solely upon pleasure, restrained by no superstitious scru-
ples, yet pursuing his end with prudence, foresight, and
intelligence. Such principles would, of course, admit of var-
ious interpretations, according to the temperament of the
individual. We may notice two examples. Anniceris, the
Cyrenaic, believed indeed that pleasure is the sole end, but
set such store upon the pleasures that arise from friend-
ship and family affection, that he admitted that the wise
man should be ready to sacrifice himself for his friends or
family—a gleam of light in the moral darkness. Hegesias, a
pessimist, considered that positive enjoyment is impossible
of attainment. In practice the sole end of life which can be
realized is the avoidance of pain.
The Megarics.
Euclid of Megara was the founder of this school. His prin-
ciple was a combination of Socraticism with Eleaticism.
Virtue is knowledge, but knowledge of what? It is here that
the Eleatic influence became visible. With Parmenides, the
Megarics believed in the One Absolute Being. All multi-
plicity, all motion, are illusory. {163} the world of sense has
in it no true reality. Only Being is. If virtue is knowledge,
therefore, it can only be the knowledge of this Being. If the
essential concept of Socrates was the Good and the essen-
tial concept of Parmenides Being, Euclid now combined the
two. The Good is identified with Being. Being, the One,
God, the Good, divinity, are merely different names for
one and the same thing. Becoming, the many, Evil, are the
names of its opposite, not-being, Multiplicity is thus iden-
tified with evil, and both are declared illusory. Evil has
no real existence. The Good alone truly is. The various
virtues, as benevolence, temperance, prudence, are merely
different names for the one virtue, knowledge of Being.
Zeno, the Eleatic, had shown that multiplicity and mo-
tion are not only unreal but even impossible, since they are
self-contradictory. The Megarics appropriated this idea,
together with the dialectic of Zeno, and concluded that
since not-being is impossible, Being includes all possibility.
Whatever is possible is also actual. There is no such thing
as a possible something, which yet does not exist.
As the Cynics found virtue in renunciation and negative
independence, the Cyrenaics in the hedonistic pursuit of
pleasure, so the Megarics find it in the life of philosophic
contemplation, the knowledge of Being.
{164}