The Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics

PAGE A. Merits and defects of the systems of Plato and Aristotle 1 B. Connection between the theories of Aristotle and the Greek character 6 C. Greece after the battle of Chæron...

A. Causes forming the post-Aristotelian philosophy 15 1. Political causes 15 2. Intellectual causes 17 B. Common characteristics of the post-Aristotelian philosophy 19 1. Theory...

A. Zeno 36 B. Pupils of Zeno 40 1. Cleanthes 40 2. Aristo and Herillus 41 3. Other pupils 43 C. Chrysippus and the later Stoics 45 1. Chrysippus 45 2. Later Stoics 48

A. Authorities 53 1. Review of authorities 53 2. Use to be made of authorities 55 B. Problem proposed to the Stoic philosophy 56 1. Its practical character 56 2. Necessity for i...

A. General remarks 70 1. Field of Logic 70 2. Words and thoughts 73 B. Theory of knowledge 75 1. General character of this theory 75 2. Prominent points in the theory—perception...

A. Materialism 126 1. Meaning of the Stoic Materialism 126 2. Causes which led to Stoic Materialism 132 3. Consequences of Stoic Materialism—individual perceptions—theory of uni...

A. The General Course of the Universe 161 1. Origin of the world 161 2. End of the world 163 3. Cycles in the world’s course 165 B. Government of the World 170 1. Nature of Dest...

A. The Soul 210 1. Materialistic nature of the soul 210 2. Divisions of the soul 213 B. The Individual Soul and the Soul of the Universe 216 C. Freedom and Immortality 219

A. The Highest Good 225 1. Nature of the Highest Good 225 2. The Good and Evil 230 3. Pleasure and the Good 235 4. Negative character of Happiness 239 5. The Highest Good as Law...

A. Things to be preferred and eschewed 278 1. Secondary goods 280 2. Classes of things indifferent 281 3. Collision of modified and abstract theory 284 B. Perfect and intermedia...

A. The Individual 301 1. Importance attaching to the individual 301 2. Cynicism of the Stoics 305 B. Social Relations 311 1. Origin and use of society 311 2. Justice and mercy 3...

A. General connection of Stoicism and Religion 341 1. Connection of Stoicism with popular faith 343 2. Free criticism of popular belief 344 3. The truth in Polytheism 348 4. Doc...

A. Inner connection of the system 381 1. Ethical side of Stoicism 382 2. Scientific side of the Stoic system 383 3. Connection of the moral and scientific elements 385 B. Relati...

A. Character of Epicurean system 418 1. Its power of self-preservation 418 2. Aim of philosophy according to the Epicureans 420 3. Divisions of philosophy 424 B. Canonic or the...

A. General Views on Nature 434 1. Object, value, and method of the study of nature 434 2. Mechanical explanation of nature 437 3. Atoms and empty space 439 B. The World 444 1. T...

A. Criticism of the Gods and the popular faith 462 B. The Gods according to Epicurus 464 1. Reasons for his belief 464 2. Nature of the Epicurean Gods 467

A. Pleasure 472 1. Pleasure the Highest Good 472 2. Freedom from pain 474 B. Intellectual Happiness 476 1. Intelligence 476 2. Reasons for rising superior to the senses 478 3. V...

A. Coherence of the Epicurean teaching 499 B. Historical position of Epicureanism 503 1. Relation to Stoicism 503 2. Relation to Aristippus 508 3. Relation to Democritus 510 4....

A. Historical position of Scepticism 514 1. Relation to cotemporary dogmatic systems 514 2. Causes producing it 515 3. Pyrrho and his followers 517 B. Teaching of Pyrrho 521 1....

In Plato and Aristotle Greek Philosophy reached its greatest perfection. In their hands the Socratic philosophy of conceptions grew into elaborate systems, which embraced the wh...

The circumstances which have been briefly sketched in the preceding chapter are of the greatest importance in their bearing on the character of the post-Aristotelian philosophy....

A striking feature in the history of the post-Aristotelian philosophy, and one which at the same time brings forcibly home the thorough change in its surroundings, is the fact t...

To give a faithful exposition of the Stoic philosophy is a work of more than ordinary difficulty, owing to the circumstance that all the writings of the earlier Stoics, with the...

Under the head of Logic, in the Stoic use of the term after the time of Chrysippus, a number of intellectual enquiries are included which would not now be considered to belong t...

Of far more importance in the Stoic system than the study of logic was the study of nature. This branch of learning, notwithstanding an appeal to older views, was treated by the...

By virtue of a law inherent in nature, Primary Being passes over into particular objects; for, involving as it does the conception of a forming and creating force, it must as ne...

Turning from the questions which have hitherto engaged our attention to natural science in the stricter sense of the term, we must first touch upon [A. The most general ideas on...

The Stoic teaching becomes peculiarly interesting, when it treats of Man; and the line it here follows is decided by the tone of the whole system. On the one hand, the Stoic mat...

Whatever attention the Stoics paid to the study of nature and to logic, the real kernel of their system lies, as has been already observed, in their Ethics; even natural science...

The Stoic theory of Ethics is entirely rooted in the proposition, that only virtue is a good and only vice an evil. This proposition, however, frequently brought the Stoics into...

All that has hitherto been stated has regard to the general principles only of the Stoics touching the end and the conditions of moral action. Whether the mere exposition of pri...

It would be impossible to give a full account of the philosophy of the Stoics without treating of their theology; for no early system is so closely connected with religion as th...

Having now investigated the Stoic system in detail, we are in a position to pass a definite judgment on the scope of the Stoic philosophy, the import and the relation of its var...

Epicurus, the son of the Athenian Neocles, [1050] was born in Samos [1051] in the year 342 or 341 B.C. [1052] His early education appears to have been neglected; [1053] and his...

The scientific value and capacity for development of Epicureanism are out of all proportion to its extensive diffusion and the length of time during which it continued to flouri...

If Epicurus and his followers underrated logic, to natural science they attached a considerable value. This value was, however, exclusively derived from a sense of the practical...

Satisfied with the results of his own enquiries into nature, Epicurus hoped by his view of the causes of things not only to displace the superstitions of a polytheistic worship,...

Natural science is intended to overcome the prejudices which stand in the way of happiness; moral science to give positive instruction as to the nature and means of attaining to...

The general principles already laid down determine likewise the character of particular points in the moral science of the Epicureans. Epicurus, it is true, never developed his...

It has often been urged against the Epicurean philosophy, that it is deficient both in coherence and consistency. Nor is this objection without foundation. If we come to the stu...

Stoicism and Epicureanism are alike in one respect: they commence the pursuit of happiness with definite dogmatic statements. The Sceptic Schools, however, attempt to reach the...

Plato’s School was the first to put Scepticism on a firm footing, and to cultivate it as a system. It has been already remarked that after the time of Xenocrates this School gra...

[7] The dates in Zeno’s life are very uncertain. He is said to have been thirty when he first came to Athens (Diog. 2). Persæus, however (Ibid. 28), his pupil and countryman, sa...

panegyric, a golden crown, a statue, and burial in the Ceramicus. That the keys of the city were left in his keeping is not probable. The offer of Athenian citizenship he declin...

Persæus appears not to be substantiated (Athen. vi. 251, c). His letters show that he was on intimate terms with Cleanthes (Themist. Or. xxi. p. 255, b). His loquacity is said t...

λεκτὸν in Sext. Math. viii. 70: φάντασμα διανοίας λογικοῦ ζῴου. See above p. 84, 4. The statement, however, of Philop. Anal. Pr. lx. a, Schol. in Ar. 170, a, 2, cannot be true,...

[171] The distinction between ὄνομα and κατηγόρημα was somewhat bluntly referred to this logical and metaphysical antithesis by the Stoics, as may be seen in Stob. Ecl. i. 336:...

placed the conception of Being at the head; otherwise the objection could not have been raised, that what has not being is thus made an object of thought. Probably the change wa...

οὔσης; πῶς γὰρ τὸ τρίπηχυ καὶ τὸ λευκὸν εἰς ἓν [γένος θετέον], τοῦ μὲν ποσοῦ τοῦ δὲ ποιοῦ ὄντος; πῶς δὲ τὸ ποτὲ καὶ τὸ ποῦ; πῶς δὲ ὅλως πὼς ἔχοντα τὸ χθὲς καὶ τὸ πέρυσι καὶ τὸ ἐ...

judicare oporteat, rerum falsumne sit, si quid ita connexum est, ut hoc: Si dies est, lucet; quanta contentio est! aliter Diodoro aliter Philoni, Chrysippo aliter placet. (The f...

[222] According to Sext. Pyrrh. ii. 100, Math. viii. 143 and 156, the Stoics distinguished between σημεῖα ὑπομνηστικὰ and σημεῖα ἐνδεικτικά. The definition of the latter was ἐνδ...

τὸ κατὰ τὴν διακόσμησιν τὴν τοιαύτην καὶ διάταξιν ἔχον. In the former sense, the world is eternal, and the same as God; in the latter, created, and subject to change. Compare al...

principali coacta atque connexa sint fato omnia, ingenia tamen ipsa mentium nostrarum perinde sunt fato obnoxia, ut proprietas eorum est ipsa et qualitas ... sua sævitate et vol...

[422] Chrysippus in Plut. Sto. Rep. 36, 1: κακίαν δὲ καθόλου ἆραι οὔτε δυνατόν ἐστιν οὔτ’ ἔχει καλῶς ἀρθῆναι. Id. (in Gell. vii. 1, 10): As diseases spring from human nature, si...

ex aëre, ex igne aër ... ex aqua terra fit, cur non aqua fiat e terra? ... omnium elementorum in alternum recursus sunt. Similarly Epictet. in Stob. Floril. 108, 60. Conf. p. 10...

omnino cum voluptate conferatur contemptrix ejus et hostis et longissime ab illa resiliens. Id. Vit. Be. 15, 1: Pars honesti non potest esse nisi honestum, nee summum bonum habe...

παιδικὰ ἢ μὴ παιδικὰ μηδὲ θήλεα ἢ ἄρσενα· οὐ γὰρ ἄλλα παιδικοῖς ἢ μὴ παιδικοῖς οὐδὲ θηλείαις ἢ ἄῤῥεσιν ἀλλὰ τὰ αὐτὰ πρέπει τε καὶ πρέποντά ἐστι; and: διαμεμήρικας τὸν ἐρώμενον;...

Χρύσιππος ἐν πρώτῳ περὶ βίων· καὶ γὰρ κακίαν ἐφέξειν καὶ ἐπ’ ἀρετὴν ἐφορμήσειν. Sen. De Ot. 3, 2: Epicurus ait: non accedet ad rempublicam sapiens, nisi si quid intervenerit. Ze...

[1034] Whether Diogenes, in connecting the Stoics with the Cynics, was following a Stoic authority or not (vii.), is a moot point; nevertheless, the view comes to us from a time...

[1090] Cicero (N. D. i. 33, 93; Fin. i. 5, 16; v. 1, 3; Legg. i. 20, 53) had also studied under him in Athens, and previously in Rome, where Phædrus must then have been residing...

Dicere porro hominum causa voluisse [scil. Deos] parare Præclaram mundi naturam, &c. Desipere est. Quid enim immortalibus atque beatis Gratia nostra queat largirier emolumenti,...

[1532] Clitomachus was a native of Carthage. Hence he is called by Max Tyr. Diss. 10, 3, ὁ Λίβυς. He originally bore the name of Hasdrubal. At home he devoted himself to study,...

writer (Diog. iv. 67). Treatises of his are mentioned by Cic. Acad. ii. 31, 98; 32, 102; Diog. ii. 92. He died (according to Stob. Floril. vii. 55) by suicide, not before 110 B....