, no object, no
change. Heraclitus used an image that represented
nothing, named by the name “nothing.” “Nothing
process—fire. Though he ought to have denied that
exists” is self-contradictory). From these premises
the world is one thing, he ended by identifying it
how could his arguments be constructed to prove
with fire. “One cannot step into the same river
that whatever is, is 1. Uncreated, 2. Indestructi-
twice.”
ble, 3. eternal, and 4. Unchangeable? (1) What is,
13. What is the importance of tension or strife for the is uncreated. In order to prove this let us assume its
political Heraclitus? He transferred his conception opposite, namely, that what is was created. If what is
of universal flux from the physical world to the so- was created it must have been created either (a) out
cial. “An attunement of opposite tensions, like that of of nothing or (b) out of something. But (a) it could
the bow and the lyre”. In other words, social and po- not be created out of nothing, for there is no nothing;
litical stability rests on, and is an appearance of, op- and (b) we cannot say that it was created out of
posing tensions. The bent bow seems at rest, but something, for, on the assumption of monism, there
only because the string and the bow pull equally is no “something else”—there is only what is. This
against each other. “War is the father and King of exhausts the possibilities: Since something is neither
all” and “Strife is Justice”. Thus, without strife created (a) out of nothing nor (b) out of something, it
peace could not exist. is uncreated. (2) What is, is indestructible. Destruc-
14. What is behind the concept of logos for Heracli- tion of anything would involve its disappearance
tus? Logos for Heraclitus meant world process, i.e., (change into nothing), and there is no nothing. It fol-
ordered change. lows that (3) What is, is eternal, for what is uncre-
ated and indestructible is obviously eternal. (4) What
15. Xenophanes, like Heraclitus argued against an- is, is unchangeable. This follows, in the first place,
thropomorphic deities. “Yes, and if oxen and from the argument about indestructibility. What we
horses or lions had hands, and could paint with their mean by change is transformation into something
hands, and produce works of art as men do, horses else. When a thing is transformed into something
2
else, it becomes what it was not (the old thing disap- nied Parmenides’ contention that motion cannot oc-
pears; the new thing appears). But there is no noth- cur. Parmenidies had assumed that because “there is
ing for the old thing to disappear into. Another con- no nothing,” there is no empty space. This assump-
sideration leads to the same conclusion. If something tion Empedocles also accepted. For Empedocles re-
changes, it changes at some particular time. There ality must be a plenum; that is, it must be completely
must be a reason, therefore, why it changes at this full. Since, as Parmenides had proved, monism and
time rather than at some other time. Obviously the motion are contradictory, reality must be plural. The
only answer is that something else has occurred. plenum is capable of motion—not movement into
When we try to explain this other change, it eludes empty space, of course, but a movement whereby
us and leads us on to some other and equally elusive one of the many takes the place of some other one of
change. As Parmendides said, “What need could the many, e.g., put a straw in water and the water
have made it arise later rather than sooner? There- displaces the air.
fore must it either be altogether or be not at all.”
22. What were Empedocles’ four basic elements and
Hence change does not occur.
his two basic types of motion? How does this re-
18. Present the Zeno’s paradox of the “swift Achilles late to cosmology and evolution? Basic elements
and the tortoise.” Zeno was the author of a number are earth, air, fire, water, which are eternal, uncre-
of famous paradoxes intended to show that motion, a ated, indestructable, and unchanging, i.e., a Par-
special case of change (that is, change of place), menidean “one”. Two types of motion are Love and
cannot occur, because it is “impossible”—that is, Strife. Love is motion uniting different things, and
because the concept is self-contradictory. Here, then, Strife is its opposite; it separates a mixture into its
is a head-on collision between experience and con- component elements. At the outset, the four basic
clusions reached by what seemed to be logical rea- elements are completely mixed up—Love is domi-
soning from self-evident premises. Moreover, Hera- nant. Then, Strife replaces Love until the elements
clitus and Parmenides, both of whom depended on are separated out—Strife is dominant. Then the re-
reasoning instead of perception, were led by their verse process begins alternating indefinitely. Rocks,
reasoning to directly contradictory conclusions. plants, animals, and men are simply unstable combi-
Some Greeks came to the conclusion that the fault nations of the primary elements. Empedocles seems
lay with reason itself. The exaggerated confidence to have held that Strife is becoming ascendant and
some of these early thinkers had in the power of the Love is being forced out. Empedocles’ anticipated,
human mind led others to profound scepticism about like Anaximander, modern evolutionary doctrines.
the mind’s capacities. Consider, for instance, his description of the period
after Strife’s dominance when Love again begins to
19. Why didn’t Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Zeno
enter. At this time the various parts of animals arise
become sceptics? Why be a rationalist? Par-
in a hit-or-miss way, as Love bit by bit mixes the
menides thought that logical consistency has a num-
elements that Strife has separated: “heads spring up
ber of advantages as compared with perception. Ra-
without necks and arms wander bare and bereft of
tionality is indubitable, whereas perception often
shoulders. Eyes stray up and down in want of fore-
turns out to be false. Rationality is universal,
heads.” As Love continues to mix things up, these
whereas perception, or empiricism, at best gives
parts get united in completely haphazard ways:
only information about particulars.
“these things joined together as each might chance,
20. Why was Parmenides’ argument, in effect, a re- and many other thing besides continually arose.”
ductio ad absurdum of Milesian monism? If the Eyes might, for instance, “mix” with hands, feet
Milesians’ basic assumption that there is one under- with shoulders. Such mixtures obviously cannot sur-
lying material substance is correct, then there is no vive, but in the course of random combinations a
change. Parmenides failed to see that perhaps his ar- successful relationship sooner or later occurs. There
gument was a reductio ad absurdum of Milesian is no god who plans it “for the best.” The fact that
monism, i.e., monism is incorrect and pluralism men, with the faculties they have, exist at all is the
must be the correct view. temporary and accidental result of a casual mixture
21. Empedocles was the first of the pluralists. How of elements.
did he argue that monism and motion are contra- However, when he wrote of the world process as a
dictory? Empedocles accepted the Parmenidean the- whole, his point of view changed. He called the pro-
sis that nothing is created or destroyed. But he de- cess “god” and worshiped it just as Xenophanes
3
worshiped his world process. As did Xenophanes, he sets up a circular motion like a vortex, causing the
held that this god who is a process cannot have hu- various stuffs to “separate off.”
man characteristice. “He is not furnished with a hu-
“Mind began to revolve first from a small beginning;
man head on his body, two branches do not sprout
but the revolution now extends over a larger space,
from his shoulders, he has no feet, no swift knees,
and will extend over a larger still. [In] this revolu-
nor hairy parts.” “He is only a sacred and unutter-
tion …now revolve the stars and the sun and the
able mind flashing through the whole world with
moon, and the air and the aether that are separated
rapid thoughts.” How could Empedocles reconcile
off. And this revolution caused the separating off,
this thinking mind with the purely chance operation
and the rare is separated off from the dense, the
of the world process just described? We have to
warm from the cold, the light from the dark, and the
conclude that he was not entirely aware of the impli-
dry from the moist.”
cations of either his scientific theories or his relig-
ious attitude. Not until we reach Plato do we find a Since there are seeds of every kind of stuff in every
full recognition of the problem of reconciling a pur- sensible thing, there must be an infinite number of
posive and valuational conception of man with the seeds. And it follows that the seeds must be infi-
notion of a mechanistic universe. nitely small. Otherwise there would not be “room”
in a very small, sensible thing for the requisite diver-
23. What were Anaxagoras’ three main presupposi-
sity of real stuffs that it contains.
tions. Discuss his cosmology. Anaxagoras criticized
Empedocles saying that we are hardly better off with 24. How was the Pythagorean’s science a religion?
Empedocles’ four ultimate stuffs than with the Mile- Perhaps the Pythagorean order was not unlike a me-
sians’ one. How can water—or any mixture of water dieval monastery, where the exercise of political
with earth, air, and fire—become a cabbage or a power was joined with the worship of God and the
lion? “How can hair come from what is not hair, or pursuit of learning. Science was part of their wor-
flesh from what is not flesh?” This question implies ship. Although the religious rituals were secret we
that he accepted Parmenides’ thesis that change is an do know that they introduced the worship of Diony-
illusion. To solve this problem Anaxagoras made the sus who was worshiped under various animal forms
following assumptions which are identical with Em- and invoked by wild dance and song.
pedocles: (1) The stuff of the world is eternal. (2) Dionysus ceremonies took place, often at night, in
There is many, each one of which is a Parmenidean remote places, and women—to the scandal of con-
“one.” (3) There is motion (that is, change of relative servative males—took a prominent part in them. In a
spatial position of the parts of a plenum). frenzy of intoxication the worshipers tore living
“In everything there is a portion of everything.” animals apart, drank their blood, and danced to the
Every visible sense object is a mixture containing point of exhaustion. They felt the spirit of the god
bits of all the real stuffs in the world. Because our pass into their bodies; the union so passionately de-
vision is gross and inadequate, we call things by the sired was consummated, and the worshipers exulted
name of what is only the predominant element in the in a supreme happiness and utter freedom from any
mixture. Anaxagoras replaced Empedocles’ four sort of restraint.
“roots” with an infinite diversity of qualitatively dif- Some Pythagorean taboos were; not to eat beans, not
ferent “seeds.” to stir the fire with iron, not to leave the impress of
Anaxagoras replaced Empedocles’ Love and Strife their body on the bed upon rising from it, and so on.
with a single motion, which he called “Mind.” Like But instead of using wine to intoxicate the body, the
Love and Strife, Mind is material; no more than Pythagoreans used music to purify the soul; their
Heraclitus or Empedocles was Anaxagoras able to emphasis was on a way of life not simply certain
think abstractly of “process” or “force.” rites. They were deeply concerned for the well-being
of the soul, which they believed to be immortal and
According to Anaxagoras, at the outset of the world
to pass through a cycle of birth, appearing on earth
process all the multitudinous real stuffs of the world
in various guises, each determined by the kind of life
were in such homogenious distribution that not even
led by the soul in its preceding existence. For them
color was distinguishable. Being a uniform mixture,
the moral goal was to obtain release from this cycle
no one of its particular stuffs predominates to be
of birth and death. This could be accomplished by
“picked out” by sense organ like ours. Then the
attaining wisdom. Contemplation of the eternal
Mind enters (like Empedocles’ Love and Strife) and
truths to which their science gave them access lifted
4
the Pythagoreans out of the tensions and conflicts of experiment to discover (as they had with the tuned
the “wheel of birth” and projected them into a higher lyre) what was at first truly scientific in spirit soon
sphere. Hence the importance to them of “science.” collapsed into an esoteric mystery.
They cultivated science, as they cultivated music, as
The Pythagoreans’ most notable achievement, cer-
the means to spiritual redemption.
tainly, was the concept of “cosmos”—the notion that
25. What were the three classes of men for the Py- the universe is not chaotic hodgepodge but a thor-
thagoreans? Men, the Pythagoreans thought, fall oughly ordered system in which every element is
into three classes that correspond to the three types harmoniously related mathematically to every other.
of people who frequent the Olympic games. Lowest Since the kind of knowledge we have in mathemat-
are the “lovers of gain”—those who set up booths ics is knowledge par excellence, the universe must
and sell souvenirs. Next are the “lovers of honor”— be thoroughly intelligible. To say that it is well or-
the competing athletes. Highest are the “lovers of dered and that it is intelligible is simply to express
knowledge”—the spectators who contemplate, with- the same idea two ways.
out participating in, the vulgar competition for
If we combine Pythagorean emphasis on mathemat-
money or fame.
ics and measurement with the Atomists’ view that
26. Diagram out and explain briefly “square num- reality consists in entities varying only in shape,
bers”. size, and velocity, we have the conception from
which modern physical theory began its great career.
Only the dominance first of Platonism, with its em-
phasis on other aspects of Pythagoreanism and its
lack of interest in Atomism, and then of Christianity,
with its extreme otherworldiness, prevented the pos-
sibilities of this combination from being seen until
the seventeenth century.
27. What is moderation for the Pythagorean’s? 29. Who were the Sophists? The Sophists were neither
Health they conceived to be an attunement and har- scientists nor philosophers. They were educators
mony of opposites; the body is healthy, for instance, who traveled through Hellas from city to city, stop-
when it is neither too hot nor too cold but is the ping wherever they could find pupils. Emphasis in
mean between having a chill and having a fever. The education shifted radically from the knightly virtues
good was defined as generally the mean. Thus the of courage, loyalty, personal honor, and moderation
traditional notion of sophrosyne, or moderation, re- to the more worldly talents of facility in debate and
ceived a precise and formal statement. oratorical skill. “How to Win Friends and Influence
28. Discuss the Pythagorean’s cosmology. Why were People” was the substance of their morality.
they dualists? Pythagoreans pursued cosmological 30. The Greek historian Herodotus, a great traveler,
studies deriving everything from numbers. They ar- tells the story of king Darius. “Darius, … called
gued that the earth is a sphere, instead of a disk or a into his presence certain Greeks who were at hand,
drum as the Milesians had variously supposed. They and asked what he should pay them to eat the bodies
held that it and the other planets (including the sun) of their fathers when they died. To which they an-
revolved about a “central fire” that we do not see be- swered that there was no sum that would tempt them
cause the earth turns on its axis as it revolves and so to do such a thing. He then sent for certain Indians,
always presents the same surface to the fire. It was, of the race called Callatians, men who eat their fa-
in fact Aristotle’s reaffirmation of the geocentric thers, and asked them, while the Greeks stood by, …
theory and the weight of his prestige that necessi- what he should give them to burn the bodies of their
tated the “discovery” of Copernicus, who was well fathers at their decease. The Indians exclaimed
acquainted with the Pythagorean view, in the six- aloud, and bade him forbear such language.”
teenth century. According to Aristotle the Pythago-
reans held to two basic principles: the Limit and the 31. Protagoras, one of the earliest of the Sophists,
Unlimited and were thus dualists. The Unlimited worked out a theory of sense perception. What
was the “boundless breath.” The Limit was fire was it and its logical conclusion? Everything, ac-
which was also conceived as number. They declared cording to Heraclitus, is in a constant flux. We say,
that everything has its number. Since they did not for instance, that you and I are looking at the same
5
brown horse. But the horse out there is continuously 1. What were the two forms of knowledge for De-
changing. So are my eyes, and so are yours. The mocritus?
brown that we say we see is not out there in the “…two forms of knowledge, one genuine, one ob-
horse; it is a product of two motions—a motion out scure. To the obscure belong all of the following:
there that we call the horse and a motion in here in sight, hearing, smell, taste, feeling. The other form is
the sense organ. But if the sensed color is a product, the genuine, and is quite distinct from this … the
one of whose factors is the motion in a sense organ, genuine way of knowing which has a finer organ of
it follows that each different sense organ experiences thought.”
a different color. The brown I see is different from
Far from being a Sophist, Democritus believed the
the brown you see. There are two browns, and each
human mind is capable of understanding the world.
is a private, subjective state. Objective knowledge of
He accepted the Sophists’ arguments about the sub-
a public reality is quite impossible. “Man,” he said,
jectivity and privacy of the sense world. Neverthe-
“is the measure of all things, of things that are that
less, Democritus held that there is an objective, pub-
they are and of things that are not that they are not.”
lic world and that it can be discovered by reason.
32. For Protagoras, obedience to the law was for only
2. What does the world consist of for Democritus?
what reason? Obedience to the law was not because
“…atoms and empty space; everything else is merely
obedience is “right” but simply because it is advan-
thought to exist. The worlds are unlimited; they
tageous.
come into being and perish. Nothing can come into
33. What was justice for the sophists? Justice in the being from that which is not nor pass away into that
ordinary sense helps only the weak; therefore it is which is not. Further the atoms are unlimited in size
not a virtue for the strong but a misfortune. and number, and they are borne along in the whole
universe in a vortex, and thereby generate all com-
34. What is moderation for the sophists? Moderation
posite things—fire, water, air, earth; for even these
is only for fools or weaklings.
are conglomerations of given atoms. And it is be-
35. By the end of the fifth century B.C. what was the cause of their solidity that these atoms are impassive
social condition? All aspect of the culture— and unalterable. The sun and the moon have been
economic, political, intellectual—had combined to composed of such smooth and spherical masses [that
produce and extremely dangerous situation. A wide- is, atoms], and so also the soul, which is identical
spread dissolution of the old beliefs that had held so- with reason. We see by virtue of the impact of im-
ciety together, coupled with a radical scepticism ages upon our eyes. All things happen by virtue of
about the possibility of discovering new and better necessity, the vortex being the cause of the creation
grounds for the old social formula, had resulted in of all things.”
the same narrow and ruthless self-seeking that the
3. The early pluralists had hoped that asserting the ex-
tensions of war and defeat had naturally and inde-
istence of a real many would resolve the puzzle
pendently engendered. Thus the very fabric of soci-
about change. But was this plurality numerical plu-
ety seemed to be collapsing. The hard-won and only
rality or qualitative diversity? Qualitative diversity
recently achieved political unity of the city-state had
was the most natural assumption. Objects of ordi-
disappeared in divisive party conflict; the old ideal
nary experience are qualitatively diverse particulars
of sophrosyne, of moderation and self-discipline,
marked by a great variety in color, texture, odor. It
had given way to deliberate and unrestrained seeking
was hard to think away all this concreteness and va-
of extremes; the old probity, the high-mindedness,
riety and so reach the notion of a stuff without quali-
loyalty, and devotion to civic duty that had enabled a
tative specificity. This is why the earliest monists
tiny state like Athens to defeat the great Persian em-
had said that reality is “water” or “fire” or “air”.
pire less than a century earlier, had been replaced by
This is also why the first pluralist, Empedocles, had
licentious self-seeking and a concentration on sen-
presupposed a plurality of qualitatively diverse
sual pleasures that was altogether incompatible with
“roots”. When Empedocles’ assumption of finite
the health of the city.
qualitative diversity failed, Anaxagoras had tried an
ATOMISM infinite qualitative diversity. When this too failed
The final development of pluralism, called “Ato- qualitative diversity became a blind alley. It was
mism” is represented by: Leucippus, Democritus, time to try a many that differed only quantitatively.
Epicurus, and Lucretius.
6
4. What was the first principle of Atomism in re- not Zeno’s. There is no evidence that the Atomists
gards to the plurality of entities? The first princi- ever found a reply to Zeno’s paradoxes.
ple of Atomism asserts the existence of a plurality of
8. Below is how Dr. Bulger understands Lucretius’
entities that differ only quantitatively, i.e., in shape
(follower of Epicuris) arguments could have been
and size, and that (unlike Empedocles’ “roots” and
formulated for the position that nothing is cre-
Anaxagoras’ “seeds”) are therefore qualitatively in-
ated, nothing is destroyed, there is empty space
distinguishable, i.e., they have no qualities.
and space is infinite. (Note: The entities asserted to
5. What attributes did these “atoms” have? Explain. be real by Lucretius are “intellectual” in the sense
Anaxagoras argued, “Nor is there a least of what is that we are persuaded of their existence by a line of
same, but there is always a smaller; for it cannot be reasoning rather than by direct sense perception. Yet
that what is should cease to be by being cut”. Hence Lucretius still thought of them in terms of sense ex-
there is no reason why cutting should ever come to perience. Body is that which can be touched, and
an end, i.e., infinitely divisible. However, Zeno space is that which cannot be touched. Body is that
pointed out, if anything infinitely small “were added which acts or is acted upon; space is the locus of this
to any other thing it would not make it any larger; action. Since Lucretius failed to see the clear differ-
for nothing can gain in magnitude by the addition of ence between the bodies of ordinary experience and
what has no magnitude”. The way out of this di- the specially defined “body” of his physical theory,
lemma, the Atomists thought, was a many, each one he attributed the latter characteristics of the former.
of which is eternal, indestructible, uncreated, and in- This is another example of the tendency to slip from
divisible. Each atom was in fact conceived to be a an abstract conception into a concrete imagistic con-
complete Parmenidean one. Each of the atoms were ception of thought, i.e., like Heraclitus’ identifica-
itself a solid, impenetrable plenum. tion of abstract process with material fire.)
6. Why did the atomist have to prove empty space If things could come into being from god or from
and how might have they argued this without vio- nothing then nature would be completely irregular.
lating Parmenides’ two basic premises? Suppos- Nature is regular.
ing the world is many, each of which is a solid bit of Therefore, it is not the case that things come into be-
matter, could a rational account be given of the visi- ing from god or from nothing.
ble variety of the sense world? In order to do this [From the above argument Lucretius thought that it
they needed motion. But since each of the atoms is followed that nothing is created.]
itself a plenum, it was necessary for the Atomists to
If nothing is created then the world must have al-
assert the motion of these plena—that is, motion in
ready endured an infinite time.
empty space—and this Parmenides had declared im-
If all things can be destroyed in a period of time then
possible. Parmenides has said that the plenum is one
all things would have been destroyed.
precisely because he could not conceive of a way it
But all things have not been destroyed.
could be divided. Therefore the Atomists needed
Therefore, nothing can be destroyed.
something that would divide the Parmenidean ple-
num into a number of separate entities. Empty space, If we have motion then we have empty space.
in addition to serving as the locus of motion, would We have motion.
perform this function, for space could separate each Therefore, we have empty space.
real from every other real. Parmenides showed that If the void were finite then there would be “an ex-
“there is no nothing.” But what if space were some- treme point”.
thing? Accordingly, the Atomist seemed to have rea- There is no “extreme point”. (e.g., hurl a dart at the
soned that there are two kinds of reality—a full real- edge, whatever happens proves there is no edge)
ity and an empty reality. “What is not, is not”; but Therefore, the void is not finite, i.e. the void is infi-
“What is, is” is ambiguous. The verb “to be” means nite.
either (1) to be a material something or (2) to be the
space in which material moves. If we do not have a plurality of atoms then change is
not possible.
7. Why did this meet Parmenides objections but not Change is possible
Zeno’s? The above argument established only the Therefore, we have a plurality of atoms.
existence of empty space, not of motion in that {Atoms have no qualities.}
space. It therefore met Parmenides’ objections but {Atoms differ only in shape and size.}
7
Space is infinite. atoms, they all, regardless of differences of weight,
If atoms are finite in number then atoms would be must fall at the same velocity. “The empty void …
infinitely spread out. wherefore all things … moving at equal rate with
If atoms are infinitely spread out then there would be unequal weights. The heavier will not then ever be
no collisions. (e.g., billiard table) able to fall upon the lighter from above. …”
There are collisions. Thirdly, because of the above impasse Epicurus fell
Therefore, atoms must be infinite in number back on an even less satisfactory explanation than
what he had rightly rejected. The doctrine of the
If atomic particles were large we could see them.
“swerve”. “It must needs be that the first-bodies [at-
We no not see them. (e.g., scent)
oms] swerved a little.” But why should an atom
Therefore, atoms are very small.
swerve? The swerve was said to be a spontaneous
If atoms are infinitely divisible then they would be and arbitrary even—a creation out of nothing—
infinitely small. which Lucretius had already explicitly ruled out. At-
If atoms are infinitely small then they would vanish omism claimed to give a complete, mechanistic ac-
into nothingness. count for everything, but a spontaneous, uncaused
They have not vanished into nothingness. event is just the kind of event that cannot be ex-
Therefore, atoms are not infinitely divisible, i.e. at- plained at all.
oms are indivisible.
11. Let us allow Epicurus and Lucretius their swerve
9. Democritus assumed that there was never a time so as to form various grouping of atoms. But if
when atoms were not vibrating which left him atoms themselves have only weight, shape, and
with an irreducible diversity of motions. size why do we experience them as a world of
If space is infinite. sense qualities in which roses are red, and violets
If the fall of atoms through space requires no outside are blue? The color changes as the constituent at-
agent to initiate the fall. oms of the group change their positions as the result
If there is nothing to keep his atoms from starting to of jostling and blows from without. To use Lu-
fall. cretius’ own terminology, they are “properties,” not
If there is nothing - except other atoms - to stop their “accidents,” of combinations or collections of atoms.
fall. (Space has no “bounds”) A property is a characteristic that some entity neces-
Then the atomic fall is eternal, past and future. sarily has; an accident is a characteristic that is tem-
porary and transient. Thus, color is a property of
10. In contrast, how did, Epicurus, and thus Lucre- atomic collections and “red” is an accident. Though
tuius, argue on how the “jostlings,” got started? a collection is necessarily colored, it is not necessar-
The doctrine of the “swerve”. “It must needs be that ily red. Size and tangibility are properties of individ-
the first-bodies [atoms] swerved a little.” What are ual atoms. Intangibility is a property of the void.
three main objections to Epicurus’ view? Ex- Also, it is an accident if the void that this or that par-
plain. First, in the infinite space that logical analysis ticular part of it should be full or empty at any par-
led him to presuppose, there is no “up” and no ticular time.
“down.” Up and own are meaningful directions only 12. What are three major problems with Lucretius’
in the finite, bounded space of perception. Further, explanation? First, although there is a clear distinc-
“fall” applies only to a “down” direction. Secondly, tion logically, between what is and what is not a
why do two atoms moving freely through space ever necessary characteristic, this distinction is not illu-
collide? There must be some cause, for an uncaused minating when applied to the relation of sense quali-
collision would be creation out of nothing, exactly ties to atoms. “Properties” suggests that they really
the kind of arbitrary event that Epicurus wanted to belong to the atoms, in the way, for instance, that a
exclude. If the atoms’ paths were curved, collisions man’s landed property belongs to him. But this is
might occur, but this possibility was ruled out for merely a metaphor, for properties obviously do not
Epicurus because he started from our ordinary expe- “belong” to atoms in the way that a piece of real es-
rience of space, which seems to be straight down. tate belongs to its owner. Lucretius never got beyond
Or, again, if the atoms moved at different velocities, this metaphor to any precise account of the necessity
fast atoms might overtake slow ones. But why with which a sense quality belongs to a group of at-
should their velocities vary? Since there is nothing in oms. Secondly, the atoms are “out there” in space,
the void itself that could hinder the free fall of the apart from us. If the sense qualities are the properties
8
of atoms, not properties of us, presumably they too tion. Does it really make any sense to say that one
are out there in space. But where exactly are they? set of atoms experiences another set as red, solid,
They cannot occupy exactly the space that the atoms and extended?
themselves occupy, for the atoms of course wholly
14. How does Epicurus’ and Democritus’ theory
fill that space. Do they occupy an adjoining space?
compare with the Sophist’s position? According
Or do they perhaps fill the interstices between the
to Protagoras and the other Sophists, if I judge an
atoms of the particular group that we experience as
object to be green and you judge it to be blue, we are
having such-and-such a color? Both alternatives
both right because each of us, judging only by his
seem very odd. Thirdly, What sort of ontological
own experience, is the measure of that experience
status do sense qualities have? The answer is that
for himself. The Sophists held that there is no more
they can have none in Epicurus’ system, for in this
disputing about, say, colors than about tastes. Ac-
system only atoms and the void are real. Is some
cording to Epicurus, greenness is “out there” along
property an atom? Obviously not. Is it the void?
with the collection of atoms that we call, say, a cab-
Again, no. Is it a group atoms? No, not exactly. It is
bage. If you judge the cabbage to be blue, you are
a “property,” or an “accompaniment” of a group of
mistaken—color is a public quality. According to
atoms. But this explains nothing; it only sidesteps
Democritus, the color of the cabbage is not out there
the issue and hides under a name. For an accompa-
in real space. What each of us calls “the” color is
niment, whatever it may be, is neither an atom nor a
only the way in which each of us experience a mo-
void; since these alone are real, an accompaniment is
tion set up in us by atoms out there. It follows that
only a subjective phenomenon. It is not a part of the
each of us experiences a private color. “By conven-
real world.
tion … color is color …the objects of sense are sup-
13. Unlike Epicurus, Democritus drew a radical distinc- posed to be real and its is customary to regard them
tion between the world as it really is and the world as such, but in truth they are not. Only the atoms
as it appears to sense perception. For Democritus, all and the void are real.” Unlike the Sophists that
that each “viewer” sees is an illusion and each maintained that people are the measure of all things,
viewer views a different illusion. “We” never escape Democritus argued that atoms and the void really ex-
this illusion at the level of perception, but only in ist. In other words, over and above the private color
thought, by means of the atomic theory. First, con- each of us sees, there is a public reality—colorless to
trast Epicurus’, and Democritus’ position on this. be sure—called atoms and the void. The Sophists,
Secondly, as an atomist, why is it a paradox for were skeptical not only about sense perception but
Democritus to describe how we have sense per- also about the possibility of obtaining knowledge of
ceptions? First, for Epicurus, ordinary people a public reality by the processes of thought. For the
would be inclined to say that the world as it appears Atomists, what exists are atoms and a void, but
to sense perception is the real world. Democritus, in these alleged realities are obviously not known by
contrast, maintained that all that each “viewer” sees perception but by thought. Until the atomists were
is an illusion, in the strict sense that what “we” see is able to validate thought as a mean by which we have
wholly different from what is real (atoms and the access to reality, their responses to the Sophists re-
void). Secondly, for Epicurus, sense perception cor- mained incomplete.
rects sense perception, e.g., “we” find out that a mi-
15. The mind is material for the Atomists—nothing
rage is a mirage because, when “we” get close
but congeries of atoms. Thought is simply an-
enough to it, it disappears. Democritus, in contrast,
other motion of smaller and finer atoms. Thought
held that sense perception never corrects sense per-
is truer because it is more direct than sensation as
ception: “We” never escape this illusion at the level
it by-passes the sense organs and go directly to
of perception, but only in thought, by means of the
the mind. What are some problems with this posi-
atomic theory. In fact, according to Democritus,
tion? According to Democritus, Epicurus, and Lu-
every “viewer” views a different illusion. Lastly, a
cretius the world is only atoms and the void and be-
“viewer” turns out to be some particular sense organ,
cause some atoms from “outside” happened to strike
and a sense organ is a collection of atoms. So De-
their mind-atoms directly, instead of mediately, via a
mocritus’ position is that one set of atoms in motion
sense organ, they revealed themselves as they really
out there appears as a rose to another set of atoms in
are, not as they appear to eyes, ears, tongue. A)
motion over here. But it is quite illegitimate to intro-
However, if the theory originated in this way, why
duce a “we” that is supposedly doing the experienc-
did it not occur much earlier and to many more peo-
ing. There is no “we”; there are only atoms in mo-
9
ple when literally millions of these tiny atoms had 17. For Democritus, what was practical wisdom?
been constantly falling on men’s mind-atoms for lit- How does value relate to the objective/subjective
erally thousands of years? B) According to the the- for Democritus? Democritus’ practical wisdom was
ory, thought is essentially a kind of visual percep- essentially the old Greek ideal of moderation and
tion, except direct. When we want to look at some- reasonableness, coupled with a strong sense of the
thing small or obscure we try to move closer to it or importance of motive and disposition. Values are ob-
get into a better light. Do we do the same with jective. If we knew enough about the motion out
thought? Of course not. When the mind is reasoning there and if we understood how one body differs
well—when it is “moving” from premises to a valid from another, we could predict the differential ef-
conclusion in accordance with the rules of logic— fects that would occur in these bodies and so account
the order of the proposition that are successively be- for the fact that ice-cream is variously liked and dis-
fore it is determined by considerations of logic, not liked, that lying is alternatively praised and con-
by the mechanical motion of atoms. According to demned. In the Atomists’ view an ethical judgment
the Atomists’ theory, if my mind proceeds from is analyzable into an objective component and a sub-
proposition 1 and 2 to a conclusion 3, it is not be- jective component. In other words, one set of atoms
cause I recognize the logic, rather it is just because values another set of atoms. This, to say the least, is
the initial motions of my mind-atoms had the veloc- very odd. And apart from this puzzle, the value ex-
ity and direction they happened to have. C) If rea- perienced is no more real than is the evaluator of this
soning were such a purely mechanical movement, experience, for only atoms and the void are real. As
the Atomists could never have discovered it. If the a result, the goodness of moderation that Democritus
thought that goes into the Mathematical description experienced is as much an illusion as the greenness
of, say, a billiard ball’s motion were not different in of the cabbage he saw. What is objective in the At-
essence from the motion it describes, it would be omists’ theory of value is not valuable, and what is
impossible for scientists to work out such descrip- valuable is not objective.
tions.
18. What was the common assumption that the “Pre-
16. Was Democritus a hard determinist? If so how socratics” made? All thinkers from Thales to the
did this relate to the “swerve”? Democritus was a Atomists made a common assumption—that reality
hard determinist—all effects are caused by antece- is material and that what happens to this material,
dent motions. Epicurus held to free choice. But Epi- the natural process that it undergoes, is intelligible.
curus’ explanation of this free choice is a swerve, a Stuff is the basic concept of matter used to explain
sudden bolt from the view with no volition. Cer- the world—not in teleological or supernatural terms,
tainly that is not a satisfactory explanation of what is but in terms of natural processes.
felt as decision and volition, i.e., a kind of causality.
19. What is the central problem for culture? The
According to the swerve theory, the fact that you
central problem of culture is to reconcile the
choose to train your “searchlight” of attention on
this, rather than some other, group of atoms is pure
mechanistic, nonteleological view of nature,
chance or indeterminism. If all thought is imagistic which Atomism first formulated and which mod-
what would be the source of abstract ideas? ern science has largely adopted, with an ethical,
religious, and humanistic conception of man.
10
PLATO: THE THEORY OF FORMS
PLATO (428-347 BC) seen but they themselves are not the objects of ra-
tional thought. “Forms” cannot be seen but are ob-
jects of rational thought.
REASON HIGHER FORMS
(Dialectic, Interrela- (Good)
tions)
UNDERSTANDING FORMS
(Axioms, Mathematics) (Axioms, Mathematics)
BELIEF THINGS
(Perception) (Spatial Displacement)
CONJECTURE SHADOWS
(Subjective) (Twice removed)
1. Plato’s primary concern was to discover the basis for 4. Conjecture yields the lowest degree of truth. This
a good state, one in which a good man might be lowest level is comprised of “reflections” of
happy. But before he could set forth his answers to physical objects. For Plato the Form of an object is
such questions as, “What is the best type of political true reality. Physical objects are the spatial dis-
organization?” “What is morality?” he had to dem- placements of the Form of the object. Shadows or
onstrate that these are questions that do have an- reflections of a Form are therefore twice removed
swers. Plato thus devoted a great deal of attention to participating in true reality even less, e.g., a pic-
epistemology. ture or reflection of a tree participates less in real-
ity than the objective tree. These experiences are
2. What Plato said, in effect, was this: Both Heraclitus also very subjective.
and Parmenides were correct, for they were talking
about different types of objects. ... What if reality is
5. Belief is the perception of actual objects. The the-
not single, as the Milesians had supposed? What if it
is dual, as the Pythagoreans had maintained? We
ory of Forms committed Plato to holding that there
could then say that one of these realities is in con- must be a medium, a “something,” in which the
stant flux, as Heraclitus had asserted, and that the Forms are reflected. He called it “space.” A brute
other is eternally one, as Parmenides had claimed. ... factuality and so wholly inexplicable. One can say
The world of sense perception, in contrast with the about it only that it “is” and that it “must be.”
nonphysical, nonspatial, nontemporal world of ideas
or forms. Thus Plato believed that both Heraclitus 6. The basic stuffs of the physical world are the four
and Parmenides were correct. On the one hand, the forms “earth,” “air,” “fire,” and “water.” Each of
world of sense perception, like Heraclitus, was in these sensible images is the reflection in space of its
constant flux and therefore was only “opinion” at corresponding Form, i.e., its configurations of space.
best. On the other hand, the world of Ideas or Earth is a cube, fire is the pyramid, water is the
icosahedron, air is the octahedron. These particles
Forms, like Parmenides, was unchanging and an
are material. The sensible images are not material,
eternally “one”.
they are spatial. The Form “Fire” is not reflected in a
material pyramid but in a spatial one. By this reason-
3. Explain all the major parts of the “divided line”. ing Plato reduced the brute factuality in the universe.
The way of ascent is a process: One moves by
Underlying each particular sense object and its mu-
stages, from one level to another on which the for-
tations will be a series of geometrical transforma-
mer turns out to depend. But the view from the top is
tions capable, theoretically, of precise mathematical
a vision: At the end there are no stages or compart-
formulation. Plato did not believe analysis had to
ments, rather, true knowledge is a whole—unified,
stop at the four solids. He “reduced” them to two
harmonious, and complete. Physical objects can be triangles; the half-equilateral and the half-square.
11
These two elementary triangles might be analyzed Good, but to identify either with the Good is wrong.
into lines and, eventually, numbers—an extreme Py- The Good must hold a yet higher place of honor. …
thagoreanism. Things are numbers, in the sense that, You will agree that the Sun not only makes the things
ultimately, the ordinary world of sense perception we see visible, but also brings them into existence
reduces to geometry, and geometry in its turn re- and gives them growth and nourishment; yet he is
duces to arithmetic. not the same thing as existence. And so with the ob-
ject of knowledge: these derive from the Good not
7. Moving from the imperfect copies of concrete, only their power of being known, but even beyond
changing, particular objects of perception, Heracli- being, surpassing it in dignity and power.” (Repub-
tian flux, Plato then moves into the universal ab- lic)
stract comprehension of unchanging concepts known
by understanding, Parmenedian immutability. 11. I. Just as the sun makes physical things on the earth
visible, the Form of the Good illumines and makes
8. The third level of knowledge is that of understand- meaningful lower levels of knowledge and opinion.
ing which is characterized by mathematics and natu- II. Just as the sun nourishes plants and other living
ral sciences. These Forms are unchanging and eter- things, the Form of the Good is active and creative.
nal. However, this level is limited in that 1. it rests III. Just as there is an affinity between the sun and
on unexamined first principles, 2. it is still tied to the our eyes that makes visible things visible, there is an
physical world, e.g., geometry, and 3. it is still frag- affinity between the mind and the Form of the Good,
mentary in that understanding does not provide a i.e., the Form of the Good satisfies the kinds of ques-
unitary “vision” of how everything works together. tions minds such as ours ask—unlike Atomism
which is unable to answer the questions our moral
9. The fourth level is reason using the method of dia- nature asks. Man is not just a neutral knower, he is
lectic—science which studies the Forms. Here you also a moral, esthetic, social, and religious creature.
1. establish true first principles, 2. are not tied to the This is why Plato called the highest reality the Form
physical world, and 3. the dialectic coordinates the of the Good; it is something that, when known, an-
forms into a single totality. All divisions and steps swers our ultimate questions. The world and man
just melt away and one experiences the Form of the form an organic unity. The world of forms satisfies
Good. The ultimate unifying true reality. not merely our demands for knowledge but also our
demands for justice, beauty, religious and moral
10. Explain the “good” through the use of the “myth meaning. Since what truly satisfies is truly good, it is
of the sun”. Goodness itself, and Beauty itself, and quite correct to describe the highest of all forms as
so on, are all part of a single Form or real essence. the Form of the Good.
Objects can be seen but are not objects of rational
thought, the Forms can not be seen but are objects of 12. What is the role of myth for Plato? The only way
rational thought. “It was the Sun, then, that I meant to really “know” something is to “experience” it.
when I spoke of that offspring which the Good has However, if that is not possible, then someone can
created in the visible world, to stand there in the either describe it to you, (it tastes like a soggy such
same relation to vision and visible things as that and such) or through myth, which is not a descrip-
which the Good itself bears in the intelligible world tion but an imaginative re-creation of the experience.
to intelligence and to intelligible objects. … When If when reading the dialogues we come to a myth,
[the soul’s] gaze is fixed upon an object irradiated we can be sure we have reached a point of great im-
by truth and reality, the soul gains understanding … portance for Plato. Take the myth seriously but not
But when it looks towards the twilight world of literally. It says in the language of poetry and art
things that come into existence and pass away, its what is too subtle and elusive to be said in any other
sight is dim and it has only opinions and beliefs way. (However, it may be that Plato is deluded:
which shift to and fro. … This, then, which gives to There may be nothing there to be communicated
the objects of knowledge their truth … is the Form about.)
or essential nature of Goodness. It is the cause of
knowledge and truth; and so, while you may think of 13. Explain the myth of the cave and its relation to
it as an object of knowledge, you will do well to re- the “good”. “The prison dwelling corresponds to the
gard it as something beyond truth and knowledge… region revealed to us through the sense of sight, and
knowledge and truth are to be regarded as like the the fire-light within it to the power of the Sun. The
12
ascent to see the things in the upper world you may before we were born, and … lost it at birth, but af-
take as standing for the upward journey of the soul terwards by the use of our senses regained the
into the region of the intelligible. .. In the world of knowledge which we had previously possessed,
knowledge, the last thing to be perceived and only would not the process which we call learning really
with great difficulty is the essential Form of Good- be recovering knowledge which is our own? … rec-
ness. Once it is perceived, the conclusion must fol- ollection? … Then, Simmias, the souls existed previ-
low that, for all things, this is the cause of whatever ously, before they were in human form, apart from
is right and good; in the visible world it gives birth bodies, and they had intelligence. … If, as we are
to light. … Without having had a vision of this Form always saying, the beautiful exists, and the good,
no one can act with wisdom, either in his own life or and every essence of that kind, and if we … compare
in matters of state. … If this is true, then, we must our sensations with these, is it not a necessary infer-
conclude that education is not what it is said to be ence that just as these abstractions exist, so our soul
by some, who profess to put knowledge into a soul existed before we were born.”
which does not possess it, as if they could put sight
into blind eyes. On the contrary, … just as one might 16. Present an argument for the conclusion that
have to turn the whole body round in order that the knowledge is possible.
eye should see light instead of darkness, so the entire 1. Either “we know something” or “we know noth-
soul must be turned away from this changing world, ing.”
until its eye can bear to contemplate reality and the 2. Suppose you opt for “we know nothing”.
supreme splendor which we have called the Good. 3. Hence, “we know something” must be true.
Hence there may well be an art whose aim would be 4. Therefore knowledge is possible.
to effect this very thing.” (Republic) 5. It follows that Forms exists, for only forms have
the characteristics—immutability, eternity—
14. Explain the myth of the cave and its relation to requisite for knowledge.
education. A teacher can only turn a student’s head
in the right direction. True education is thus the op- 17. Note: mathematics has always been the most plausi-
posite of indoctrination. Man is a part, an organ, in a ble region in which to assert the existence of forms,
larger organism. The best life for him, therefore, is both because mathematical knowledge is certain and
not one of individual communion with the Good and because it is not about imperfect physical objects,
True; it is rather one of association with his fellows, rather it is about “perfect abstract objects” or forms.
even if this requires him to live with them in the However, mathematics could be certain not because
cave. Being a good man is inseparable from being a it is about a nonphysical objects but because it is not
good citizen. about objects at all. Mathematical certainty results
from the fact that the propositions of mathematics
15. How does Plato “prove” the “reality” of the are all tautologies. When we affirm that parallel
forms to the transmigration of the soul? Forms are lines never meet, we are not asserting an eternal
the eternal and unchanging entities, which are en- truth about the universe, but defining how we pro-
countered not in perception but in thought. They pose to use the word “parallel.”
constitute that “objective” public world that the
Sophists had denied. Without forms there would be PLATO’S PHYSICS
nothing for us to “know” and every individual would
remain isolated in the cave of his own subjective 1. Why does Plato believe that if physics is about the
states. Two objective pieces of wood can not only physical world then it is not knowledge? 1. If
never be perfectly equal, but also could not have physics is about the physical world and its processes,
even been considered to be imperfectly equal with- and 2. if knowledge is not about the physical world
out having previously the perfect concept of equal- but rather about the eternal and unchanging forms.
ity. “Then we must have had knowledge of equality Then 3. physics is not knowledge.
before the time when we first saw the imperfectly
equal things. … It is through the senses that we must 2. What is the difference between a mechanistic de-
learn that all sensible objects strive after absolute scription of why certain events happen and a
equality and fall short of it. … We must have ac- teleological explanation? A mechanistic descrip-
quired a knowledge of equality before we had these tion only describes the physical causal events that
senses. … Now if we had acquired that knowledge caused a certain event to happen. A teleological ex-
13
planation explains the true cause, or rather the pur- in a material pyramid but in a spatial one. By this
pose for a certain event. Physics, for Plato, is subor- reasoning Plato reduced the brute factuality in the
dinate to theology. universe. Underlying each particular sense object
and its mutations will be a series of geometrical
3. What are the sensible images for Plato? As re- transformations capable, theoretically, of precise
gards colors and other sense qualities, Plato thought mathematical formulation. Plato did not believe
that Protagorus was correct. Every man is the meas- analysis had to stop at the four solids. He “reduced”
ure for himself, because the motions that constitute them to two triangles; the half-equilateral and the
his sense organs differ from those that constitute the half-square. These two elementary triangles might
sense organs of every other individual. In this Hera- be analyzed into lines and, eventually, numbers—an
clitean flux we can only say, “the horse appears extreme Pythagoreanism. Things are numbers, in the
brown to me now.” What is it then that I perceive? sense that, ultimately, the ordinary world of sense
The Atomists’ answer was matter. However, matter, perception reduces to geometry, and geometry in its
for Plato, is unintelligible and therefore an inade- turn reduces to arithmetic.
quate answer. What, then, is the sensible images of Physics is only a “likely story” because physics can-
the forms? This is equivalent to asking, “In what not be reduced completely to mathematics. Physics
medium are these forms reflected?” For everything is not about the various mathematical forms but
sensible is an imitation, or shadow, of some form— about their sensible images, and these images are the
the reflection of that form in some medium. Plato’s reflections of the forms in space. But space exists
answer in the Timaeus is “space.” independently, in its own right. It is an element of
brute fact, the presence of which mind must ac-
4. What is space for Plato? Space is the “Receptacle knowledge, but which mind cannot render intelligi-
of Becoming.” “It is everlasting, not admitting de- ble.
struction; providing a situation for all things that
come into being, but itself apprehended without the PLATO’S ETHICS
senses by a sort of bastard reasoning, and hardly an
object of belief.” Plato would have maintained that 1. How did Plato prove the ethical forms? Plato did
this description has to be obscure for space is and not prove the existence of ethical forms, rather, he
remains unintelligible—forever resistant to rational assumed that his proof of the existence of mathe-
analysis. That this is the case follows from the the- matical forms established the existence of forms in
ory of forms itself. For only forms are intelligible ethics and politics. Even if we put aside the dis-
through and through; whatever cannot be analyzed agreements with Plato about whether mathematical
into, or reduced to, form is, ultimately, unintelligi- knowledge depends on knowledge of the forms,
ble. The theory of Forms committed Plato to holding there still arises the question of whether ethical
that there must be a medium, a “something,” in knowledge is possible without the knowledge of
which the forms are reflected. He called it “space.” forms and also whether there is ethical knowledge,
A brute factuality and so wholly inexplicable. One i.e, ethics may merely be subjective judgments.
can say about it only that it “is” and that it “must However, Plato thought that ethical judgments re-
be.” This was Plato’s way of admitting into his beau- veal how they participate with various forms.
tiful, rational universe that space-time realm of facts
and events that empiricists, pragmatists, and positiv- 2. Is pleasure the same as the good for Plato? The
ists take to be the whole of reality. central mistake the Sophists made, according to
Plato, was to confuse pleasure with the good. In con-
5. Discuss the sensible images in terms of being ma- trast with Thrasymachus and Callicles, who held that
terial or being spatial and geometric transforma- to live well is simply to get as much pleasure as pos-
tions. The basic stuffs of the physical world are the sible, Plato maintained: “There is such a thing as
four forms “earth,” “air,” “fire,” and “water.” Each good, and …there is such a thing as pleasure, and …
of these sensible images is the reflection in space of pleasure is not the same as good, and … of each of
its corresponding form, i.e., its configurations of them there is a certain pursuit and process of acqui-
space. Earth is a cube, fire is the pyramid, water is sition, one quest for pleasure, the other the quest for
the icosahedron, air is the octahedron. These parti- good.” (Gorgias) Socrates points out to Callicles
cles are material. The sensible images are not mate- that 1. if pleasure were our exclusive concern, then
rial, they are spatial. The form “fire” is not reflected 2. a life passed in itching and scratching would be
14
the supreme happiness. It follows that 3. pleasures Justice, whether in the individual man or in the indi-
vary qualitatively and hence 4. there must be some vidual state, is an attunement, or harmony, in which
criterion for choice other than mere quantity of each element has its “due”—that is, does what it can
pleasure. Since 5. Good and bad are opposite, and 6. do best.
opposites cannot exist together at the same time in
the same object; 7. pleasure and pain do, however, 5. How does he prove that the “psyche,” “soul” or
exist in the same object at the same time. Therefore more appropriately the “self” is tripartite? (Note:
8. pleasure cannot be good nor pain evil. “thirsty” “soul” has theological overtones that are foreign to
implies pain … and the word “drinking” is expres- Plato’s view. His psyche is natural, not supernatural)
sive of pleasure, …the inference:--that pleasure and Plato argues in the Republic that “the same thing
pain are simultaneous.” cannot act in two opposite ways or be in two oppo-
site states at the same time, with respect to the same
3. How does pleasure relate to equilibrium? Pleasure part of itself, and in relation to the same object. …
and pain are feelings that accompany a change to or sometimes … people are thirsty and yet unwilling to
from a state of equilibrium. If the body and mind are drink. This establishes the distinction between the
in a normal state, a sudden noise or light, or anything rational element—reflective part, and nonrational
that upsets this normal state, is experienced as pain- desires—appetite element. Another example, Leon-
ful; a return to the normal state is experienced as tius noticed some dead criminals with the execu-
pleasant. The neutral state of equilibrium is the best tioner standing by them. He wanted to look at them,
state for man, but is only possible for the gods, who but was also disgusted and tried to turn away.
lead a blessed life above both joy and sorrow. Plato “Opening his eyes wide, he ran up to the bodies and
distinguished between 1. “necessary” pleasures, cried, ‘There you are, curse you; feast yourselves on
which seem to be connected with the functioning of this lovely sight!’” Anger—the spirit element—
the human body and bringing it back to equilibrium, sometimes is in conflict with nonrational desires—
and 2. “harmless” pleasures, the purely aesthetic appetite element. Since each of these three “parts,”
pleasures of sounds, tones, smells, and the like. Plato or “faculties,” has motions proper to it, the good life
believed that most men are egoistic hedonists. If you (happiness) occurs only when all these several mo-
want man to be good, you must convince them that tions, instead of conflicting, harmonize.
being good will in fact produce the pleasant life. In
the Laws, for instance, after describing “excessive 6. What is the virtue for each group in the tripartite
love of self” as the “greatest of all evils” and assert- state? The state is an organism with organs corre-
ing that a man ought to be interested only in “what is sponding exactly to those of the individual, “in let-
just, whether the just act be his own or that of an- ters writ large.” First, all states have a governing or
other,” Plato sadly remarks that such ideals of con- directing body. Secondly, all states have a producing
duct apply only to the gods, not to men. The just life, class. Third, all states have a group responsible for
for Plato, is better than a pleasurable life. Man’s true maintaining the state against internal and external
good is not pleasure but eudaimonia or happiness. enemies. Like the producers the “guards” have no
Three classes of goods: 1. things good for their con- authority; and like the administrators, they are un-
sequences only—Sophists concept of justice; 2. productive. However, the guards are more closely
things good for their own sake; 3. things good both affiliated with the administrators as they are the
for their own sake and for their consequences— agents backing up and giving force to the executive
Plato’s concept of justice, i.e., eudaimonia. Happi- orders. To ask what the virtues of the three classes
ness, not pleasure, is the goal of man follows from are is simply to ask what each should be contributing
the fact that man is an organism whose varied func- to the life of the whole state. 1. The function of the
tions must be brought into balance and harmony. producing class is to furnish themselves and the
These are objective facts about human nature. Hap- nonproductive classes with the necessities of life—
piness for Christians, like St. Augustine, is getting food, clothing, shelter—and with luxuries. The vir-
into the right relation with God. Plato, in contrast, tue for the producing class is “temperance”—the re-
thought chiefly in terms of man’s relation to his fel- stricting of one’s own consumption for the sake of
lows and to his physical environment. achieving a balance in the state as a whole. 2. The
function of the guardian class is to defend the state
4. What is Plato’s justice for the individual? Pole- against its enemies. The virtue for the guardian class
marchus was right, “justice is giving man his due.” is Courage. 3. The function of the governing class is
15
to make decisions at the highest level of policy— run interests. The real strength of Plato’s argument is
peace or war, tax structure, educational policy, etc.. that it accepts the underlying egoism of Thrasyma-
The virtue for the governing class is knowledge, i.e., chus. Plato did not argue that Thrasysmachus was
to know the forms. wrong in wanting to be happy; he argued that, be-
cause Thrasymachus did not understand that man is
7. What would be a just state and how does this re- an organism, what he advocated, rather than promot-
late to a just man? A state in which the rulers reach ing happiness, was self-defeating.
wise decisions, in which these decisions are exe-
cuted with loyalty and courage by the soldiers and 10. How might Plato have argued that the mathema-
police, and in which the rest of the population exer- tician’s happiness is better than the producer’s
cises a decent restraint in its pursuit of material well- happiness? 1. Being and goodness are exactly paral-
being will be a just state, and its citizens will be lel: the more real anything is, the better it is. 2.
happy. Since the three classes in the state exactly Things participate in their forms to different degrees.
correspond to the three parts of the self we can now 3. Those things that participate in their forms more
understand the virtuous man. Every individual has a fully are more real, and therefore better. 4. Individ-
“producer” part that keeps him alive and active, a ra- ual men differ in the degree to which they participate
tional part that is intended to guide and direct the in the form “man.” 5. Men in whom reason is the
body, and a spirited part that is intended to keep the primary drive participate more fully in the form
body in order. A man is virtuous when he is temper- “man.” 6. Therefore there is a qualitative difference
ate in the satisfaction of his various physical appe- of happiness between the producers and rulers on an
tites, when he lives the life of reason, and when his absolute and objective scale. There are as many
spirited element supports and backs up the dictates qualitatively different happinesses as there are dif-
of reason. Being virtuous is being happy. ferent kinds of men. In this case, the great question
would not be whether we are at the top or at the bot-
8. Explain how people participate in the form tom, but whether—wherever we stand—we are liv-
“man” in differing degrees. What is the result of ing at the maximum level of integration (harmony of
this? There are differences between individual men functions) of which we are capable.
in respect to the degree to which they participate in
the form “man”. These differences, cannot be re- PLATO’S POLITICAL THEORY
moved by training and education. To try to educate
him “up” would be a waste of both our time and his. 1. What does political theory have to do with indi-
vidual happiness? Since 1. man is a social animal,
9. How does the state depend on this differing of and since 2. human goods depend on the communal
participation in the form of man? 1. For some life, then 3. the good life is possible only within a
quantitative happiness or the “getting and spending” good state. 4. If the good life for an individual is
is the best thing in life. The good state needs to have possible only in a community, then 5. the study of
a large number of men in whom appetite, not reason, ethics passes over into, and is supplemented by, the
is primary. These men would be “unhappy” if they study of politics, the art of communal living.
tried to be mathematicians or logicians. This is the
lowest participation in the form of man. 2. For some 2. What type of rule does Plato believe to be ideal
the life of action, not mathematics or abstract and why? The many must be ruled by those few
thought, is what brings them a level of happiness. 3. who are capable of knowing the good. Paradoxi-
Those few in whom reason is primary, who have the cally, it is only in the most serious affairs of all—in
capacity for abstract thought, are to be the leaders of politics—that we seem to prefer the advice of the ig-
our government. These are the truly, qualitatively, norant many. In a democracy the people choose their
happy individuals. The existence of a good state thus leaders, not because of their superior knowledge, but
depends on the fact that men differ widely in their on all sorts of irrelevant grounds—a humble back-
capacities, or on the fact that the degree of participa- ground, a mellifluous voice, a leonine mane. The art
tion in the form “man” differs from person to person, of ruling, which ought to be the art of determining
and the more complete the degree of participation, what is best becomes in a democracy the art of flat-
the fewer the number of individuals at that level. tery, the art of appealing to the passions of the
The organ that disciplines itself for the sake of the masses. “Cookery assumes the semblance of medi-
whole is at the same time promoting its own long- cine, and pretends to know what food is the best for
16
the body; and if the physician and the cook had to Producers need to be taught their trade, plus such
enter into a competition in which the children were myths as will inculcate obedience and patriotism.
the judges, or men who had no more sense than They will have home, family, children, and amuse-
children, to decide which of them best understands ments.
the goodness or badness of food, the physician Ruling class. All children will be observed and it
would be starved to death … . I shall be tried just as will be ascertained whether they have the native ca-
a physician would be tried in a court of little boys at pacity that fits them for a real education—whether,
the indictment of the cook. [The cook would rise in that is, after long and arduous training in mathemat-
court and say,] “My boys, many evil things has this ics, they can reach a knowledge of the forms. If so,
man done to you … cutting and burning and starving they will be placed in a public nursery. None will
and suffocating you … he gives you the bitterest po- possess any private property. All aspects of life will
tions, and compels you to hunger and thirst. How be communal and they alone are forbidden to touch
unlike the variety of meats and sweets on which I and handle silver or gold.
feasted you!” What do you suppose that the physi- No class will envy any other, but each will seek its
cian would be able to reply? … He could only say, “proper” happiness.
“All these evil things, my boys, I did for your
health,” and then would there not be a deafening 4. What was Plato’s conception of the role of women
clamor from a jury like that? How they would cry in his ideal society? “There is no occupation con-
out!” (Gorigas) cerned with the management of social affairs which
belongs either to woman or to man … There is noth-
3. Why in Plato’s state is the Ministry of Propa- ing contrary to nature in giving our Guardians’
ganda and Censorship of first importance? 1. the wives the same training for mind and body. …
many, being incurably ignorant, are incapable of Rather, the contrary practice which now prevails
disciplining themselves. 2. The wise, can and will turns out to be unnatural. … [Rulers] will have to
provide external discipline as a substitute for the in- give their subjects a considerable dose of imposition
ternal restraints that the many lack. and deception for their good. … There should be as
Leave the producing class alone and the rich will get many unions of the best of both sexes, and as few of
rich at the expense of the poor. Producers cannot the inferior, as possible and that only the offspring
achieve temperance for themselves. It has to be of the better unions should be kept. And again, no
achieved for them by governmental regulation. But one but the Rulers must know how all this is being
force is inefficient in the long run. Propaganda is a effected; otherwise our herd of Guardians may be-
far better instrument of control. It is necessary to come rebellious.”
speak to them in language to which their emotional,
sentimental, or practical natures can respond. It is 5. Placing supreme power in the hands of a specially
pointless, for instance, to try to explain to them the trained elite would be desirably only if 1. there were
organic nature of the state and the corresponding irreducible differences in men’s intellectual capaci-
need of each individual to subordinate his immediate ties; if 2. these differences could be discovered early
interests to the whole, for they cannot grasp such ab- in life; if 3. there is a truth about politics that can be
stract concepts. But loyalty and patriotism are atti- infallibly known, namely, what is good for all; and if
tudes of mind easily inculcated, and they serve the 4. The elite, knowing what is good for all, would act
same functional purpose of producing social cohe- on its knowledge. Plato had his own doubts about
sion, obedience, and so on. Flag-waving, patriotic the workability of his theory. He wanted very much
music, and tales about heroic forefathers must there- to believe it would work. At the same time, he knew
fore occupy a large part of the school curriculum. enough about human nature to fear it might not.
Whether these tales are true or untrue is quite beside
the point, provided they inspire the children to be- 6. How does Plato explain the transitions from ti-
havior that is best for the state. Since the whole basis marchy to oligarchy to democracy to the despot?
of this education is an appeal to emotion rather than Explain what each stage entails. Timarchy is a con-
to intellect, it is important both that bad emotions are stitution dominated by the motives of ambition.
not stirred and that good emotions are not associated Some Guardians will beget children that are not
with the wrong sorts of objects (loyalty to one’s well-endowed. When they succeed to their fathers’
family or class, for instance, instead of loyalty to the authority as Guardians, being unworthy, they will
rulers, as the symbol for the state as a whole). begin to neglect us and to think too lightly first of
17
the cultivation of the mind, and then of bodily train- PLATO’S THEORY OF ART
ing. Then they will distribute land and houses for
private ownership and enslave their own people. 1. What is the beautiful for Plato? Physical objects
They … will be afraid to admit intellectuals to of- are beautiful only insofar as they partake of the form
fice. … They will prefer simpler characters with “beauty.” Are there differing levels of “beauty”?
plenty of spirit. Soon you have the development of Yes, to the extent of participation in the form of
an oligarchy, one based on a property qualification, “beauty.” Therefore, physical objects are not as ade-
where the rich are in power and the poor man cannot quate a source of esthetic enjoyment as is the study
hold office. If the aim of life in an oligarchy is to be- of mathematics. It follows, too, that natural physical
come as rich as possible, that insatiable craving objects are much more beautiful than art objects.
would bring about the transition to democracy be-
cause the “rich” settle down to idleness, some come 2. How does Plato’s view relate to the cognitive
to ruin by prodigal extravagance. And when the poor verses the emotive and conative aspects of art?
win, the result is a democracy. … First of all, they When Plato thought of the cognitive intent of art, he
are free, Liberty and free speech are rife everywhere; found the artist a poor failure; when he thought of its
anyone is allowed to do what he likes. … You are emotive powers, he found the artist a social menace.
not obliged to be in authority, however competent Plato was actually a consummate artist and in his
you may be, or to submit to authority, if you do not writings he repeatedly employed an art form (the
like it. … A wonderfully pleasant life surely, for the myth) to convey his meaning. When Plato came to a
moment. The citizens become so sensitive that they particularly difficult and abstruse point in his argu-
resent the slightest application of control as intoler- ment, he often resorted to use of a myth to convey
able tyranny, and in their resolve to have no master his meaning. On Plato’s part, this was neither a con-
they disregard even the law, written or unwritten. fession of personal failure nor a recognition of the
Leaders distribute to the people what they have inability of his reader to follow abstract discourse.
taken from the well-to-do, always provided they can The need for a myth is rooted in the nature of the
keep the lion’s share for themselves. The plundered subjects discussed and in a fundamental limitation of
rich are driven to defend themselves. … Then follow verbal communication. Mathematics is a first-rate
impeachments and trials, in which each party ar- language for communicating about mathematical
raigns the other. … The people put forward a single forms and its study is a necessary preliminary for
champion of their interests. They give him a body- philosophical discourse. But both languages, the ab-
guard. In the early days he has a smile … and dis- stract language of mathematics and the technical
claims any absolute power. … He begins stirring up prose of philosophy, are inadequate for communicat-
one war after another, In order that the people may ing about the highest and most important forms—
feel their need of a leader. To maintain rule he about the meaning and the value of life, for instance.
purges the courageous, and intelligent … Then the Plato thought that meanings could be communicated
child becomes too strong for the parent to drive out. without words, by a kind of intellectual osmosis. But
… So the despot [becomes] a parricide. … The slave because this method of communication requires
has become the master. close personal contact over a long period of time,
Plato used myth as a short cut, or substitute. The
7. No theory ever works perfectly in the physical meaning it communicates must not be taken literally,
world, precisely because the physical world, being and it cannot be translated into ordinary abstract
physical, falls short of, and only partially partici- prose. If it could be translated, there would be no
pates in, those forms whose essences and interrela- need to employ a myth in the first place.
tions are reflected in the theory. Hence it is no criti- Two quite different kinds of knowledge: 1. direct
cism of his theory, Plato would have said, to com- experience, and 2. conceptual knowledge. Art stands
plain that it does not translate satisfactorily into po- halfway between these two kinds of knowledge. Art
litical actualities. This is no fault of the theory but is immediate, vivid, and concrete like direct experi-
simply the way the world is. No actual state can ever ence, but it also has the objectivity, perspective, and
be ideal; no actual ruler, being a mere man, will ever generality that direct experience lacks and that are
behave as man should behave. Though not fully real- characteristic of conceptual knowledge. Art is thus
izable in this world, it is the ideal at which we in a way a substitute for direct experience, just as
should aim. myth is a substitute for master and pupil leading a
long life together.
18
living creature and intelligent means that its behav-
PLATO’S THEORY OF RELIGION ior is ordered, that things do not happen hit-or-miss,
but “for the best”, i.e., the cosmos satisfies our
1. What were the five attributes of god that Plato whole nature—not merely our intellectual curiosity
believed could be inferred, or discovered by the but also our moral demands. And to say that its mo-
use of reason? 1. Since god is good and since no tion is spontaneous means that motion originates
good thing is hurtful, god is not the author of hurtful from within.
things. 2. God “is not the author of all things”, i.e.,
evils. 3. Since the wicked are benefited by receiving 5. What is the major difference between Plato’s god
punishment, we can infer that god is the author of and the Christian God? Plato’s religion was not
the punishments they suffer. 4. God is unchangeable. really interested in god the creator, rather, Plato was
This follows from the fact that he is good; in a good interested in god’s creation, the universe. Plato’s god
thing any change would be for the worse. For the is not really an object of worship. He is not omnipo-
same reason, 5. God does not lie or make false rep- tent, he is limited by those elements of disorder that
resentations of himself. (Republic) prevent physics from ever being more than a “likely
story.” The Universe he produces is an imitation, or
2. How old is the soul? How does Plato put purpose reflection, of the model. The model—the form—is
into the universe? What are Plato’s gods? 1. real, immutable, intelligible through and through; the
There must be a first cause of movement; 2. this first copy is unstable, not real, and unintelligible.
cause is a self-mover; 3. “soul” is the name given to
self-movers; therefore 4. Soul is “more ancient” than CRITICISM OF THE THEORY OF FORMS
those natural processes. But to say that soul is the
primary cause means that there is purpose in the 1. In The Parmenides Plato gives two major criti-
universe. We shall declare these souls to be gods. cisms against his theory of forms. What are they?
(Laws) The first criticism raised by Parmenides is whether
there are forms for such things as mud and dirt.
3. Plato also “proves” three other attributes of God. What we call mud is a composite of earth, air, fire,
What are they? “May we now say that we have fully and water in certain proportions. There are forms of
proved our three propositions,--namely that gods ex- these elements, of course; they and the mathematical
ist, and that they are careful, and that they are formula of their combination can be known. And
wholly incapable of being seduced to transgress jus- that is all that can be known about mud. Mud itself
tice.” (Laws) This is probably as much as Plato remains at best a “likely story.” Thus Platonism can
thought could be proved about the divine nature. But survive with a very limited number of forms. It is
Plato was not only a rationalist; he was also a mystic not necessary to assume a separate form for each
who held that the highest truths transcend rational physical object, nor for man-made objects, like beds
formulation. or chairs—though Plato certainly seems on occasion
to have done so.
4. Plato describes the universe in mythical language Second criticism concerns participation. Participa-
by saying that the universe is a “living creature”. tion is like the relation of a physical thing to its
What does this mean? What is the relationship shadow. But how can our understanding of this spa-
between order and spontaneity? In the Timaeus 1. tiotemporal relation throw any light on the nature of
god is a creator, and 2. what god creates is a cosmos. a relation that cannot be spatiotemporal, since one of
However, creation was not a process in time nor the terms in the relation (the form) is by definition
does god “desire” or “think” in the sense that men nonspatial and nontemporal. How can many particu-
do, nor, does god have purposes or intentions as men lar objects participate in the same form. Is the form
do. What Plato asserted was that the universe is a divided up? No. Is the form wholly in each of the
purposive whole. In mythical language, to say that particulars? No. If Dobbin resembles the form
the universe is living means that it has intelligence “horse,” there must be another form, “horse2,” that
and is capable of spontaneous motion. And to say Dobbin and the first form, “horse1,” share. But then,
that it is intelligent means, basically, that its behav- if Dobbin and horse1 both resemble horse2, all three
ior is ordered. What reason and intelligence do for must share another form, horse3—and so on ad infi-
man is to bring the chaos of conflicting desires and nitum. Thus to assert that the participation of physi-
passions into order. Thus to say that the universe is a
19
cal things in forms amounts to resemblance involves
Plato in an absurdity. 4. Does the soul mediate transcendence? What are
some problems with this? The attempt to make
2. Like the forms, psyche is immortal and eternal; like psyche bridge the chasm between the two worlds
them it has a kind of unchanging identity. But psy- only creates a corresponding duality in psyche itself.
che is also a self-mover, and because it moves it is The part of the psyche that contemplates eternal
like the Heraclitean flux Plato conceived the sense forms and the part that initiates life and movement in
world to be. Moreover, if one part of the soul knows the sense world are really as far apart as the sense
the forms, another part perceives sense objects. world and the intelligible world themselves.
Hence, on the like-knows-like principle, one part of
the psyche must be like the sense world. Finally, the 5. Do forms have to be objects? Now all these objec-
emotions and the passions that have their seat in the tions and difficulties turn on taking forms as entities.
lower parts of the psyche clearly have an affinity If, for instance, the form were not, somehow, an-
with the lower sense world, just as mind, the highest other thing or object the infinite-regress argument of
part of the psyche, has an affinity with the higher the Parmenides would not hold and “apartness”
and more real world. For these reasons, psyche would not be a problem. But how, Plato might have
seemed well suited to serve as a link between the asked, is a form to be an object of knowledge with-
sensible and the intelligible worlds, to redeem the out being an object?
former from utter unreality and to mediate the splen- 6. Plato was an idealist when thinking of the forms,
did but awful purity and isolation of the later. soul, and city state. Plato was a rationalist who held
that knowledge of the forms and the Good was pos-
3. Plato’s later view held that besides forms, there sible. Plato was a mystic in that all true knowledge
are souls, the motions they initiate, and the Re- at its best transcends conceptual means of communi-
ceptacle of Becoming, i.e., space, out of which cation.
sensible things are fashioned. What are some
problems with the Receptacle of Becoming? “it is
“very puzzling … very hard to apprehend” how the
Receptacle, which is “invisible and characterless,
all-receiving, partakes of the intelligible …” (Ti-
maeus)
20
ARISTOTLE
Metaphysics, Natural Science, Logic
36
THE LATE CLASSICAL PERIOD
POLITICAL AND CULTURAL CHANGES controlling the election of the two “consuls,” as
the supreme officers of the new republic. After the
1. When did Classical Philosophy reach its Ze-
beginning of the fifth century B.C. they secured
nith? Classical Philosophy reached its zenith with
the right of electing special officers—“tribunes of
Plato and Aristotle, yet more than six centuries
the people”—whose primary duty was to protect
elapsed between the death of Aristotle and the
individual citizens from arrest without due process
emergence of Christianity as a cultural force suffi-
of law. In 452 B.C. the existing unwritten law in
ciently strong to give a radically new direction of
Rome was set down on Twelve Tables. Six years
thought.
later mixed marriages between nobles and plebe-
2. What did the Peloponnesian War demonstrate ians were authorized. In 367 B.C. the plebeians
and how did Alexander The Great deal with first succeeded in electing one of their own num-
those issues? The Peloponnesian War demon- ber consul. Step by step the political differences
strated both the need for a larger unity than the between patrician and plebeian were removed.
city-state and the inability of the Greeks cities to
4. How was Rome’s initial taxation one of self-
find it for themselves. Alexander’s empire marked
destruction? Conquered territories overseas were
the first attempt to form a stronger union than a
first plundered and then taxed to support the
mere confederation of independent cities. Alexan-
homeland, which gradually became tax-free. How-
der believed that racial homogeneity is a necessary
ever, this did not create economic prosperity. On
condition of the cultural homogeneity that is the
the contrary, the importation into Italy of large
basis of lasting political union. He therefore at-
numbers of slaves gradually ruined the old class of
tempted to overcome the old Greek prejudice
free farmers and small landholders. A large and
against foreigners and encouraged his soldiers to
disenfranchised urban proletariat arose, taking the
marry women from the newly conquered Asiatic
place of the vigorous, independent, and largely ru-
provinces. Alexander understood that any great
ral population. The poor became poorer, the rich
state required some visible symbol of its unity.
became richer. Proconsuls returned from foreign
The Greek city-states used ties of blood brother-
duty with immense fortunes, built huge palaces,
hood. However, Alexander’s empire was too
and lived lives of oriental splendor surrounded by
young, i.e., it had no generations yet. Thus, for the
hordes of slaves and fawning clients. To advance
sake of unity Alexander allowed himself to be
their political fortunes, these men were able and
worshiped as a god. Had Alexander lived, his em-
willing to bribe the populace with bread and cir-
pire might have endured. As it was, he died at the
cuses, and the populace were only too willing to
age of thirty-three, and the state he had fashioned
connive at their further degradation. It took the
collapsed almost overnight.
genius of Julius and Octavius Caesar, to solve this
3. How did Rome find solutions to the changing problem.
conditions of hegemony? The successor of Alex-
5. By what process was civil service created for
ander’s universal state began to rise—Rome.
Rome? With marvelous tact, Caesar retained all
Rome began, as Athens and Sparta, as a small, in-
the old, well-loved Republican forms but gathered
dependent city-state. But unlike the Greek cities it
all the powers in the state into the hands of one
managed to find solutions to meet the changing
man. Since no clear line was drawn between the
conditions that developed as its hegemony spread
emperor’s personal affairs and the affairs of state,
over the whole of the Mediterranean and beyond.
the emperor’s personal servants—his social secre-
For example, by 212 A.D. Roman citizenship be-
tary, his bookkeeper, and such other assistants be-
came open to all free inhabitants of the empire. In
came Secretaries of State. Gradually a civil service
its earliest days Rome had been a monarchy, with
adequate to administer the vast dominion was built
a council of elders and patricians, called the Sen-
up. Because Rome had been Hellenized, the atti-
ate, and a virtually powerless assembly of free
tudes and concepts of Greece became a part of the
citizens. When the monarchy was overthrown po-
heritage of Western man.
litical power passed to the patricians, who ruled by
37
6. Why was self-improvement possible in the po- greatest satisfaction in conversation with his
litical theories of Plato and Aristotle? The old friends. He was a prolific writer, though almost all
city-state milieu was on a sufficiently small scale of his writings have been lost. He died in 270 B.C.
for men to believe they could achieve security and 2. Describe Epicurus’ physics. Epicurus’ physics
well-being through their own efforts and coopera- and epistemology was Atomistic, following De-
tion. Whether true or not, people had a sense of mocritus. As did Leucippus and Democritus, Epi-
being able to control their destiny and to solve curus believed that change cannot be denied and
their problems. Self-improvement was possible as that, if it is genuine change, there must be some-
reflected in the political theories of Plato and Aris- thing permanent remaining throughout the proc-
totle. ess: being and becoming, once again. Epicurus
7. Why was did people feel passive in the new reasoned that matter could not be a monolithic,
Roman Empire? The new Empire milieu, in con- solid mass; it had to be composed of exceedingly
trast, one did not control one’s own destiny. Peo- small particles of matter, with enough ambient
ple needed to accept passively what life brought, space to allow movement, so that change in a
instead of seeking actively to alter the course of thing presenting itself as solid could be accounted
events in one’s favor. People gave up the attempt for. In addition to their infinitesimal size, follow-
to achieve harmony and concentrated on the inner ing the dictum that “nothing comes from nothing,”
life and one’s private sensibilities. As man became these particles always had to be, they were be-ing
convinced of the impotence of the natural man, forever, eternal; they were indeed permanent.
they gradually rested their hopes on the supernatu- Epicurus, then, holding both permanence and
ral. When the sense of frustration, impotence, and change to be undeniable, located permanence in
insecurity became too great to be contained in the the eternity of the atoms and change in the way
rational framework of Platonism and Aristotelian- they continually rearranged themselves into new
ism, the classical world was at an end. configurations. Atoms are indivisible: “the first
beginnings are indivisible corporeal existences,”
8. What were the five main “schools” in the sec-
and though limitless in number they are limited in
ond century B.C.? In the second century B.C.,
variety. In themselves atoms have no sensible
when the Romans first began to interest them-
qualities, but in their aggregates they do. The body
selves in philosophical speculation, there were
of man, is composed of physical atoms, but so is
five main “schools,” or discernible types of phi-
his soul; atoms of the body are of a less refined
losophical developments—Academics, Peripatet-
variety than those of the soul, which are “fine
ics, Epicureans, Stoics, and the Sceptics. The
particles distributed throughout the whole
Academics were centered in the Academy that
structure and most resembling mind with a certain
Plato had founded and whose views were handed
admixture of heat.”
down dogmatically. The Peripatietics were mem-
bers of Aristotle’s Llyceum and were content on 3. Describe Epicurus’ epistemology. Sense data are
expounding the encyclopedic learning of Aristotle immediate; our knowledge then is true because the
and thus showed little originality. The other Greek immediacy of sense knowledge is its own warrant;
schools were more original. it is true because it is self-evident. There is no
room for scepticism. “… we must keep all our in-
EPICUREANISM
vestigations in accord with our sensations, and in
1. Who was Epicurus? Epicurus, born around 341 particular with the immediate apprehensions.”
B.C. on the island of Samos in the Aegean. Visited The activity of sensation is accomplished in a
Athens around Aristotle’s death. Settled in Athens strictly mechanical way: the atom dispatches a
in 306 B.C. and set up a school in the Garden and gossamerlike image (idol) of itself through the
was worshiped almost as a god by admiring pu- body’s channels to be received by an inner recep-
pils. He taught in the Garden for thirty-five years, tacle thus matching the inner with the outer. This
lived a simple communal life with like-minded position represents the opposite pole from Plato’s
followers, welcoming into their company a broad epistemology in which the object known takes its
spectrum of society including courtesans and shape from the way the mind knows it. For Epicu-
slaves, ate only the plainest food, and found his rus the mind takes its shape from the object
38
known; if the object known is atomic, the mind only difficult to satisfy because of their being ex-
must be just as atomic because of the immediacy otic, but the desires are never satisfied (never
of sense knowledge: the particulate aggregate terminated).
must be known by a particulate mind, so the con- 6. How does Epicurus’ associate the pleasant life
clusion must be, which Epicurus does not make, with the virtuous life? Epicurus held that simple
that the mind is a collection of particles just as the foods are somehow intrinsically better than rich
object is, the overall point being that Epicurus foods and, similarly, virtue is intrinsically better
never really accounts for how the mind, not really than vice. “It is not possible to live pleasantly
a self, can know the particulate atoms constellated without living prudently and honorably and
as a whole. (Hakim 139-140) justly,[nor again to live a life of prudence, honor,
4. Describe Epicurus’ ethics. His ethics, however, and justice] without living pleasantly. And the
differed from Democritus in that the end of life is man who does not possess the pleasant life, is not
simply to maximize pleasure. The enlightened living prudently and honorably and justly, [and
pleasure-seeker will avoid violent and extreme the man who does not possess the virtuous life],
pleasures because of their adverse aftereffects. It is cannot possibly live pleasantly.”
“better” to lead a simple and frugal life of self- 7. How does Epicurus associate both the physical
denial. “Since pleasure is the first good and natu- and mental repose with blessedness? Epicurus
ral to us, for this very reason we do not choose gave great prominence to the desire for repose,
every pleasure, but sometimes we pass over many both physically, as in rest and relaxation, and in a
pleasures, when greater discomfort accrues to us psychical, as freedom from worry. If men can
as the result of them: and similarly we think many learn to eliminate all idle and unnecessary desires
pains better than pleasures, since a greater pleas- for fine living and at the same time find mental re-
ure comes to us when we have endured pains for a pose, they will achieve a state of blessedness. An
long time. Every pleasure then because of its natu- ethics that emphasized quiet and repose appealed
ral kinship to us is good, yet not every pleasure is to men who had abandoned the ideal of all-round
to be chosen: even as every pain also is an evil, personal development. The two chief worries that
yet not all are always of a nature to be avoided. … disrupt repose are fear of death and divine inter-
And again independence of desire we think a great vention. Atomistic physics, materialism, served to
good … When, therefore, we maintain that pleas- eradicate both fears. There is nothing about us that
ure is the end, we do not mean the pleasures of is not material. Personal identity does not survive
profigates and those that consist in sensuality, as death. “… death is nothing to us. For all good and
is supposed by some who are either ignorant or evil consists in sensation, but death is deprivation
disagree with us or do not understand, but free- of sensation. … it takes away the craving for im-
dom from pain in the body and from trouble in the mortality. … there is nothing terrible in not living.
mind. … Of all this the beginning and the greatest [Death] does not then concern either the living or
good is prudence. Wherefore prudence is a more the dead, since the former it is not, and the latter
precious thing even than philosophy. … (Letter to are no more.” After death therefore there is no
Menoeceus) human being to suffer, and this fact alone should
5. What were Epicurus’ distinction between 1. bring comfort to the person fearful of punishment
natural and necessary desires, 2. natural but after death. The human being is a mere configura-
unnecessary desires, and 3. unnatural desires? tion of atoms, so that when the configuration
The desire for food (but just enough to satisfy ceases, so does the total existent—that is the
hunger) and the desire for sleep are examples of meaning of death.
natural and necessary desires. In contrast, the de- 8. Who was the chief Roman Epicurean and what
sire for sexual pleasure is natural but unnecessary, was his psychological conclusion? Lucretius,
and desires for exotic foods and expensive, showy aprox. 94 –55 B.C., was the chief Roman Epicu-
clothes are unnatural, that is, “vain and idle.” Nec- rean. Religion, far from being holy itself, “has
essary desires that must be satisfied are easy to given birth to deeds most sinful and unholy.” He
satisfy (the desires get terminated) and have no gave a very acute psychological analysis of the
adverse consequences. Unnatural desires are not way an unconscious fear of death affects every-
39
thing that men do, making them restless, vacillat- ordinary amenities of life. Cynics held that no
ing, and profoundly discontent. harm can come to a good man. Since poverty,
pain, suffering, and death obviously can and do
9. How did Plato and Aristotle differ from the
come to good men, the Cynics reasoned that none
Epicureans in terms of being active or passive?
of these is really bad. The truly virtuous man will
Whereas Plato and Aristotle had insisted on par-
be indifferent to everything that happens to him.
ticipation in affairs, the Epicureans never tired of
The Cynics held that manners, customs, all the
describing the attractions of a wise passivity. “We
small decencies and proprieties of social inter-
must release ourselves from the prison of affairs
course, as well as the larger matters of political re-
and politics.”
lationship, are without value and should be ig-
10. What was indicative of the immanent end of the nored. Zeno, though influenced by the Cynics,
Classical period? The doctrine that repose is wanted to reconcile the independence of the Cynic
blessedness and that one achieves it by reducing sage with the realities of political and social life.
one’s desires to the bare minimum could have ap-
3. What is Stoic conceptualism? Stoics based their
pealed only at a time when city-state culture, on
theory of knowledge on an extreme sensational-
the basis of which Plato and Aristotle had fash-
ism. At birth the mind is a blank page. Objects
ioned their theories, was at an end. Epicureanism
stamp their impressions on the mind. The form of
was a direct, coherent, simple philosophy, which
“horse” is neither an independently existing entity
made it attractive to a vast number of people look-
(as Plato held) nor a real component in a spatio-
ing for that guidance and, suffused with the culti-
temporal substance (as Aristotle held). It is only a
vation of friendship as it was, it became an invita-
mental construction, a concept, which has no real-
tion to a way of life. This appeal made it one of
ity outside the mind. Thus, it was called conceptu-
the most widespread and enduring philosophies of
alism. True and false perceptions where distin-
the Greek period, extending into the early centu-
guished by the vividness and strength of the im-
ries of the Christian period.
pression.
STOICISM
4. What is real for the Stoics, and what is the
1. Who was the founder of Stoicism and what was prime substance? In their physics the Stoics held
the etymological origins of its name? Founder of that only matter is real. Not only god and the soul,
this school was Zeno, (not to be confused with but also such properties as good and bad are cor-
Zeno the pupil of Parmenides), born in Cyprus, poreal. They identified matter with fire, and they
went to Athens as a young man, about 315 B.C.— also said that it is “god.” (influence of Heraclitus).
just after Aristotle’s death. Founded his own Having asserted their independence from Aris-
school around 300 B.C. The school took the name totle/Peripatetics, with regards to the first princi-
from the place where Zeno taught—a porch (in ples of physics, they seemed content in following
Greek, stoa, hence the name Stoic), or open col- Aristotle’s lead.
onnade, famous among the Athenians for its fres-
5. What is the highest good for the Stoic, and how
coes. Lived a life of simplicity and died around
was science important for this attainment?
264 B.C.. Stoicism thrived as a philosophy along-
Ethically, the highest good for any creature con-
side Epicureanism and exerted a widespread influ-
sists in acting in accordance with its nature. Aris-
ence in Greece and Rome for over 500 years. His-
totle held that for man “highest good” was con-
torians identify an early, middle, and late Stoi-
templation. Stoics held that the “highest good”
cism. Early stoa figures are Zeno, Cleanthes, and
was apathy, the peace of mind that comes through
Chriysippus. Middle stoa figures are Panaetius,
acceptance of the universe as it is, natural law. In
Posidonius, and Cicero. Late stoa figures are Se-
general, we value science today for its technology,
neca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius.
Epicureans valued science because it disabuses us
2. What is the etymology of the term Cynics, and of superstitious fears, the Stoics valued science
how did their views relate to good and evil? because it helps us discover our nature.
Zeno at first apparently came under the influence
6. What was the Stoic conception of the cosmos?
of the Socratic Cynics, (cynos is the Greek word
The oneness of the cosmos is the foundation of all
for dog), called so because of their scorn for the
40
understanding of reality and of everything in it. behaves in accordance with laws that the rational
Order is its keynote, and the harmony resounding mind can fathom, it is fair, the Stoics thought to
in all things is brought about by the active pres- describe the universe as “rational.” Universe and
ence of a power—god, logos, world soul, law of man, are as macrocosm and microcosm. This
nature—so that god and the universe are effec- world reason is variously called “Zeus,” “nature,”
tively one, in a unity that can only be called mo- “providence,” and “logos.”
nistic pantheism. Indebted to Heraclitus, the early 10. What is happiness for the Stoic and how does it
Stoics held fire to be the ultimate physical element relate to the brotherhood of man? For the Stoics
permeating all reality and, as delivered of god happiness consists in activity in accordance with
binding all things together. nature. We can criticize existing–human institu-
7. What was the Stoic conception of change within tions for falling short of, or deviating from, the
the cosmos? Following the traditional Greek no- norm. This notion of nature also suggested to the
tion that the universe never came to be, but always Stoics the universal brotherhood of man. If all ac-
was, the Stoics held that the course of the universe tual codes of law ought to be evaluated in terms of
is eternal and, given that “course” means a single universal law, all men everywhere ought,
“change,” change also is eternal, thus rendering ideally, to be members of one universal commu-
the universe, not linear in its unfolding, but cycli- nity, citizens of one city. The idea of a cosmopo-
cal and subject to eternal return. Lastly, since there lis, or universal city, was Stoic in origin.
is no “outside” the universe, that is, no “outside” 11. Did the Stoic concept of natural law survive?
god or “outside” Nature, all change is “within,” This Stoic concept of natural law was absorbed by
immanent, natural; and if to humans, things appear the Romans, Christians, survived the Middle Ages
as crooked, straight, or chaotic, to the Eternal, into the modern period, and put into writing in the
things are totally otherwise. “Chaos to thee is or- Declaration, Constitution, and the Bill of rights.
der.” In turn, this means that change is one-with-
god. This notion of change is immanent in phi- 12. What is the Stoics’ conception of duty? The Sto-
losophers yet to come like Nicholas of Cusa, Spi- ics also gave duty a primacy it had never had be-
noza, Hegel, and Bergson, indicating how pro- fore. It was to be wholly distinct from advantage,
found must our understanding of change be for a however long-range. Stoic happiness was apathy,
proper reading of reality. (Hakim) the peace of mind that comes through acceptance
of the universe as it is. Only our motives have
8. How did the Stoics deal with “universals?” The moral significance. What is accomplished by an
Stoics, along with the Epicureans, were committed act matters naught; what is intended is everything.
to the priority of sense knowledge and even to its
exclusivity, so that an unyielding sense of empiri- 13. What is the moral state of mind for the Stoic?
cism was their pathway to the real world. What- The only moral state of mind from the Stoic point
ever is, is individual and particular; no place for of view is acceptance—acceptance of the universe
universals, neither the transcendental universal in and of our place in it. This exclusive concentration
Plato’s world of Ideas nor the concrete universal on a single motive appears also in the Stoics’ utter
of Aristotle expressing the commonness really rejection of the emotions. Moderation, they held,
found in individuals of the same class; the best to is as bad as excess, since the supreme good is apa-
be hoped for was a commonness of name, nomi- thy.
nalism therefore. The generation of knowledge for 14. Is Stoic virtue a process or a conversion? Be-
the Stoic required that the mind be impressed by cause Stoic virtue is unitary, it is either wholly
the object as if it were impressed by a seal, one on present or wholly absent. After a long and arduous
one, with its directness guaranteeing its truth. (Ha- period of preparation and training, virtue is at-
kim) tained all at once in a moment of conversion when
9. What is Stoic determinism and how does it re- worldly things are put away and the true perspec-
late to divine providence? The Stoics held that tive on the universe is achieved.
nature is a deterministic system, though not a 15. Why is Stoic natural law a bit of a puzzle? Stoic
blind mechanism like the Atomists. Somehow it theory of knowledge had explicitly rejected the
involves a divine providence. Since the universe
41
theory of forms, it is rather surprising to have cism—withdrawal from the world.
forms turning up again as the norms, or natural 6. What two words sum up the whole of Epic-
laws, to which we ought to make our conduct con- tetus’ teaching? The whole of his teaching could
form. be summed up, he said, in two words: “bear” and
16. What is the Stoic paradox of determinism? If “forbear.” “If a man will only have these two
the universe is a deterministic system, as the Sto- words at heart, and heed them carefully by ruling
ics held, can men choose whether to conform or and watching over himself, he will for the most
not? part fall into no sin, and his life will be tranquil
and serene.”
EPICTETUS
7. How did Epictetus’ “peace of mind” deal with
1. What definite facts do we know about Epic-
the “world of “dichotomies”? Epictetus’ seam-
tetus’ life? Only definite fact about Epictetus’
less garment of reality has many difficulties: how
early life is that he as a slave in Rome during the
to resolve the age-old problem of the one and the
reign of Nero. Later he was freed and taught in
many, in this case the One and the many; how to
Rome until 98 A.D. when Domitian expelled all
give a spiritual overtone to the physicality of the
philosophers from the city believing they were
world; how to reconcile personal freedom with an
sympathetic to the political opposition. Thereafter,
over-riding determinism; how to hold the option
until his death, he taught at Nicopolis in Epircus,
of suicide against the moral imperative of a
where a circle of pupils gathered about him. Like
deterministic Nature; how to speak of eternity and
Socrates, Epictetus wrote nothing.
yet hold to the absolute dissolution of the human
2. What role does divine providence play for being; how to hold monotheism as consistent with
Epictetus? Epictetus believed that men would be polytheism. These persistent and friction-laden di-
better if they grasped the fact that divine provi- chotomies belong to the mystery of reality that
dence rules the world. “There is a God and … he Epictetus appointed “peace of mind” to overrule.
provides for all things. … It is shameful for man to (Hakim)
begin and to end where irrational animals do; but
CICERO
rather he ought to begin where they begin, and to
end where nature ends in us; and nature ends in 1. Who was Cicero? Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43
contemplation and understanding, and in a way of B.C., was a brilliant lawyer. His talents brought
life conformable to nature.” him to be the consulship in 63 B.C. He stood for
the old order under which the Senate had ruled
3. What is the nature of man for Epictetus? Man
Rome, and against the new type of one-man rule.
is a “fragment torn from God.” Every man has in
He was killed on the orders of Antony, one of the
him a “portion of God.” Man has a duty to live up
contenders for power after the assassination of
to this high origin, to live as befits one who knows
Julius Caesar.
that god is his maker.
2. What Stoic notions did Cicero affirm and re-
4. For Epictetus, what attitude ought man have in
ject? Cicero affirmed the Stoic notion of choosing
regards to the fate? Man should accept whatever
what is in accordance with nature and rejecting
god gives us, that is, whatever life brings us.
what is contrary to it. Though Cicero ridiculed the
5. For Epictetus, how is the equality of man extreme Stoic positions, he still held on to its con-
played out? Since all men are equally god’s crea- ception of virtue. He said the Stoics maintained,
tures, they are all equally members of one com- “that all men’s folly, injustice and other vices are
munity. In this community the individual loses his alike and all sins are equal; and that those who by
self-identity. As a member of a greater commun- nature and training have made considerable pro-
ion, he sacrifices himself willingly, if need be, for gress toward virtue, unless they have actually at-
the sake of that larger whole of which he is a part. tained to it, are utterly miserable, and there is
Although this line of thought could (and did) lead nothing whatever to choose between their exis-
others to stress the importance of more positive tence and that of the wickedest of mankind, so that
social duties, Epictetus’ temperament caused him the great and famous Plato, supposing he was not
to emphasize the other, asocial tendency in Stoi- a Wise Man lived a no better and no happier life
42
than any unprincipled scoundrel.” of this universe, man shares in its life and in its di-
vinity. In particular, his reason, which enables him
3. How did Cicero distinguish laws? Cicero distin-
to understand the world and his place in it, is a
guished 1) laws that are merely the “product of
“morsel of the Divine.”
government” and 2) laws that are based on the na-
ture of things. 3. What is the true mark of a philosopher for Au-
relius? The mark of a true philosopher is his sense
4. What was Cicero’s ultimate sanction for doing
of unity. Marcus Aurelius is a top-down thinker,
one’s duty? According to Cicero, “reason,” not
one who begins with totality, the whole, the all-in-
Hesiod’s divine will or Plato’s enlightened self-
all; and then particular things and actions make
interest, is the ultimate sanction for doing one’s
sense.
duty. This formulation was to have momentous
consequences in the history of thought. First, it 4. For the Stoic what is man’s purpose? If a Chris-
provided a universal criterion by which states and tian were asked what is man for, what is his des-
their laws can be evaluated. Secondly, since the tiny, the response would be in terms of man’s ul-
law of nature is applicable to all men equally, pro- timate personal fulfillment in some kind of return
vided only that they possess reason, this doctrine to the God from whence he came. If a Stoic, if
led directly to the idea of cosmopolis. Marcus Aurelius, were asked the same question,
he would say that the question from one point of
MARCUS AURELIUS
view is unreal because, if we cannot meaningfully
1. Who was Marcus Arelius? Marcus Aurelius 121- ask what the Universe is “for”—as though the
180 A.D.. As a boy he attracted the favorable no- Universe works toward a goal outside itself—then
tice of the childless emperor Hadrian, who ar- we cannot ask what man is for either because he is
ranged that his own adopted heir, Antoninus Pius, at-one-with-Nature. But from another point of
would in turn adopt Arelius, thus assuring the suc- view, the Stoic would say the question makes
cession to the Principate. Marcus Arelis became eminent sense because to be at-one-with-Nature is
Emperor in 161 and ruled for 19 years until 180, the main goal of the human being. Live according
when he died of the plague on a military expedi- to Nature is the chief maxim for human activity.
tion against the northern barbarians along the Da- (Hakim)
nube. His reign and that of Antoninus Pius were,
5. How is Aurelius’ position a change from inter-
according to Gibbon, “possibly the only period of
est to duty? From the basic obligation to “treat all
history in which the happiness of a great people
men as fellow creatures,” Aurelius derived a
was the sole object of government.” This ended at
whole list of social and political duties. This shift
the death of Aurelius and the accession to the
from interest (Plato and Aristotle) to duty reflects
throne of his son Commodus, whose incompe-
a profound change in the culture, revealed in Au-
tence and violence marked the beginning of the
relius duty of apathy, or indifference to this-
Empire’s decline. Aurelius was not only the last
worldly things: “As long then as I remember that I
Stoic; he was also in a way the last great product
am a part of such a whole, I shall be well pleased
of classical culture.
with all that happens … To grumble at anything
2. What was the central concept of Aurelius’ that happens is a rebellion against Nature, in
thought, and what metaphysical aspects did it some part of which are bound up the natures of all
have? Nature was the central concept of his other things.”
thought. Nature was a cosmos in Heraclitean flux.
6. How did Aurelius differ from Epictetus on sui-
Though everything sooner or later disappears by
cide? Epictetus, on the other hand, said that the
passing into something else, change is orderly and
door stands always open for us to leave the room
regular. This orderliness is evidence, that the uni-
of life whenever we choose. Aurelius thought that
verse is rational and intelligent. The universe is
though we ought to accept death willingly when it
“one living Being, possessed of a single … Soul …
comes we ought not hasten its coming unless the
it does all things by a single impulse … all existing
conditions of life make virtue impossible. Ep-
things are joint causes of all things that come into
citetus suggests that, if life become unbearable,
existence; … how intertwined in the fabric is the
imitate the child who opts out of a game: “Chil-
thread and how closely woven the web.” As a part
43
dren, when things do not please them, say ‘I will jus civile. Slaves, strangers, and foreigners, not be-
not play anymore’; so, when things seem to you to ing citizens, i.e., not part of the blood brotherhood,
reach that point, just say, ‘I will not play any- were without law. Then they added the jus gen-
more’, ad so depart …” Marcus Aurelius, for tium or international law. Then a third law was in-
whom the true life is of all-consuming importance, troduced—natural law—jus naturale, valid for all
in vites the person who cannot sustain the striving men, not merely as citizens of some state or other
to be good, modest, true, rational, even-minded, but as rational beings sharing in the divine reason
magnanimous, to consider departing “… at once that rules the universe. This was an ideal that car-
from life, not in passion, but with simplicity and ried a moral sanction, although it never appeared
freedom and modesty, after doing this one laud- formally on the statue books it did affect what ap-
able thin at least in thy life, to have gone out of it peared on the books. Shift from verbal expression,
thus.” Death itself, however, is looked upon as a to intent. When all free inhabitants of the Empire
natural event, in rhythm with all the other events were allowed to be citizens then jus civile and jus
of nature; in this sense, it is beyond our control gentium became one. Jus naturale remained an
and should cause no disturbance of mind. It is not ideal.
an evil, it is “a good, since it is seasonable and SCEPTICISM
profitable to and congruent with the universal.”
Just as life brings youth ad old age, so it brings its What is the position of scepticism? They did not
dissolution, yet “Do not despise death, but be well maintain that knowledge is impossible, just that, as of
content with it, since this too is one of those things now, they had no knowledge.
which nature wills.” There is nothing to fear from SEXTUS EMPIRICUS
death: it is either extinction or change. If it is the
former, there is nothing in the future to fear; if it is 1. Who is Sextus Empiricus? Many of the Sceptics
th latter, the goodness of the universe insures no wrote nothing. Most of the information about them
harm. It is not death, says Epictetus, that is to be was gathered by Sextus who lived about 200 A.D..
feared, but the fear of death. Death is a “bogy,” “In answer to him who argues the existence of
regarded as harmful when it is not, thereby caus- Providence from the order of the heavenly bodies
ing a baseless fear. we oppose the fact that often the good fare ill and
the bad fare well, and draw from this the inference
STOICISM AS AN OPERATIVE IDEAL IN that Providence does not exist.”
ROMAN LIFE
2. What were Sextus’ two main arguments? Sex-
1. How did Stoicism affect the Roman law? Ac- tus had two main arguments. One may be called
cording to early Roman notions, a father exercised the search for criterion; the other, the relativity-to-
complete control over his family—over his wife, an-observer argument.
who could own no property in her own right, not
even her dowery; over his children, whole lives, 3. Present Sextus’ argument for the search of cri-
even when they were adults, the father was at lib- terion. The argument of the search of criterion
erty to take their life if he chose to; and over his consisted in pointing out that before we can assert
slaves, who had no rights at all. Under the influ- the truth of any proposition we need a criterion by
ence of Stoic philosophy much of this changed. means of which we can evaluate its truth or falsity.
But any proposed criterion must itself be tested—
2. How did Stoicism affect Roman charity? The by some other criterion. This leads to an infinite
Stoic doctrine of the brotherhood of man helped regress of criteria. Meanwhile the original judg-
influence the early Empire into charitable enter- ment that was to be evaluated remains in suspen-
prises. A rich man could win reputation by chari- sion.
table bequests, not just by magnificent display, is
an indication of the humane spirit of the age. 4. Present Sextus’ argument for the relativity-to-
an-observer argument. In the relativity-to–an–
3. How did Stoicism affect the Roman principle of observer argument Sextus pointed out, first, that
Jus Naturale? The introduction of natural law what anybody perceives is relative to the state of
into Roman jurisprudence. Originally the Romans, his sense organs and, second, that the sense organs
like other peoples, had only one law for citizens— vary from species to species, from individual to
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individual within any species, and even from mo- know that the universe is a vast mechanism in
ment to moment for any individual. This argument which the gods do not, and cannot, intervene, and
was developed exhaustively in ten “modes,” or the Stoics held we reach it by recognizing our-
“tropes.” selves to be tiny fragments of an infinite whole,
the Sceptics thought we reach it by realizing that
5. What was the “goal” of the Sceptics? The Scep-
there is no conclusive evidence one way or the
tics did not want to destroy men’s capacity to deal
other for any of the beliefs by which men live.
effectively with their physical and social environ-
ment; they wanted to destroy the pretensions of 2. What social attitude contributed to the end of
dogmatic philosophy—quite another matter. the classical culture and promoted the appeal
Though there is no absolute criterion by which we of the transcendent otherworldly religion? Late
can conclusively distinguish between reality and classical culture was a tired and discouraged soci-
appearance, between the true and the false, there ety in which peace of mind, relief from the strug-
are adequate criteria for making reasonable deci- gle, had replaced such positive goods as social
sions in matters of day-to-day living. progress and self-improvement. Now, peace of
mind can conceivably be won by natural means—
CARNEADES
by science or, alternatively, by suspension of
1. Who was Carneades and how did his position judgment. But this natural peace could not hope to
relate to Plato? Carneades, one of the most dis- compete with the appeal of that deeper peace—the
tinguished of the so called Academic sceptics, peace that passeth understanding—that was as-
214?-129? B.C., was born in Cyrene, and became sured by a transcendent and otherworldly religion.
head of Plato’s Academy at some date earlier than
3. How did Epicureanism, Stoicism, and Plato’
156 B.C.. This might seem surprising but there
philosophy affect the early Christian thinkers?
was a deep-seated strain in Plato’s own thought—
The melding of waning ancient with dawning
involving his emphasis on the transcendence of
Christian thought was not only accomplished by
the forms—that could be pressed to the conclusion
the philosophies of Epicureanism and Stoicism but
that in this spatiotemporal world absolute certainty
also by the philosophy of Plato, whose great
never can be attained. After all, Plato himself had
themes were re-thought in a Christian setting by
insisted that physics is at best only a “likely
another Greek philosopher, Plotinus, in the third
story.”
century AD. This rethinking of Plato resulted in a
2. How does Carneades test the reliability of his philosophic doctrine known as Neoplatonim. In-
senses? Sense impressions are not units of experi- spired by Plato’s overarching doctrines of the su-
ence but occur within the context of others. We periority of the eternal to the temporal, the world
evaluate the reliability of each sense experience, of Ideas as the world of pure being, the nature of
not by trying to compare it with the inaccessible man’s participation in the Ideal world, and man’s
object of which it is supposedly an “appearance,” purification and return to the eternal, Plotinus con-
but by testing its consistency or lack of consis- structed a pyramid of reality in which the very be-
tency within the context of other sense experi- ing of the One overflows, or emanates, into the
ences. “The rare occurrence … which imitates the formation of every other being, particularly into
truth should not make us distrust the kind which those with intelligence. And if this is the route
‘as a general rule’ reports truly; for the fact is whereby man comes from God, it is also the route
that both our judgements and our actions are he takes back. This is a mysticism of the highest
regulated by the standard of ‘the general rule.’ order in which all distinctions are transcended and
THE FINAL GOAL OF SCEPTICISM the soul recognizes that it is one with the One.
Plotinus in his own right, but even more Plato
1. How did the goals of the sceptics relate to those through him, had a profound influence on early
of the dogmatists? The sceptics had the same Christian thinkers, the Fathers of the Church. (Ha-
goal as the dogmatists—peace of mind. Whereas kim)
the Epicureans believed we reach it by coming to
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