Presented at

1
From Alexander to the Roman Empire.Cynics,
Sceptics, Epicureans and Stoics. Neoplatonism.

• Presented at
• Central University of Finance and Economics
• ??????
• Beijing
• by
• ???
• Robert Blohm
• Chinese Economics and Management Academy
• ??????????
• http//www.blohm.cnc.net
• April 27, 2008 2008?4?27?

2
Hellenistic Empire of Alexander

• Time span
• Greek City States brought to an end by Macedonian
  domination and the empire of Philip (???) and
  Alexander (?????).
• Last vestige of Alexanders Macedonian (???)
  Empire ended with Roman annexation of Egypt (??)
  after the death of Cleopatra (?????).
• Macedonian Empire produced
• best Greek mathematics
• 4 predominant schools of philosophy Cynics
  (????), Sceptics (???), Epicurians (?????) and
  Stoics (?????)
• little profoundly new in philosophy that hadnt
  already originated under the Greeks. Only
  Epicurianism. Nothing new appeared until the
  neo-Platonists emerged in the later Roman Empire.

3
Silver coin of Alexander (336-323 BCE). British
Museum.
Bust of Alexander (Roman copy of a 330 BCE statue
by Lysippus, Louvre Museum). According to
Diodorus, the Alexander sculptures by Lysippus
were the most faithful
Ptolemy coin with Alexander wearing an elephant
scalp, symbol of his conquests in India.
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great
4
Empire of Alexander the Great 323 B. C. Magna
Graecia
www.public.iastate.edu/cfford/342alexanderthegrea
tmap.gi
5
Alexander conquered his empire in 9 years
(334-325 BC), undefeated in battle
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ImageMacedonEmpire.j
pg
6
Greek mathematics contributed to Alexanders
military success
Catapults were first invented about 400 BC in the
Greek town Syracus under Dionysios I (c. 432-367
BC).
The main catapult significance is that it
embodied the deliberate exploration of physical
and mechanical principles to improve armaments.
Weapons fired by torsion bars powered by
horsehair and ox tendon (the Greeks called this
material neuron ) springs could fire arrows,
stones, and pots of burning pitch along a
parabolic arc. Some of these machines were quite
large and heavy and this were thus mounted on
wheels to improve tactical mobility and
deployment. When horse-hair and other materials
failed, the women in several instances cut off
their own hair and twisted it into ropes for the
engines
The catapult development started in Sicily with
the Greek tyrant Dionysios I providing the
financial means required for the experiments that
were necessary to find the optimal design. Except
in Sicily , Rhodes and Alexandria were the main
centers of the development of the catapult
technology, in Alexandria advanced by the support
of the Greek Ptolemaic kings of Egypt.
Archimedes has also been credited with improving
the power and accuracy of the catapult.
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes
Archimedes' legendary engines are said to have
used stones three times as heavy. Plutarch tells
us that it was Hiero, another king of Syracuse,
who spurred Archimedes into military engineering.
His splendid catapults kept the Roman troops at
bay until the besieged city fell in 212 B.C. as a
result of treachery.
It is interesting to note that the largest
stone-thrower on record, a three-talent (78
kilogram) machine, was built by Archimedes. In
honor of the Greek contributions, to this day the
military art of siege warfare is called
poliorcetics.
http//www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/war/CatapultTypes.ht
m
7
It was Philip of Macedon who first organized a
special group of artillery engineers within his
army to design and build catapults. Philip's use
of siegecraft allowed Greek science and
engineering an opportunity to contribute to the
art of war, and by the time of Demetrios I (305
B.C.), known more commonly by his nickname
"Poliorcetes" (the Besieger), Greek inventiveness
in military engineering was probably the best in
the ancient world.
Alexander the Great used catapults in a
completely different way -- as covering
artillery. Alexander's army carried prefabricated
catapults that weighed only 85 pounds. Larger
machines were dismantled and carried along in
wagons. Alexander's engineers contributed a
number of new ideas. Major Greek cities adopted
the use of catapults and owned a park of torsion
artillery.
The use of catapults in the field is evidenced in
one of Alexander's early battles in the Northern
Marches of Macedon. At Pelion, Alexander, in a
rare loss of the initiative had to extract his
army from a siege position around the town and
cross a river to a defensive position in the
foothills. Surrounded, Alexander lulled the
barbarian army into watching his phalanx and
cavalry maneuver on the plain outside of the
city, then in a typical lightening move, he
forced a crossing of the river creating a
defensive bridgehead. He then set up some of his
siege artillery to fire back across the river,
over the heads of his own troops to cover their
rear with a curtain of missiles as they crossed
the river after disengaging with the enemy. This
is the first reported use of siege artillery in
the field as an assault weapon (in spite of the
fact that it was used defensively). In 334 BC
Alexander the Great used at the siege of
Halicarnassus heavy palintona. At Tyre he used
arrow catapults and palintona against the wall
fortifications. (http//www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi
-bin/ptext?docPerseus3Atext3A1999.04.0009layou
tloc16.10.html)
8
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Urumqi Greek Soldier "A bronze figurine of a
kneeling warrior, not Greek work, but wearing a
version of the Greek Phrygian helmet. Ürümqi
Xinjiang Museum. Probable depiction of Greek
soldier, found in a burial north of the Tian Shan
mountains. 4th-3rd century BCE. Bronze, 42cm
high, 4 kilograms. Documented in "Cambridge
Ancient History" IV. Also in Boardman "The
diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity", p. 149,
with photograph.
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great
10
The Hellenistic world, 300 B.C. Alexander the
Great's empire contained everything within the
red lines. A generation later, four of his
generals ruled pieces of it Ptolemy (dark green
portion), Seleucus (yellow), Lysimachus (purple),
and Cassander (pink).
http//xenohistorian.faithweb.com/worldhis/map11.g
if
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Hellenistic Empire of Alexander(cont.d)

• Alexander
• conquered Asia Minor (????), Syria (???), Egypt
  (??), Babylonia (???), Persia (??), Samarkand
  (????), Bactria (??) and Punjab (???)
• destroyed Persian Empire in 3 battles
• imported Zoroastrian (???) dualism (of forces of
  good and evil) and the religions of India (??),
  including Buddhism
• conquered on the basis of
• small armies and
• conciliation of the local populations.
• Orientals were accommodating provided their
  religion was respected
• Eastern world accustomed to divine kings and
  Alexanders prodigious success was easily
  considered of divine origin
• had captains (titled Companions) who
• were allowed to criticize
• stopped him from crossing the Indus (??) River
  and enga-ging overwhelmingly larger Indian armies
  on the other side

12
Hellenistic Empire of Alexander(cont.d)

• Alexander (cont.d)
• broke down the Greek attitude of superiority of
  being uniquely both spirited (Northern) and
  intelligent
• married two barbarian princesses
• made leading Macedonians marry Persian noble
  women
• brought forth the idea of mankind as a whole in a
  cosmopolitan viewpoint
• embodied in Stoic philosophy
• whence barbarians learned Greek science
• and Greeks learned barbarian superstition

13
Hellenistic Empire of Alexander(cont.d)

• Empire survived
• in the Moslem religion. Aristotelian
  commentators. Mathematicians. Contact with the
  West stimulated revival of classical learning in
  Scholasticism (????) and the Renaissance (????)
• Al-jebr (algebra, although invented by
  Alexandrian Greeks).
• Alcohol, alembic, alchemy, alkali are
  Arabic words from Greek attempts to turn base
  metals into gold.
• Azimuth and zenith are Arabic words from
  Greek astrology
• Himalayan (?????) chieftains claim descent from
  him (particularly in Afghanistan ???).

14
Hellenistic Empire of Alexander(cont.d)

• After Alexanders death the Empire was divided up
  among 3 generals families into
• European
• African
• Asian
• Dialogues of the king with a Buddhist sage, in
  Chinese translation
• Asoka (???), the saintly Buddhist king in India,
  sent missionaries to all the Macedonian kings.
  (Edicts of Asoka are the basis for Indian law and
  legal philosophy.)
• Babylonia (???)
• and Syria (???) were very influenced by
  Hellenism. They supported the heliocentric
  theory of the universe.
• most impressed the Greeks because of
• 1000s of years of priestly records
• ability to predict eclipses
• corrupted Greeks with astrology and magic
• gave the Greeks the inconsistent beliefs in fate
  (determinism), and fortune (randomness)
  paradoxically named necessity to express the
  inconsistency.

15
Hellenistic Empire of Alexander(cont.d)

• After Alexanders death the Empire was divided up
  among 3 generals families into
• Greek became the language of literature and
  culture
• until the Moslems
• except among the Jews (Maccabees ?????)
• Greek experts
• were used by uneducated Macedonian soldiers
• in Egyptian irrigation and drainage projects, for
  example

16
Hellenistic Empire of Alexander(cont.d)

• Alexandria (named for Alexander) was
• exposed to commerce, not wars
• the center of mathematics
• until the end of the Roman Empire
• where Archimedes (????) studied
• supported by the ruling Ptolemies (?????),
  patrons of learning
• home of the Library of Alexandria (the worlds
  most complete library)

17
Hellenistic Empire of Alexander(cont.d)

• Moral decay of the Empire borne of prolonged
  local insecurity. Reflected in
• worship of the goddess of fortune or luck
• nothing rational in human affairs
• little interest in public affairs
• local disorder in Greece
• temples becoming bankers
• labor displacement
• competition from Eastern slave labor
• free laborers became mercenary soldiers
• strong army due to
• almost continuous war
• fear to disband it

18
Hellenistic Empire of Alexander(cont.d)

• Moral decay of the Empire borne of prolonged
  local insecurity. Reflected in (cont.d)
• the Empires incorporation of the Mediterranean
  city-state model originated by the
  Phoenecians(????), with
• slave labor at home, and
• hired mercenaries abroad.
• Russell compared these to Singapore, Hong Kong
  and old Shanghai
• where a commercial aristocracy depended on local
  labor.
• He predicted (1941) that white hold on Asia will
  stop but industrialism would survive.
• New cities founded by Alexander were
• not homogeneous, with citizen-adventurers from
  all parts of Greater Greece
• not strong political units.

19
Hellenistic Empire of Alexander(cont.d)

• Moral decay of the Empire borne of prolonged
  local insecurity. Reflected in (cont.d)
• local disorder in Greece
• temples becoming bankers
• labor displacement
• competition from Eastern slave labor
• free laborers became mercenary soldiers
• strong army due to
• almost continuous war
• fear to disband it

20
Hellenistic Empire of Alexander(cont.d)

• Moral decay of the Empire borne of prolonged
  local insecurity. Reflected in (cont.d)
• uselessness of thrift (if you lose wealth
  tomorrow) and honesty (if cheated)
• tendency to become an adventurer (highly
  risk-loving ) or a time server (highly
  risk-averse)
• self-development to escape misfortune rather than
  achieve positive good
• replacement of metaphysics by ethics.

21
Hellenistic Empire of Alexander(cont.d)

• Opposite intellectual attitudes, one before
  Alexanders empire, the other during and
  afterward. Both attitudes recur in Western
  history.
• In harmony with surroundings, not disliking the
  world. Modern examples
• Elizabethan (?????) England
• 18th century England
• Goethe (??)
• Bentham (??)
• Despairing of the world, calling for radical
  alternatives in the near future
• no hope, weary
• life on earth essentially bad (original sin),evil
  is too powerful
• good only in after-life
• Modern examples
• Later 18th century France
• 19th century German nationalism
• Shelly (??)
• Leopardi (????)

22
Hellenistic Empire of Alexander(cont.d)

• Dualism of both attitudes occurs in the Catholic
  Church from the 5th to the 15th century
• (Despairing) Theoretically the world was bad
  philosophy is a retreat from it, from the pursuit
  of worldly goods which are a gift of fortune, not
  our own efforts.
• the other worldliness was rooted in the eclipse
  of the Greek city-state.
• Before then, wanted to attain the good through
  public institutions
• Greek philosophers were not cosmically despairing
• Plato Pythagoras (?????) had plans for making
  the governing class into sages
• Addressed how man can make a good state
• After then, sought to be virtuous/happy in a
  wicked/suffering world, to be content through
  resignation.
• subjectivism and individualism, ultimately
  exercised in individual salvation, until
• the Christian gospel of individual salvation
  became embodied in an institution that
• --the philosopher could adhere to.and
• --could provide an outlet for his legitimate love
  of power

23
Hellenistic Empire of Alexander(cont.d)

• Dualism of both attitudes in the Catholic Church
  from the 5th to the 15th century (cont.d)
• (Optimism) Clerics were happy as the literary and
  governing class through the most important
  institution in the everyday world
• Hellenistic Empire intellectuals could not help
  but continue
• to think but they had no hope of
• affecting the world of practical affairs

24
Cynics (????)

• Originated by Antisthenes (?????), disciple of
  Socrates. When older he despised his younger
  aristocratic life, and now
• associated with working men
• held all refined philosophy to be worthless
• thought all thats worth knowing could be known
  to the plain man
• favored return to nature (like Rousseau ??)
• condemned slavery
• despised luxury and pursuit of artificial
  pleasures of the senses

25
Cynics (cont.d)

• Founded by Diogenes (????), disciple of
  Antisthenes
• Diogenes father was a disreputable money changer
• Diogenes vowed to deface the coinage of
  convention everywhere
• lived like a dog and by begging so he was called
  a cynic meaning canine (dog)
• proclaimed brotherhood with both animals and
  humans
• visited by Alexander rejected Alexanders offer
  of any favor
• had an ardent passion for virtue
• held worldly goods of no account
• freedom was liberation from desire, and consisted
  in indifference to goods. Stoics took up this
  idea.
• felt the arts brought complication and
  artificiality to modern life. Like Taoists.

26
Cynics (cont.d)

• Particularly fashionable in Alexandria. Cynics
• published little sermons
• preached a simple life of
• indifference toward, not abstinence from, (for
  example) obligations to a lender
• without material possessions
• eating simple food
• followers were
• rich people who thought the sufferings of the
  poor imaginary, or
• the new poor resentful of the successful
  businessman
• Stoicism (?????) extracted the best part of
  cynicism (simplicity, indifference, brotherhood,
  and virtue) in a more complete philosophy

27
Scepticism (???)

• First proclaimed by Pyrrho (??), soldier in
  Alexanders army who traveled as far as India
• Greek philosophers already
• had been sceptical (doubtful of the cognitive
  reliability) of the senses
• Plato (???) and Parmenides (????) outright
  denied the cognitive value of perception
• Sophists, like Protagoras (?????) and Gorgias
  (????), were led by contradictions from sense
  perception to subjectivism (Protagoras man is
  the measure of all things), like Humes (???)

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Scepticism (cont.d)

• Pyrrho added moral and logical scepticism to
  scepticism about the senses. Thus
• there was no rational ground for preferring one
  course of action over another
• local customs should be followed, including pagan
  rituals, since
• they cannot be proved wrong and
• common sense suggested it is more convenient to
  follow them than to abstain from them
• the diversity of schools of philosophy suggested
  those schools were pretending to knowledge that
  is not attainable. Scepticism therefore provided
• a lazy mans resolution that the ignorant are
  automatically already wise.
• a basis for enjoying the present and not worrying
  about the future. Prefiguring Epicurianism.

29
Scepticism (cont.d)

• Paradox of scepticism the dogma of doubt.
  Nobody knows and nobody ever can know.
• Timon ?? (Pyrrhos disciple)
• denied the possibility of self-evident first
  principles, as in the deductive systems of Euclid
  (????) or Aristotle. Since everything is proved
  by means of something else, all argument is
  either
• circular, or
• an endless chain.
• made two errors avoided by modern sceptics. He
  confused phenomena with statements about them by
  saying
• The phenomenon is always valid. Objection
• Validity is a logical property of reasoning with
  (or of deriving) statements, not physical or
  sense phenomena.
• Physical or sense phenomena occur or not.
• No statement is ever so closely linked to a
  phenomenon as to be incapable of falsehood
• Only tautologies are always valid, but convey
  no factual content, such as the statement
  (Definitely) A or (possibly) not A or
  (Possibly) A or (definitely) not A.

30
Scepticism (cont.d)

• Timon ?? (Pyrrhos disciple) cont.d
• made two errors avoided by modern sceptics. He
  confused phenomena with statements about them by
  saying (cont.d)
• That honey is sweet I refuse to assert that it
  appears sweet I fully grant.
• Objection. This statement is the basis of 2000
  years of confusion
• The statement should be rephrased
• --The asserted statement honey is sweet is very
  likely to be
• true but not absolutely, or
• --The phenomenon that honey is sweet is highly
  probable but
• not absolutely, or
• --Our knowledge that honey is sweet is highly
  certain, but not
• absolutely.

31
Scepticism (cont.d)

• Timon ?? (Pyrrhos disciple) cont.d
• made two errors avoided by modern sceptics. He
  confused phenomena with statements about them by
  saying (cont.d)
• That honey is sweet I refuse to assert that it
  appears sweet I fully grant. (cont.d)
• Objection. This statement is the basis of 2000
  years of confusion (cont.d)
• Scientific statements (or laws) are about
  objective phenomena, not about our observations
  of (or experiments with) those phenomena. My
  objection is the subject of vigorous 20th century
  debate between
• --realists like Popper (??) and Bunge (??), and
• --two other groups
• ----logical positivists like the Vienna Circle
  (Carnap ????
• and Feigl ???). The logical positivists were
  so radical
• that
• --------They considered only statements about
  observables
• as scientifically meaningful
• --------There are useful scientific constructs
  that themselves
• are not directly observable, such as a
  population.
• ----phenomenologists like Husserl (??? ).

32
Scepticism (cont.d)

• Timon ?? (Pyrrhos disciple) cont.d
• made two errors avoided by modern sceptics. He
  confused phenomena with statements about them by
  saying (cont.d)
• That honey is sweet I refuse to assert that it
  appears sweet I fully grant. (cont.d)
• Timon seems to be the first philosopher to
  suggest a doctrine of empirical proof or
  evidence similar to Humes
• It is not enough to logically (theoretically)
  derive statements about physical reality
• The reality must also be observed (appear to
  the senses), with the observation serving as
  empirical evidence.
• In Humes case,
• --if the two phenomena are frequently enough
  observed together, one can be associated with
  the other not inferred as Russell mistakenly
  asserts by committing the very mistake he pointed
  out previously (confusing statement with
  phenomenon).

33
Scepticism (cont.d)

• Timon ?? (Pyrrhos disciple) cont.d
• made two errors avoided by modern sceptics. He
  confused phenomena with statements about them by
  saying (cont.d)
• That honey is sweet I refuse to assert that it
  appears sweet I fully grant. (cont.d)
• Timon seems to be the first philosopher to
  suggests a doctrine of empirical proof or
  evidence similar to Humes (cont.d)
• In Humes case (cont.d),
• --Mere association (statistical correlation)
  does not assert a
• causal or theoretical relationship between the
  phenomena
• that relationship is provided by
  deductive/mathematical
• theoretical reasoning alone which the observed
  correlation
• confirms or not.
• ----Empirical confirmability alone is the logical
  positivist
• criterion for meaningful scientific
  statements
• ----Empirical falsifiability, criticism, is the
  realist criterion for
• scientific statements

34
Scepticism (cont.d)

• Arcesilaus (?????) of Platos Academy succeeded
  Timon as leading sceptic
• Platonic/Socratic bases for scepticism
• The Platonic Socrates professes to know nothing
• Many of the Socratic dialogues reach no positive
  conclusion
• The Parmenides dialogue shows that either side of
  the question can be maintained with equal
  plausibility
• The Platonic dialectic (Socratic method) could be
  viewed as an end, an inconclusive conclusion,
  rather than a means of discovering something
  further.
• Arcesilaus method. He
• maintained no thesis but instead refuted any
  thesis set up by his pupil. This is first
  assertion of the realist falsifiability
  (critical) criterion of truth.
• advanced two contradictory hypotheses and argued
  convincingly for either. This provided evidence
  against the confirmation approach to
  truth/discovery.

35
Scepticism (cont.d)

• Arcesilaus (?????) of Platos Academy succeeded
  Timon as leading sceptic (cont.d)
• Students emerged learning cleverness and
  indifference to the truth.
• Scepticism remained the philosophy of the Academy
  for 200 more years.
• Carneades (?????), a successor of Arcesilaus,
  demonstrated self-refutation argumentation to the
  Romans as part of a diplomatic mission of three
  philosophers sent to Rome (??)
• In his first lecture he expounded on Plato
  Aristotle, for example Socrates argument that to
  inflict injustice is a greater evil to the
  perpetrator than to suffer it.

36
Scepticism (cont.d)

• Carneades (?????), a successor of Arcesilaus,
  demonstrated self-refutation argumentation to the
  Romans as part of a diplomatic mission of three
  philosophers sent to Rome (??) cont.d
• In his second lecture he refuted the first
  lecture by stating
• countries become great by unjust aggressions
  against others, and that
• during a crisis you should look after your own
  survival first, even at the expense of others
• The intended result was to show that every
  conclusion is unwarranted.

37
Scepticism (cont.d)

• Carneades (?????), a successor of Arcesilaus,
  demonstrated self-refutation argumentation to the
  Romans as part of a diplomatic mission of three
  philosophers sent to Rome (??) cont.d
• The Elder Cato (???), a Roman, stood in stark
  contrast to Carneades who represented a lax
  morality infected by the dissolution of the
  Hellenistic Empire. Cato
• represented
• the old Roman severity of manners
• the brutal moral code by which Rome defeated
  Carthage (???)
• was scrupulously honest
• urged accusing and pursuing the wicked as the
  best thing
• an honest man can do

38
Scepticism (cont.d)

• Carneades (?????), a successor of Arcesilaus,
  demonstrated self-refutation argumentation to the
  Romans as part of a diplomatic mission of three
  philosophers sent to Rome (??) cont.d
• Elder Cato, a Roman, stood in stark contrast to
  Carneades who represented a lax morality infected
• by the dissolution of the Hellenistic Empire.
  Cato(cont.d)
• when in power
• put down luxury and feasting
• made his wife nurse his slaves children so that
  they might love his children
• sold off his slaves when they became old
• encouraged his slaves to quarrel with each other
• induced his other slaves to condemn a delinquent
  slave of his to death
• carried out the sentence with his own hands in
  their presence
• viewed the Athenians as a lesser, lawless breed
• aspired to keep Roman youth puritanical,
  imperialistic, ruthless and stupid.

39
Scepticism (cont.d)

• Clitomachus (?????), a Carthiginian, last sceptic
  head of the Academy. With Carneades
• opposed the belief in divination, magic, and
  astrology
• developed a constructive doctrine concerning
  degrees of probability degrees of truth and
  likelihood of occurrence.
• Probability should be the guide in practice.
• It is reasonable to act on the most probable of
  possible hypotheses.
• Precursor of Leibniz (?????) possible worlds
• Platos Academy
• Under leadership and development by the Academy,
  scepticism served to undermine the non-scientific
  concept of absolute truth or absolute certainty.
• The Academys teachings thereafter shifted to
  become indistinguishable from the Stoics.

40
Scepticism (cont.d)

• Sextus Empiricus (?????????). Roman sceptic
• The only ancient sceptic whose works survive
• Treatise entitled Arguments Against a Belief in
  God, said probably to be taken from Carneades as
  reported by Clitomachus
• Sceptics
• follow the way of the world.by speaking of the
  gods as existing and worshiping them, but
• express no belief, thereby avoiding the rashness
  of the dogmatizers
• We cannot know Gods attributes
• Gods existence is not self-evident and therefore
  needs proof. Any proof leads to an impiety
• If God controls everything, then he is the author
  of evil things.
• If God controls some things only, then he he is
  grudging.
• If God controls nothing, then he is impotent.

41
Scepticism (cont.d)

• Dogmatic religion and salvation began to dominate
  the age.
• Scepticism
• made educated men dissatisfied with the State
  religions, but
• offered nothing in their place. From the
  Renaissance onwards enthusiastic belief in
  science provided the alternative.
• So, oriental religions invaded to compete for the
  favor of the superstitious, until Christianity
  triumphed.

42
Epicurianism (?????)

• Founded and set once and for all by Epicurus
  (????), as reported by Diogenes Laertius
  (???????)
• Son of a poor Athenian colonist in Samos (??).
• When Athenian colonists were expelled from Samos
  at time of Alexanders death
• Epicurus was in Athens to establish citizenship
• his family was exiled to Asia Minor where he
  joined them
• Educated by a follower of Democritus ?????
  (materialist)
• Taught in the garden of his eventual home in
  Athens
• Suffered from ill health all his life
• Was natural and unaffected, without the dignity
  and reserve in expression of emotion expected of
  philosophers

43
Epicurianism (cont.d)

• Founded and set once and for all by Epicurus
  (????), as reported by Diogenes Laertius
  (???????)
• Believed inconveniences accompanied luxurious
  pleasures
• Expressed happiness in letters on his deathbed
• Lacked generosity toward other philosophers,
  especially those to whom he was intellectually
  indebted
• Suffered from dictatorial dogmatism
• Wrote 300 books, all lost
• Designed to secure tranquility and individual
  happiness

44
Epicurianism (cont.d)

• Pleasure is the good, the beginning and the end
  of a blessed life
• The beginning and the root of all pleasure is the
  stomach
• Pleasure of the mind is
• contemplation of pleasures of the body
• has the advantage over bodily experience that we
  can avoid contemplation of pain
• Justice consists of ability to act without
  fearing other mens resentment. Origin of Social
  Contract theory (Hobbes ??? Rousseau ??)

45
Epicurianism (cont.d)

• Disagrees with hedonism
• Epicurus prefers
• static, passive or quiet pleasure equilibrium
  state of affairs which would be desired if
  absent.
• Akin to nirvana in Yoga and Tantric Buddhism
• Recommends training yourself to contemplate
  pleasures rather than pains
• to active, dynamic or violent pleasure
  attainment of a desired end following pain
• because
• a state of having eaten moderately is better than
  a voracious appetite.
• The pain of a stomach ache outweighs the
  pleasures of gluttony.
• Epicurus lived on bread and water
• static pleasure does not require pain as a
  stimulus,
• therefore

46
Epicurianism (cont.d)

• Absence of pain rather than presence of pleasure
  is the wise mans goal
• Desires for wealth, honor and power are futile
  because they make a man restless when he might be
  contented.
• With power comes
• greater envy by people wishing to do you harm
• greater worry about this, while
• the wise man lives unnoticed so as to have no
  enemies. Living prudently makes freedom from
  pain likely
• The goal of philosophy is a happy life which
• requires common sense
• not mathematics and logic

47
Epicurianism (cont.d)

• Love, marriage and children are a distraction
  from serious pursuits. But Epicurus was fond of
  other peoples children.
• Men at all times pursue their own pleasure.
  Benthamite.
• Friendship
• is desirable in itself
• cannot be divorced from pleasure
• starts from the need for help
• Mental discipline makes physical pain bearable

48
Epicurianism (cont.d)

• Epicurian metaphysics intended as a basis for
  avoiding fear.
• 2 sources of fear are
• religion
• dread of death
• Gods
• exist because otherwise cannot account for the
  widespread existence of the idea of gods
• do not interfere in human affairs
• supernatural interference in the course of
  nature seemed like terror
• non-interference removes all grounds for fear of
  incurring the anger of the gods
• are rational (mental) hedonists in their life of
  complete blessedness they feel no temptation
  (active pleasure)
• Soul perishes with the body. Immortality means
  no eventual release from pain

49
Epicurianism (cont.d)

• Epicurian metaphysics intended as a basis for
  avoiding fear.(cont.d)
• Materialistic, not deterministic. Held that
• the world consists of atoms and the void (like
  Democritus),
• and the atoms
• are falling but
• --in an absolute sense and
• --not towards the center of the earth as
  Democritus believed
• sometimes collide
• --on their downward path with an atom diverted by
  free will
• from its downward path
• --and produce vortices (like Democritus)
• but the atoms are not completely controlled by
  natural laws (unlike Democritus).
• Rejection of religion required rejection of the
  concept of necessity which was religious in origin

50
Epicurianism (cont.d)

• Epicurian metaphysics intended as a basis for
  avoiding fear.(cont.d)
• Materialistic, not deterministic. Held that
  (cont.d)
• the soul is material and composed of particles
  like breath and heat
• sensation is due to thin films
• thrown off by bodies and
• travelling on until they touch soul atoms
• at death
• the soul is dispersed and
• its atoms, disconnected from the body, are no
  longer capable of sensation
• therefore death is nothing to us

51
Epicurianism (cont.d)

• Epicurian metaphysics intended as a basis for
  avoiding fear.(cont.d)
• Science
• is valuable solely to provide naturalistic
  explanations for phenomena superstition
  attributes to the agency of gods
• no point to deciding between several possible
  naturalistic explanations, which are all
  legitimate so long as they do not bring in the
  gods.
• Value of Epicurianism lay in its opposition to
  astrology, magic and divination
• Lucretius (????).
• Roman Epicurian poet who wrote On the Nature of
  Things during the free thinking days of the end
  of the Roman Republic (of Julius Caesar ??????).

52
Epicurianism (cont.d)

• Lucretius (????) cont.d
• Emperor Augustus (????) revived ancient religion
  and virtue, making the poem unpopular until it
  was revived during the Renaissance
• Passionate and committed suicide, disillusioned
  by the new order of empire produced by the Romans
  (that Alexander had been unable to produce) but
  that violated the traditional Roman aristocrats
  aversion to the quest for power and plunder. .
• Regarded Epicurus as the destroyer of religion.
• Greek religion and ritual were cheerful, but.
• Human sacrifice
• was demanded by the Olympian gods
• was recognized throughout the barbaric world
• was practiced in times of crisis, such as the
  Punic (??) Wars, until the Roman conquest

53
Epicurianism (cont.d)

• Lucretius (????) cont.d
• Regarded Epicurus as the destroyer of religion
  (cont.d)
• The general Greek population had other beliefs
  associated with barbarous rites, some
  incorporated into Orphism ( ?????).
• Hell was not a Christian invention fear of
  punishment after death was common in Athens among
  the general population.
• Calamities were attributed to divine displeasure
  or failure to respect the omens.
• Epicurus humble origins and exposure to popular
  religion explain his hostility to religion
• Materialism, denial of god, and rejection of
  immortality appear gloomy compared to
  Christianity but were a gospel of liberation from
  the fear generated by the popular religion of the
  time.

54
Epicurianism (cont.d)

• Christianity reversed Epicurianism by placing all
  good after death, not before.
• Epicurianism was revived by the 18th century
  French philosophes (????) and the 19th century
  English Benthamites.

55
Stoicism (?????)

• Zeno (??). Founder. Phoenecian (????) born in
  Cyprus. Family business brought him to Athens
• Materialist. But later Stoics, under the
  influence of Platonism, abandoned materialism.
• Combination of cynicism and Heraclitus (?????).
• Chief importance as ethical doctrine. Zeno
• thought only virtue is important and had no
  patience for metaphysical subtleties.
• Physics and metaphysics were important only
  insofar as they contributed to virtue.
  Subordinated all theoretical studies to ethics,
  as did the later Roman sceptics.
• The individual life is good when in harmony with
  Nature
• Virtue consists of a will which is in agreement
  with Nature
• The wicked obey Gods law involuntarily

56
Stoicism (cont.d)

• Chief importance as ethical doctrine.Zeno
  (cont.d)
• thought only virtue is important and had no
  patience for metaphysical subtleties. (cont.d)
• Everything good or bad in a persons life depends
  only on that person. Individualism. Condemnation
  of altruism basis for Nietzsche (??).
• Only your own virtue counts
• You must not be actuated by the desire to benefit
  mankind
• Every man has perfect freedom if he emancipates
  himself from mundane desires.
• Preached universal love (as Seneca did), but not
  love as an emotion. Echoed in Kants (???)
  enjoinder to be kind not because of fondness, but
  because the moral law enjoins it.
• combated metaphysical tendencies by means of
  common sense, which meant materialism

57
Stoicism (cont.d)

• Chief importance as ethical doctrine.Zeno
  (cont.d)
• began by asserting the existence of the solid
  material world
• believed there is no such thing as chance
• considered God to be
• the fiery mind of the world
• a bodily substance formed by the whole universe
• considered all things to be part of one system
  called Nature or Destiny
• whose course was ordained by a lawgiver of
  natural laws who is
• also a beneficent Providence (like 18th century
  deist theology)
• the soul of the world (as in Spinozas
  pan-theism) and
• not separate from the world
• a part of whose divine fire is in each of us

58
Stoicism (cont.d)

• Chief importance as ethical doctrine.Zeno
  (cont.d)
• considered all things to be part of one system
  called Nature or Destiny (cont.d)
• to secure certain ends by natural means, and
• whose General Law , which is Right Reason,
  pervades everything as a power that moves matter
• apparently believed in astrology and divination
• Cicero claimed he attributed divine potency to
  the stars
• Diogenes Laertius claimed the Stoics held all
  kinds of divination to be valid.
• claimed fire was the original element after which
  the air, water and earth gradually emerged in
  that order
• believed there will be a cosmic conflagration
  during which all will again become fire, but
• that is not yet the end of the world, only
• the conclusion of a cycle in an endlessly
  repeated process everything that happens has
  happened before and will happen again, countless
  times.

59
Stoicism (cont.d)

• The least Greek of the schools.
• Early Stoics were mostly Syrians who contributed
  Chaldean (????) influences
• Later Stoics were mostly Roman Seneca (???),
  Epictetus (?????) and Marcus Aurelius (???????)
• Emotionally narrow and fanatical.
• All passions are condemned
• You do not suffer deeply others misfortunes as
  long as they are
• no obstacle to your own virtue based, not on what
  you do for others, but how you yourself endure.
• friendship is not so strong to the point where a
  friends misfortunes destroy your holy calm.

60
Stoicism (cont.d)

• Socrates was the saint of the Stoics because of
• his refusal to escape at the time of his trial
  and
• his calmness before death.
• his contention that the perpetrator of injustice
  injures himself more than the victim
• his plainness in food and dress
• Stoics never adopted Platos
• doctrine of ideas
• arguments for immortality.
• The soul is composed of material fire (in
  agreement with Heraclitus) and therefore perishes
  with the body
• But later Stoics followed Platos claim the soul
  is immaterial.

61
Stoicism (cont.d)

• Objection Problem of evil
• If a beneficent Providence is solely concerned to
  cause virtue, why have the laws of nature
  produced an abundance of sinners?
• If virtue is the sole good, cruelty and injustice
  are not bad because they afford the sufferer the
  best opportunity to exercise virtue.
• If the world is completely deterministic,
• natural laws will decide if I am virtuous or not.
  Like Calvinist (?????) pre-destination.
• Freedom which virtue is supposed to give is
  impossible.

62
Stoicism (cont.d)

• Objection Futility of virtue
• If there are no evils, then nothing is
  accomplished by virtue.
• To the Stoic virtue is an end in itself.
• Virtue is not defined in terms of doing good
  including doing good for others.
• You do good in order to be virtuous, for your
  personal benefit and edification.
• The repeated return of the world to destruction
  by fire, rules out long-run progress.
• Cleanthes of Assos (????????), Zenos successor,
  criticized Aristarchus of Samos (????????) for
  his heliocentric theory of the universe

63
Stoicism (cont.d)

• Chrysippus (????), successor to Cleanthes
• made Stoicism systematic and pedantic
• said God has no share in the causation of evil,
  but he did not reconcile that with determinism
• justified evil
• in Heraclitean terms of everything accompanied by
  its opposite, so that
• good without evil is impossible
• identified hypothetical and disjunctive
  syllogisms, and coined the term disjunction
• originated the study of grammar and invented
  cases (subject, object, possessive, etc.) in
  declensions of nouns
• developed an empirical theory of knowledge based
  on perception
• allowed certain ideas and principles established
  by consensus gentium

64
Stoicism (cont.d)

• Cicero (???)
• transmitted Stoicism to the Romans
• was most influenced by
• Posidonius (????) who
• was a Syrian Greek influenced by the Stoics
• a voluminous writer on scientific subjects
• studied tides on the Atlantic Ocean, not possible
  on the Mediterranean Sea
• made Antiquitys best estimate of the distance to
  the sun .
• first combined with Stoicism much of Platos
  teaching

65
Stoicism (cont.d)

• Posidonius (????) who (cont.d)
• said the soul
• continues to live in the air after death where it
  remains
• unchanged until the next world conflagration
• gets muddy vapours if the person was bad and thus
  
• rises less than the soul of a good person, or
• stays near the earth and gets reincarnated if the
  person was very wicked
• rises to the stellar sphere to spend time
  watching the stars go round if the person was
  truly virtuous
• can help other souls, and this can explain the
  truth of astrology.
• helped pave the way for gnosticism (the belief
  that the cosmos is evil)
• was threatened not by Christianity but by the
  heliocentric theory of the universe of
  Aristarchus of Samos (????????)

66
Stoicism (cont.d)

• Seneca (???), a Spaniard
• tutored Roman Emperor Claudius (??????) son,
  Nero (??)
• officially despised riches but amassed a fortune
  by lending money in Britain at excessive interest
  rates that helped cause a revolt against the
  exaggerated capitalism practiced by an apostle of
  austerity
• allowed to commit suicide after being accused of
  conspiring to murder Nero and become emperor

67
Stoicism (cont.d)

• Epectetus (?????), a Greek originally a Roman
  slave
• On earth we are prisoners, and in an earthly body
• Zeus (??) could not make a body free but could
  give us some of his divinity
• God is the father of men and we are all brothers
• As the Christians said, he said we should love
  our enemies
• He despised pleasure. Happiness is freedom from
  passion and disturbance
• Every man is an actor in a play where God has
  assigned the parts
• Brotherhood of man and equality of slaves
  superior to Aristotle
• His ideal world is as superior to Platos as his
  actual world is inferior to the Athens of
  Pericles (?????)

68
Stoicism (cont.d)

• Marcus Aurelius (???????), Roman em-peror, the
  adopted son of the previous emperor.
• Philosopher king
• Reign
• was the last of the 100-year Golden Age of the
  Antonine (???) emperors (80-180 AD) where the
  general happiness was the highest reached before
  the Renaissance more than a millenium later
• coming at the end of an era
• Was beset by calamities needed fortitude.
• A tired, not a hopeful, age
• Persecuted Christians for rejecting the State
  religion
• Men looked to the past for what was best
• Evil of slavery
• was sapping the vigor of the ancient world.
• Gladitorial shows and fights with wild beasts
  must have debased the population

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70
Stoicism (cont.d)

• Marcus Aurelius (???????) Roman emperor, the
  adopted son of the previous emperor.(cont.d)
• Reign (cont.d)
• coming at the end of an era (cont.d)
• Rome depended on free distribution of grain from
  the provinces
• Greco-Roman civilization had little influence in
  agricultural regions
• Cities contained a large poor class and slave
  class very moderate income or extreme poverty
• Devoted to Stoic virtue, suited to a tired age
• calling for endurance, not hope
• when even material goods lose their savor
• strongest temptation he said he resisted was to
  retire to a quiet country life

71
Stoicism (cont.d)

• Marcus Aurelius (???????), Roman emperor, the
  adopted son of the previous emperor.(cont.d)
• With Epectetus
• of opposite extreme social origin
• they agree on all questions
• This suggests that social origins
• can have less influence on philosophy than
  sometimes