After Aristotle: A Search for the Good Life

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Chapter 3 After Aristotle A Search for the Good
Life
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ca. 360-270
Scepticism
Arabic Jewish Influences

• Dogmatism, the target of their attack.

Pyrrho of Elis

• Common sensekeep social conventions.

980-1037

• Nothing can be known, including this.

Avicenna
ca. 445-365
Cynicism

• Aristotelian diagram of human soul.

• Anti-intellectual, what could be known is
  available to the plain man.
• In-your-face shock valuebreak social
  conventions.

Antisthenes

• The Canon, on medicine, used more than five
  centuries..

• Exceeded by disciple Diogenes, defacer of the
  currency of the world.

1126-1198
ca. 341-270

• Averroism Personal ends at death.

Epicureanism

• Retina, not lens is light sensitive.

• Accepted Democritus atomism, but rejected
  determinism.

Epicurus of Samos
Averroes

• Atoms never created nor destroyed, rearranged.

• Believed in Olympian gods, but not in
  immortality of the soul.

1135-1204

• A Guide for the Perplexed

• Simple pleasures bread water, sociality.
  Continued 600 yrs.

• Reconcile Judaism Aristotle

Maimonides
ca. 335-263
Stoicism

• Divine plan there are no accidents. Accept what
  happens.

Zeno of Citium
Late Middle Ages

• Not materialistic. Virtue alone was important.

• Won out over Epicureanism, Roman law order.

High Middle Ages

• There is no immaterial matter the soul is
  material.

Early Middle Ages
476
1099
1350
1450
Neoplatonism
Fall of Rome
Crusaders take Jerusalem
Black Plague (1/3 of Europe)
25bc-50ad

• The Jewish Plato.

Philo

• Source of all knowledge is revelation.

205-270

• Refuge from a world of woe in a spiritual world.

Plotinus

• Platonic, but saw the sensory world as
  beautiful.

• Nothing in his mysticism that is morose or
  hostile to beauty, last one for centuries.
  Russell

Emphasis on Spirit
Vedantism, Zorastrianism, mystery religions,
Jesus, Paul, Constantine (272-337)
ca. 354-430

• Confessions. City of God.

• Method of doubt. Validity of inner, subjective
  experience.

Augustine

• Analysis of time and memory.

400 BC
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second century
fourth century
sixth century
eighth century
ninth century
eleventh century
thirteenth century
fifteenth century
second century
fourth century
first century
third century
fifth century
seventh century
tenth century
twelfth century
fourteenth century
first century
third century
fifth century
ca. 1033-1109
Scholasticism

• Faith Seeking Understanding.

• Ontological argument for existence of God.

St Anselm
ca. 1095-116

• Augustinian, like Anselm.

• Empiricism Place of reason in religion.

Peter Lombard
ca. 1079-1144

• Shift towards Aristotle.

Peter Abelard

• Sic et Non dialectic method.

• Realism vs. nominalism Defeated William of
  Champeaux, St. Anselm.

• Abelard Heloise.

• One of first Europeans to make a comprehensive
  review of Aristotle Arabic/Jewish scholars.

ca. 1200-1280
St Albertus Magnus
1225-1274
Thomism

• Synthesized Christian tradition with Aristotle.

St Thomas Aquinas

• Scala Naturae, unmoved mover, geocentric.

• Sensory info abt particulars, reason abt
  universals.

• St. Bonaventure opposed him Augustinian, know
  God through introspection, not reason.

1285-1349
A Turning Point

• British-born Franciscan monk.

William of Occam

• Occams razor.

• Forms and universals He changed the problem
  from a metaphysical one to a psychological one.

• Gods existence based on faith, not through
  nature.

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• Briefly state what constituted the good life
  according to Skepticism, Cynicism, Epicureanism,
  and Stoicism. (pp. 59-64)
• What did the Skeptics mean by dogmatism, and why
  did they oppose it? (pp. 59-60)
• In what sense were Epicureanism and Stoicism
  materialistic philosophies? (pp. 61-64)
• Describe the factors that contributed to the
  development of early Christian theology. (pp.
  64-66)
• What characterized St. Pauls version of
  Christianity? (pp. 67-69)
• Summarize the philosophy of Neoplatonism. (pp.
  64-66)
• Discuss how Constantine influenced the history of
  Christianity. (pp. 69-70)
• Discuss the importance of free will in
  Augustines philosophy. (p. 71)
• How did Augustine change the locus of control of
  human behavior from forces outside the person to
  forces inside the person? (p. 72)
• Describe the doctrine of predestination. (p. 71)
• What did Augustine feel humans could be certain
  of, and how did he arrive at his conclusion?
  How, according to Augustine, could humans
  experience God, and what type of emotion resulted
  from this experience? (p. 72)
• According to Augustine, what allows humans to
  have a sense of the past, present, and future?
  (p. 73)
• In what ways were the Early Middle Ages dark?
  Explain. (pp. 73-74)
• What was the importance of Avicennas, Averroes,
  and Maimonides philosophies to Western thought?
  (pp. 74-77)
• How did the works of St. Anselm and Lombard
  prepare the Western world for the acceptance of
  Aristotles philosophy? (p. 77)
• What was St. Anselms ontological argument for
  the existence of God? (p. 77)
• What was the significance of the work of Abelard
  and Magnus? (pp. 78-80)
• Summarize the debate between the realists and the
  nominalists. What was Abelards position in the
  debate? (pp. 78-79)

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• How, according to Aquinas, can humans know God?
  What are some of the implications of Aquinass
  position? (p. 82)
• http//plato.stanford.edu/entries/aquinas/
• What was Scholasticism? Give an example of what
  the Scholastics did. (p. 77)
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholasticism
• http//www2.nd.edu/Departments/Maritain/etext/sc
  holas1.htm
• Why does William of Occam represent an important
  turning point in the history of psychology? (pp.
  83-84)
• http//plato.stanford.edu/entries/ockham/1.2
• Was William of Occam a realist or a nominalist?
  Explain. (p. 83)
• What is Occams razor? (p. 83)
• A great historical work on the fourteenth century
  (the transition century between the high middle
  ages and the late middle ages)
• Barbara Tuchman (1978). A Distant Mirror The
  Calamitous 14th Century. New York Alfred A.
  Knopf.
• Supplementary Readings A, link listed on
  September 26 on the syllabus
• http//griggs.byu.edu9099/faculty/blb6/Files/P210
  /p210sept08.htm

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