A Critical History of Greek Philosophy

as an individual, but in its universal aspects, as the fleet- ing embodiment of an eternal thought. Hence it is that the sculpto ...

mistake precisely parallel to the moral error of asceticism. In treating of Aristotle’s ethics we saw that, although the activit ...

ous greatness abounded in defects which had to be pointed out, whereas we have but little adverse criticism for Aris- totle. Sec ...

an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Aris- totle not merely asked himself how becoming is possible. He showed ...

does not. Secondly, is the principle of form self-explanatory? Here, again, we must answer negatively. Most of what was said of ...

do this by showing that sensation logically arises out of nu- trition. For a logical development is the same as a rational devel ...

Chapter 27 CHAPTER XIV THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF POST-ARISTOTELIAN PHILOSOPHY The rest of the story of Greek philosophy is soon t ...

life is found in the national philosophy, and the history of philosophy is the kernel of the history of nations. It was but natu ...

making out a drunken frenzy of the soul to be the true organ of philosophy, and by introducing into speculation all the fantasti ...

Chapter 28 CHAPTER XV THE STOICS Zeno of Cyprus, the founder of the Stoic School, a Greek of Phoenician descent, was born about ...

of knowledge and the criterion of truth. All knowledge, they said, enters the mind through the senses. The mind is atabula rasa, ...

the soul to the body. The human soul is likewise fire, and comes from the divine fire. It permeates and penetrates the entire bo ...

the same thing. For the universe is governed not only by law, but by the law of reason, and man in following his own rational na ...

with the good man. From the root-virtue, wisdom, spring the four cardinal virtues, insight, bravery, self-control, jus- tice. Bu ...

one system. Secondly, however much men may differ in unessentials, they share their essential nature, their reason, in common. H ...

Chapter 29 CHAPTER XVI THE EPICUREANS Epicurus was born at Samos in 342 B.C. He founded his school a year or two before Zeno fou ...

gods, afraid of retribution, afraid of death because of the stories of what comes after death. This incessant fear and anxiety i ...

ference of the gods in this life. One might have expected that Epicurus would for this purpose have embraced athe- ism. But he d ...

itself neither memory nor fore-knowledge. It is the mind which remembers and foresees. And by far the most po- tent pleasures an ...

Chapter 30 CHAPTER XVII THE SCEPTICS Scepticism is a semi-technical term in philosophy, and means the doctrine which doubts or d ...