GREEK PHILOSOPHY
_The Transition from Theology to Inquiry_.--The Greek theology prepared
the way for the Ionian philosophy. The religious opinions led directly
up to the philosophy of the early inquirers. The Greeks passed slowly
from accepting everything with a blind faith to the rational inquiry
into the development of nature. The beginnings of knowing the
scientific causes were very small, and sometimes ridiculous, yet they
were of immense importance. To take a single step from the "age of
credulity" toward the "age of reason" was of great importance to Greek
progress. To cease to accept on faith the statements that the world
was created by the gods, and ordered by the gods, and that all
mysteries were in their hands, and to endeavor to find out by
observation of natural phenomena something of the elements of nature,
was to gradually break from the mythology of the past as explanatory of
the creation. The first feeble attempt at this was to seek in a crude
way the material structure and source of the universe.
_Explanation of the Universe by Observation and Inquiry_.--The Greek
mind had settled down to the fact that there was absolute knowledge of
truth, and that cosmogony had established the method of creation; that
theogony had accounted for the creation of gods, heroes, and men, and
that theology had foretold their relations. A blind faith had accepted
what the imagination had pictured. But as geographical study began to
increase, doubts arose as to the preconceived constitution of the
earth. As travel increased and it was found that none of the terrible
creatures that tradition had created inhabited the islands of the sea
or coasts of the mainland, earth lost its terrors and disbelief in the
system of established {216} knowledge prevailed. Free inquiry was
slowly substituted for blind credulity.
This freedom of inquiry had great influence on the intellectual
development of man. It was the discovery of truth through the relation
of cause and effect, which he might observe by opening his eyes and
using his reason. The development of theories of the universe through
tradition and the imagination gave exercise to the emotions and
beliefs; but change from faith in the fixity of the past to the future
by observation led to intellectual development. The exercise of faith
and the imagination even in unproductive ways prepared the way for
broader service of investigation. But these standing alone could
permit nothing more than a childish conception of the universe. They
could not discover the reign of law. They could not advance the
observing and reflecting powers of man; they could not develop the
stronger qualities of his intellect. Individual action would be
continually stultified by the process of accepting through credulity
the trite sayings of the ancients. The attempt to find out how things
were made was an acknowledgment of the powers of the individual mind.
It was a recognition that man has a mind to use, and that there is
truth around him to be discovered. This was no small beginning in
intellectual development.
_The Ionian Philosophy Turned the Mind Toward Nature_.--Greek
philosophy began in the seventh century before Christ. The first
philosopher of note was Thales, born at Miletus, in Asia Minor, about
640 B.C. Thales sought to establish the idea that water is the first
principle and cause of the universe. He held that water is filled with
life and soul, the essential element in the foundation of all nature.
Thales had great learning for his time, being well versed in geometry,
arithmetic, and astronomy. He travelled in Egypt and the Orient, and
became acquainted with ancient lore. It is said that being impressed
with the importance of water in Egypt, where the Nile is the source of
all life, he was led to assert the importance of water in animate
nature. In his attempts to break away from the {217} old cosmogony, he
still exhibits traces of the old superstitions, for he regarded the sun
and stars as living beings, who received their warmth and life from the
ocean, in which they bathed at the time of setting. He held that the
whole world was full of soul, manifested in individual daemons, or
spirits. Puerile as his philosophy appears in comparison with the
later development of Greek philosophy, it created violent antagonism
with mythical theology and led the way to further investigation and
speculation.
Anaximander, born at Miletus 611 B.C., an astronomer and geographer,
following Thales chronologically, wrote a book on "Nature," the first
written on the subject in the philosophy of Greece. He held that all
things arose from the "infinite," a primordial chaos in which was an
internal energy. From a universal mixture things arose by separation,
the parts once formed remaining unchanged. The earth was cylindrical
in shape, suspended in the air in the centre of the universe, and the
stars and planets revolved around it, each fastened in a crystalline
ring; the moon and sun revolved in the same manner, only at a farther
distance. The generation of the universe was by the action of
contraries, by heat and cold, the moist and the dry. From the moisture
all things were originally generated by heat. Animals and men came
from fishes by a process of evolution. There is evidence in his
philosophy of a belief in the development of the universe by the action
of heat and cold on matter. It is also evident that the principles of
biology and the theory of evolution are hinted at by this philosopher.
Also, he was the first to observe the obliquity of the ecliptic; he
taught that the moon received its light from the sun and that the earth
is round.
Anaximenes, born at Miletus 588 B.C., asserted that air was the first
principle of the universe; indeed, he held that on it "the very earth
floats like a broad leaf." He held that air was infinite in extent;
that it touched all things, and was the source of life of all. The
human soul was nothing but air, since life consists in inhaling and
exhaling, and when this is no longer {218} continued death ensues.
Warmth and cold arose from rarefaction and condensation, and probably
the origin of the sun and planets was caused by the rarefaction of air;
but when air underwent great condensation, snow, water, and hail
appeared, and, indeed, with sufficient condensation, the earth itself
was formed. It was only a step further to suppose that the infinite
air was the source of life, the god of the universe.
Somewhat later Diogenes of Apollonia asserted that all things
originated from one essence, and that air was the soul of the world,
eternal and endowed with consciousness. This was an attempt to explain
the development of the universe by a conscious power. It led to the
suggestion of psychology, as the mind of man was conscious air. "But
that which has knowledge is what men call air; it is it that regulates
all and governs all, and hence it is the use of air to pervade all, and
to dispose all, and to be in all, for there is nothing that has not
part in it."
Other philosophers of this school reasoned or speculated upon the
probable first causes in the creation. In a similar manner Heraclitus
asserted that fire was the first principle, and states as the
fundamental maxim of his philosophy that "all is convertible into fire,
and fire into all." There was so much confusion in his doctrines as to
give him the name of "The Obscure." "The moral system of Heraclitus
was based on the physical. He held that heat developed morality,
moisture immorality. He accounted for the wickedness of the drunkard
by his having a moist soul, and inferred that a warm, dry soul was
noblest and best."
Anaxagoras taught the mechanical processes of the universe, and
advanced many theories of the origin of animal life and of material
objects. Anaxagoras was a man of wealth, who devoted all of his time
and means to philosophy. He recognized two principles, one material
and the other spiritual, but failed to connect the two, and in
determining causes he came into open conflict with the religion of the
times, and asserted that the "divine miracles" were nothing more than
natural {219} causes. He was condemned for his atheism and thrown into
prison, but, escaping, he was obliged to end his days in exile.
Another notable example of the early Greek philosophy is found in
Pythagoras, who asserted that number was the first principle. He and
his followers found that the "whole heaven was a harmony of number."
The Pythagoreans taught that all comes from one, but that the odd
number is finite, the even infinite; that ten was a perfect number.
They sought for a criterion of truth in the relation of numbers.
Nothing could exist or be formed without harmony, and this harmony
depended upon number, that is, upon the union of contrary elements.
The musical octave was their best example to illustrate their meaning.
The union of the atoms in modern chemistry illustrates in full the
principle of number after which they were striving. It emphasized the
importance of measurements in investigation. Much more might be said
about the elaborate system of the Pythagoreans; but the main principle
herein stated must suffice.
_The Weakness of Ionian Philosophy_.--Viewed from the modern standpoint
of scientific research, the early philosophers of Greece appear puerile
and insignificant. They directed their thoughts largely toward nature,
but instead of systematic observation and comparison they used the
speculative and hypothetical methods to ascertain truth. They had
turned from the credulity of ancient tradition to simple faith in the
mind to determine the nature and cause of the universe. But this was
followed by a scepticism as to the sense perception, a scepticism which
could only be overcome by a larger observation of facts. Simple as it
appears, this process was an essential transition from the theology of
the Greeks to the perfected philosophy built upon reason. The attitude
of the mind was of great value, and the attention directed to external
nature was sure to turn again to man, and the supernatural. While
there is a mixture of the physical, metaphysical, and mystical, the
final lesson to be learned is the recognition of reality of nature as
external to mind.
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_The Eleatic Philosophers_.--About 500 B.C., and nearly contemporary
with the Pythagoreans, flourished the Eleatic philosophers, among whom
Xenophanes, Parmenides, Zeno, and Melissus were the principal leaders.
They speculated about the nature of the mind, or soul, and departed
from the speculations respecting the origin of the earth. The nature
of the infinite and the philosophy of being suggested by the Ionian
philosophers were themes that occupied the attention of this new
school. Parmenides believed in the knowledge of an absolute being, and
affirmed the unity of thought and being. He won the distinction of
being the first logical philosopher among the Greeks, and was called
the father of idealism.
Zeno is said to have been the most remarkable of this school. He held
that if there was a distinction between _being_ and _not being_, only
_being_ existed. This led him to the final assumption that the laws of
nature are unchangeable and God remains permanent. His method of
reasoning was to reduce the opposite to absurdity.
Upon the whole, the Eleatic philosophy is one relating to knowledge and
being, which considered thought primarily as dependent upon being. It
holds closely to monism, that is, that nature and mind are of the same
substance; yet there is a slight distinction, for there is really a
dualism expressed in knowledge and being. Many other philosophers
followed, who discoursed upon nature, mind, and being, but they arrived
at no definite conclusions. The central idea in the early philosophy
up to this time was to account for the existence and substance of
nature. It gave little consideration to man in himself, and said
little of the supernatural. Everything was speculative in nature,
hypothetical in proposition, and deductive in argument. The Greek
mind, departing from its dependence upon mythology, began boldly to
assert its ability to find out nature, but ended in a scepticism as to
its power to ascertain certainty. There was a final determination as
to the distinction of reality as external to mind, and this represents
the best product of the early philosophers.
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_The Sophists_.--Following the Eleatics was a group of philosophers
whose principle characteristic was scepticism. Man, not nature, was
the central idea in their philosophy, and they changed the point of
view from objective to subjective contemplation. They accomplished
very little in their speculation except to shift the entire attitude of
philosophy from external nature to man. They were interested in the
culture of the individual, yet, in their psychological treatment of
man, they relied entirely upon sense perception. In the consideration
of man's ethical nature they were individualistic, considering private
right and private judgment the standards of truth. They led the way to
greater speculation in this subject and to a higher philosophy.
_Socrates the First Moral Philosopher (b. 469 B.C.)_.--Following the
sophists in the progressive development of philosophy, Socrates turned
his attention almost exclusively to human nature. He questioned all
things, political, ethical, and theological, and insisted upon the
moral worth of the individual man. While he cast aside the nature
studies of the early philosophy and repudiated the pseudo-wisdom of the
sophists, he was not without his own interpretation of nature. He was
interested in questions pertaining to the order of nature and the wise
adaptation of means to an end. Nature is animated by a soul, yet it is
considered as a wise contrivance for man's benefit rather than a
living, self-determining organism. In the subordination of all nature
to the good, Socrates lays the foundation of natural theology.
But the ethical philosophy of Socrates is more prominent and positive.
He asserted that scientific knowledge is the sole condition to virtue;
that vice is ignorance. Hence virtue will always follow knowledge
because they are a unity. His ethical principles are founded on
utility, the good of which he speaks is useful, and is the end of
individual acts and aims. Wisdom is the foundation of all virtues;
indeed, every virtue is wisdom.
Socrates made much of friendship and love, and thought temperance to be
the fundamental virtue. Without {222} temperance, men were not useful
to themselves or to others, and temperance meant the complete mastery
of self. Friendship and love were cardinal points in the doctrine of
ethical life. The proper conduct of life, justice in the treatment of
man by his fellow-man, and the observance of the duties of citizenship,
were part of the ethical philosophy of Socrates.
Beauty is only another name for goodness, but it is only a harmony or
adaptation of means to an end. The Socratic method of ascertaining
truth by the art of suggestive questioning was a logical mode of
procedure. The meeting of individuals in conversation was a method of
arriving at the truth of ethical conduct and ethical relations. It was
made up of induction and definition. No doubt the spirit of his
teaching was sceptical in the extreme. While having a deeper sense of
the reality of life than others, he realized that he did not know much.
He criticized freely the prevailing beliefs, customs, and religious
practice. For this he was accused of impiety, and forced to drink the
hemlock. With an irony in manner and thought, Socrates introduced the
problem of self-knowledge; he hastened the study of man and reason; he
instituted the doctrine of true manhood as an essential part in the
philosophy of life. Conscience was enthroned, and the moral life of
man began with Socrates.
_Platonic Philosophy Develops the Ideal_.--Plato was the pupil of
Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle. These three represent the
culmination of Greek philosophy. In its fundamental principles the
Platonic philosophy represents the highest flight of the mind in its
conception of being and of the nature of mind and matter, entertained
by the philosophers. The doctrine of Plato consisted of three primary
principles: matter, ideas, and God. While matter is co-eternal with
God, he created all animate and inanimate things from matter. Plato
maintained that there was a unity in design. And as God was an
independent and individual creator of the world, who fashioned the
universe, and is father to all creatures, there was unity in God.
Plato advanced the doctrine of reminiscences, {223} in which he
accounted for what had otherwise been termed innate ideas. Plato also
taught, to a certain extent, the transmigration of souls. He was
evidently influenced in many ways by the Indian philosophy; but the
special doctrine of Plato made ideas the most permanent of all things.
Visible things are only fleeting shadows, which soon pass away; only
ideas remain. The universal concept, or notion, is the only real
thing. Thus the perfect globe is the concept held in the mind; the
marble, ball, or sphere of material is only an imperfect representation
of the same. The horse is a type to which all individual horses tend
to conform; they pass away, but the type remains. His work was purely
deductive. His major premise was accepted on faith rather than
determined by his reason. Yet in philosophical speculations the
immortality of the soul, future rewards and punishments, the unity of
the creation and the unity of the creator, and an all-wise ruler of the
universe, were among the most important points of doctrine.
_Aristotle the Master Mind of the Greeks_.--While Aristotle and Plato
sought to prove the same things, and agreed with each other on many
principles of philosophy, the method employed by the former was exactly
the reverse of that of the latter. Plato founded his doctrine on the
unity of all being, and observed the particular only through the
universal. For proof he relied on the intuitive and the synthetic.
Aristotle, on the contrary, found it necessary to consider the
particular in order that the universal might be established. He
therefore gathered facts, analyzed material, and discoursed upon the
results. He was patient and persistent in his investigations, and not
only gave the world a great lesson by his example, but he obtained
better results than any other philosopher of antiquity. It is
generally conceded that he showed the greatest strength of intellect,
the deepest insight, the greatest breadth of speculative thought, and
the clearest judgment of all philosophers, either ancient or modern.
Perhaps his doctrine of the necessity of a final cause, or sufficient
reason, which gives a rational explanation of individual {224} things,
is Aristotle's greatest contribution to pure philosophy. The doctrine
of empiricism has been ascribed to Aristotle, but he fully recognized
the universal, and thought it connected with the individual, and not
separated from it, as represented by Plato. The universal is
self-determining in its individualization, and is, therefore, a process
of identification rather than of differentiation. The attention which
Aristotle gave to fact as opposed to theory, to investigation as
opposed to speculation, and to final cause, led men from a condition of
necessity to that of freedom, and taught philosophers to substantiate
their theories by reason and by fact. There is no better illustration
of his painstaking investigation than his writing 250 constitutional
histories as the foundation of his work on "Politics." In this
masterly work will be found an exposition of political theories and
practice worthy the attention of all modern political philosophers.
The service given by Aristotle to the learning of the Middle Ages, and,
in fact, to modern philosophy, was very great.
Aristotle was of a more practical turn of mind than Plato. While he
introduced the formal syllogism in logic, he also introduced the
inductive method. Perhaps Aristotle represented the wisest and most
learned of the Greeks, because he advanced beyond the speculative
philosophy to a point where he attempted to substantiate theory by
facts, and thus laid the foundation for comparative study.
_Other Schools_.--The Epicureans taught a philosophy based upon
pleasure-seeking--or, as it may be stated, making happiness the highest
aim of life. They said that to seek happiness was to seek the highest
good. This philosophy in its pure state had no evil ethical tendency,
but under the bad influences of remote followers of Epicurus it led to
the degeneration of ethical practice. "Beware of excesses," says
Epicurus, "for they will lead to unhappiness." Beware of folly and
sin, for they lead to wretchedness. Nothing could have been better
than this, until people began to follow sensuality as the immediate
return of efforts to secure happiness. Then it led to {225}
corruption, and was one of the causes of the downfall of Greek as well
as the Roman civilization.
The Stoics were a group of philosophers who placed great emphasis upon
ethics in comparison with logic and physics. They looked on the world
from the pessimistic side and made themselves happy by becoming
martyrs. They taught that suffering, the endurance of pain without
complaint, was the highest virtue. To them logic was the science of
thought and of expression, physics was the science of nature, and
ethics the science of the good. All ideas originated from sensation,
and perception was the only criterion of truth. "We know only what we
perceive (by sense); only those ideas contain certain knowledge for us
which are ideas of real objects." The soul of man was corporeal and
material, hence physics and metaphysics were almost identical. There
is much incoherency in their philosophy; it abounds in paradoxes. For
instance, it recognizes sense as the criterion and source of knowledge,
and asserts that reason is universal and knowable. Yet it asserts that
there is no rational element in sense that is universal. It confuses
individual human nature and universal nature, though its final result
was to unite both in one concept. The result of their entire
philosophy was to create confusion, although they had much influence on
the practical life.
The Sceptics doubted all knowledge obtained by the senses. There was
no criterion of truth in the intellect, consequently no knowledge. If
truth existed it was in conduct, and thus the judgment must be
suspended. They held that there was nothing that could be determined
of specific nature, nothing that could be of certainty. Eventually the
whole Greek philosophy went out in scepticism. The three schools, the
sceptic, the Epicurean, and the stoic, though widely differing in many
ways, agreed upon one thing, in basing their philosophy on
subjectivity, on mind rather than on objective nature.
_Results Obtained in Greek Philosophy_.--The philosophical conclusions
aimed at by the Greeks related to the origin and destiny of the world.
The world is an emanation from God, {226} and in due time it will
return to Him. It may be considered as a part of the substance of God,
or it may be considered as something objective proceeding from him.
The visible world around us becomes thus but an expression of the God
mind. But as it came forth a thing of beauty, so it will return again
to Him after its mission is fulfilled. On the existence and attributes
of God the Greeks dwelt with great force. There is established first a
unity of God, and this unity is the first cause in the creation. To
what extent this unity is independent and separate in existence from
nature, is left in great doubt. It was held that God is present
everywhere in nature, though His being is not limited by time or space.
Much of the philosophy bordered upon, if it did not openly avow, a
belief in pantheism. The highest conception recognizes design in
creation, which would give an individual existence to the Creator. Yet
the most acute mind did not depart from the assumption of the idea of
an all-pervading being of God extending throughout the universe,
mingling with nature and to a certain extent inseparable from it. In
their highest conception the most favored of the Greeks were not free
from pantheistic notions.
The nature of the soul occupied much of the attention of the Greeks.
They began by giving material characteristics to the mind. They soon
separated it in concept from material nature and placed it as a part of
God himself, who existed apart from material form. The soul has a past
life, a present, and a future, as a final outcome of philosophical
speculations. The attributes of the soul were confused with the
attributes of the Supreme Being. These conceptions of the Divine Being
and of the soul border on the Hindu philosophy.
Perhaps the subject which caused the most discussion was the attempt to
determine a criterion of truth. Soon after the time when they broke
away from the ancient religious faith, the thinkers of Greece began to
doubt the ability of the mind to ascertain absolute truth. This arose
out of the imperfections of knowledge obtained through the senses.
Sense perception {227} was held in much doubt. The world is full of
delusions. Man thinks he sees when he does not. The rainbow is but an
illusion when we attempt to analyze it. The eye deceives, the ear
hears what does not exist; even touch and taste frequently deceive us.
What, then, can be relied upon as accurate in determining knowledge?
To this the Greek mind answers, "Nothing"; it reaches no definite
conclusion, and this is the cardinal weakness of the philosophy.
Indeed, the great weakness of the entire age of philosophy was want of
data. It was a time of intense activity of the mind, but the lack of
data led to much worthless speculation. The systematic method of
scientific observation had not yet been discovered.
But how could this philosophical speculation affect civilization? It
determined the views of life entertained by the Greeks, and human
progress depended upon this. The progress of the world depends upon
the attitude of the human mind toward nature, toward man and his life.
The study of philosophy developed the mental capacity of man, gave him
power to cope with nature, and enhanced his possibility of right
living. More than this, it taught man to rely upon himself in
explaining the origin and growth of the universe and the development of
human life. Though these points were gained only by the few and soon
lost sight of by all, yet they were revived in after years, and placed
man upon the right basis for improvement.
The quickening impulse of philosophy had its influence on art and
language. The language of the Greeks stands as their most powerful
creation. The development of philosophy enlarged the scope of language
and increased its already rich vocabulary. Art was a representation of
nature. The predominance given to man in life, the study of heroes and
gods, gave ideal creations and led to the expression of beauty.
Philosophy, literature, language, and art, including architecture,
represent the products of Greek civilization, and as such have been the
lasting heritage of the nations that have followed. The philosophy and
practice of social life and government {228} received a high
development in Greece. They will be treated in a separate chapter.
SUBJECTS FOR FURTHER STUDY
1. What was the importance of Socrates' teaching? Why was he put to
death?
2. What has been the influence of Plato's teaching on modern life?
3. Why is Aristotle considered the greatest of the Greeks?
4. What was the influence of the library at Alexandria?
5. What caused the decline in Greek philosophy?
6. What was the influence on civilization of the Greek attitudes of
mind toward nature?
7. Compare the use of Greek philosophy with modern science as to their
value in education.
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