"Every action must be due to one or other of seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reasoning, anger, or appetite."
Aristotle
Aristotle’s legacy
With the emergence of Islam in the 7th century CE, Aristotle’s works were translated into Arabic and spread throughout the Islamic world, becoming essential reading for Middle Eastern scholars such as Avicenna and Averroes. In Western Europe, however, Boethius’s Latin translation of Aristotle’s treatise on logic (made in the 6th century CE) remained the only work of Aristotle’s available until the 9th century CE, when all of Aristotle’s works began to be translated from Arabic into Latin. It was also at this time that his ideas were collected into the the books we know today—such as Physics, The Nicomachean Ethics, and the Organon. In the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas braved a ban on Aristotle’s work and integrated it into Christian philosophy, in the same way that St. Augustine had adopted Plato, and Plato and Aristotle came to lock horns again.
Aristotle’s notes on logic (laid out in the Organon) remained the standard text on logic until the emergence of mathematical logic in the 19th century. Likewise, his classification of living things dominated Western thinking throughout the Middle Ages, becoming the Christian scala naturae (the “ladder of nature”), or the Great Chain of Being. This depicted the whole of creation dominated by man, who stood second only to God. And during the Renaissance, Aristotle’s empirical method of enquiry held sway.
In the 17th century, the debate between empiricists and rationalists reached its zenith after René Descartes published his Discourse on the Method. Descartes, and Leibniz and Kant after him, chose the rationalist route; in response, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume lined up as the empiricist opposition. Again, the differences between the philosophers were as much about temperament as they were about substance—the Continental versus the English, the poetic versus the academic, the Platonic versus the Aristotelian. Although the debate died down in the 19th century, there has been a revival of interest in Aristotle in recent times, and a reappraisal of his significance. His ethics in particular have been of great appeal to modern philosophers, who have seen in his functional definition of “good” a key to understanding the way we use ethical language.
"There is nothing in the mind except was first in the senses."
John Locke
The influence of Aristotle on the history of thought can be seen in the Great Chain of Being, a medieval Christian depiction of life as a hierarchy in which with God presides over all.
ARISTOTLE
Born in Stagira, Chalcidice, in the northeast region of modern Greece, Aristotle was the son of a physician to the royal family of Macedon, and was educated as a member of the aristocracy. He was sent to Plato’s Academy in Athens at the age of 17, and spent almost 20 years there both as a student and a teacher. When Plato died, Aristotle left Athens for Ionia, and spent several years studying the wildlife of the area. He was then appointed tutor at the Macedonian court, where he taught the young Alexander the Great and continued his studies.
In 335 BCE he returned to Athens, encouraged by Alexander, and set up the Lyceum, a school to rival Plato’s. It was here that he did most of his writing, and formalized his ideas. After Alexander died in 323 BCE, anti-Macedonian feeling flared up in Athens, and Aristotle fled to Chalcis, on the island of Euboea, where he died the following year.
Key works
Organon, Physics (as compiled in book form in the 9th century).
See also: Socrates • Plato • Avicenna • Averroes • René Descartes • John Locke • Gottfried Leibniz • George Berkeley • David Hume • Immanuel Kant
IN CONTEXT
BRANCH
Epistemology
APPROACH
Epistemology
BEFORE
Late 5th century BCE Socrates states that seeking knowledge and truth is the key to a worthwhile life.
c.400 BCE Democritus and Leucippus conclude that the cosmos consists solely of atoms, moving in empty space.
AFTER
c.50 BCE Roman philosopher Lucretius writes De rerum natura, a poem exploring Epicurus’s ideas.
1789 Jeremy Bentham advocates the utilitarian idea of “the greatest happiness for the greatest number.”
1861 John Stuart Mill argues that intellectual and spiritual pleasures have more value than physical pleasures.
Epicurus grew up in a time when the philosophy of ancient Greece had already reached a pinnacle in the ideas of Plato and Aristotle. The main focus of philosophical thinking was shifting from metaphysics toward ethics—and also from political to personal ethics. Epicurus, however, found the seeds of a new school of thought in the quests of earlier philosophers, such as Socrates’ examination of the truth of basic human concepts and values.
Central to the philosophy that Epicurus developed is the view that peace of mind, or tranquillity, is the goal of life. He argues that pleasure and pain are the roots of good and evil, and qualities such as virtue and justice derive from these roots, as “it is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely, honorably, and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely, honorably, and justly without living pleasantly.” Epicurianism is often mistakenly interpreted as simply being about the pursuit of sensual pleasures. For Epicurus, the greatest pleasure is only attainable through knowledge and friendship, and a temperate life, with freedom from fear and pain.
Fear of death
One of the obstacles to enjoying the peace of a tranquil mind, Epicurus reasons, is the fear of death, and this fear is increased by the religious belief that if you incur the wrath of the gods, you will be severely punished in the afterlife. But rather than countering this fear by proposing an alternative state of immortality, Epicurus tries to explain the nature of death itself. He starts by proposing that when we die, we are unaware of our death, since our consciousness (our soul) ceases to exist at the point of death. To explain this, Epicurus takes the view that the entire universe consists of either atoms or empty space, as argued by the atomist philosophers Democritus and Leucippus. Epicurus then reasons that the soul could not be empty space, because it operates dynamically with the body, so it must be made up of atoms. He describes these atoms of the soul as being distributed around the body, but as being so fragile that they dissolve when we die, and so we are no longer capable of sensing anything. If you are unable to feel anything, mentally or physically, when you die, it is foolish to let the fear of death cause you pain while you are still alive.
Epicurus attracted a small but devoted following in his lifetime, but he was perceived as being dismissive of religion, which made him unpopular. His thinking was largely ignored by mainstream philosophy for centuries, but it resurfaced in the 18th century, in the ideas of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. In revolutionary politics, the tenets of Epicureanism are echoed in the words of the United States’ Declaration of Independence: “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Terrifying images of the merciless god of death Thanatos were used to depict the pain and torment ancient Greeks might incur for their sins, both when they died and in the afterlife.
EPICURUS
Born to Athenian parents on the Aegean island of Samos, Epicurus was first taught philosophy by a disciple of Plato. In 323 BCE, Alexander the Great died and, in the political conflicts that followed, Epicurus and his family were forced to move to Colophon (now in Turkey). There he continued his studies with Nausiphanes, a follower of Democritus.
Epicurus taught briefly in Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, and in Lampsacus on the Greek
mainland, before moving to Athens in 306 BCE. He founded a school, known as the The Garden, consisting of a community of friends and followers. There he set down in great detail the philosophy that was to become known as Epicureanism.
Despite frequent ill health, and often being in great pain, Epicurus lived to the age of 72. True to his beliefs, he described the last day of his life as a truly happy day.
Key works
Early 3rd century BCE On Nature Prinicipal Doctrines, Vatican Sayings
See: Democritus and Leucippus • Socrates • Plato • Aristotle • Jeremy Bentham • John Stuart Mill
IN CONTEXT
BRANCH
Epistemology
APPROACH
Epistemology
BEFORE
Late 5th century BCE Socrates teaches that the ideal life is one spent in search of truth.
Early 4th century BCE Socrates’ pupil Antisthenes advocates an ascetic life, lived in harmony with nature.
AFTER
c.301 BCE Influenced by Diogenes, Zeno of Citium founds a school of Stoics.
4th century CE St. Augustine of Hippo denounces the often shameless behavior of the Cynics, although they become the model for several ascetic Christian orders.
1882 Friedrich Nietzsche refers to Diogenes and his ideas in The Gay Science.
Plato once described Diogenes as “a Socrates gone mad.” Although this was meant as an insult, it is not far from the truth. Diogenes shares Socrates’ passion for virtue and rejection of material comfort, but takes these ideas to the extreme. He argues that in order to lead a good life, or one that is worth living, it is necessary to free oneself from the external restrictions imposed by society, and from the internal discontentment that is caused by desire, emotion, and fear. This can be achieved, he states, by being content to live a simple life, governed by reason and natural impulses, rejecting conventions without shame, and renouncing the desire for property and comfort.
Diogenes was the first of a group of thinkers who became known as the Cynics, a term taken from the Greek kunikos, meaning “dog-like.” It reflects the determination of the Cynics to spurn all forms of social custom and etiquette, and instead live in as natural a state as possible. They asserted that the more one can do this, as Diogenes himself did by living a life of poverty with only an abandoned tub for shelter, the nearer one will be to leading the ideal life.
The happiest person, who in Diogenes’ phrase, “has the most”, is therefore someone who lives in accordance with the rhythms of the natural world, free from the conventions and values of civilized society, and “content with the least.”
Rejecting worldly values, Diogenes chose to live on the streets. He flouted convention, by eating only discarded scraps and dressing—when he actually bothered to do so—in filthy rags.
See also: Socrates • Plato • Zeno of Citium • St. Augustine of Hippo • Friedrich Nietzsche
IN CONTEXT
BRANCH
Epistemology
APPROACH
Epistemology
BEFORE
c.380 BCE Plato states his thoughts on ethics and the city-state in The Republic.
4th century BCE Diogenes of Sinope lives in extreme poverty to demonstrate his Cynic principles.
AFTER
c.40–45 CE Roman statesman and philosopher Seneca the Younger continues the Stoic tradition in his Dialogues.
c.150–180 Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius writes his 12-volume Meditations on Stoic philosophy.
1584 Flemish humanist Justus Lipsius writes De Constantia, combining Stoicism with Christianity to found a school of Neo-Stoicism.
Two main schools of philosophical thought emerged after Aristotle’s death. These were the hedonistic, godless ethic of Epicurus, which had limited appeal, and the more popular and longer-lasting Stoicism of Zeno of Citium.
Zeno studied with a disciple of Diogenes of Sinope, the Cynic, and shared his no-nonsense approach to life. He had little patience with metaphysical speculation and came to believe that the cosmos was governed by natural laws that were ordained by a supreme lawgiver. Man, he declares, is completely powerless to change this reality, and in addition to enjoying its many benefits, man also has to accept its cruelty and injustice.
Free will
However, Zeno also declares that man has been given a rational soul with which to exercise free will. No one is forced to pursue a “good” life. It is up to the individual to choose whether to put aside the things over which he has little or no control, and be indifferent to pain and pleasure, poverty and riches. But if a person does so, Zeno is convinced that he will achieve a life that is in harmony with nature in all its aspects, good or bad, and live in accordance with the rulings of the supreme lawgiver.
Stoicism was to find favor across much of Hellenistic Greece. But it drew in even more followers in the expanding Roman empire, where it flourished as a basis for ethics—both personal and political—until it was supplanted by Christianity in the 6th century.
"Happiness is a good flow of life."
Zeno of Citium
See also: Plato • Aristotle • Epicurus • Diogenes of Sinope
INTRODUCTION
Philosophy did not play a large part in Roman culture, other than Stoicism, which was admired by the Romans for its emphasis on virtuous conduct and doing one’s duty. The broader philosophical tradition that had been established by the Classical Greeks was therefore effectively marginalized under the Roman Empire. Philosophy continued to be taught in Athens, but its influence dwindled, and no significant philosophers emerged until Plotinus in the 3rd century CE, who founded an important Neo-Platonist school.
During the first millennium of the Common Era, Roman influence also waned, both politically and culturally. Christianity became assimilated into the Roman culture, and after the fall of the empire in the 5th century, the Church became the dominant authority in Western Europe, remaining so for almost 1,000 years. The Greek idea of philosophy as rational examination independent of religious doctrine sat uncomfortably with the rise of Christianity. Questions about the nature of the universe and what constitutes a virtuous life were held to be answered in the scriptures; they were not considered subjects for philosophical discussion.
Early Christian philosophers such as St. Augustine of Hippo sought to integrate Greek philosophy into the Christian religion. This process was the main task of scholasticism, a philosophical approach that stemmed from the monastic schools and was renowned for its rigorous dialectical reasoning. The work of scholastic philosophers such as Augustine was not so much an exploration of questions such as “Is there a God?” or “Does man have an immortal soul?” as a search for a rational justification for the belief in God and an immortal soul.
The Dark Ages
As the Roman Empire shrank and eventually fell, Europe sank into the “Dark Ages” and most of the culture it had inherited from Greece and Rome disappeared. The Church held the monopoly on learning, and the only true philosophy that survived was a form of Platonism deemed compatible with Christianity, and Boethius’s translation of Aristotle’s Logic.
Elsewhere, however, culture thrived. China and Japan in particular enjoyed a “Golden Age” of poetry and art, while traditional eastern philosophies coexisted happily with their religions. In the lands that had been part of Alexander the Great’s empire, the Greek legacy commanded more respect than in Europe. Arabic and Persian scholars preserved and translated the works of the Classical Greek philosophers, incorporating their ideas into Islamic culture from the 6th century onward.
As Islam spread eastward into Asia and across north Africa and into Spain, its influence beg
an to be felt in Europe. By the 12th century, news of ideas and inventions from the Islamic world were reaching as far north as Britain, and European scholars started to rediscover Greek mathematics and philosophy through Islamic sources. The works of Aristotle in particular came as something of a revelation, and they sparked a resurgence of philosophical thinking within the medieval Christian Church. But whereas Plato’s philosophy had been comparatively easy to assimilate into Christian thought, because it provided rational justification for belief in God and the immortal human soul, Aristotle was treated with suspicion by the Church authorities. Nevertheless, Christian philosophers including Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham enthusiastically embraced the new Aristotelianism and eventually convinced the Church of its compatibility with Christian faith.
A new rationality
Along with the philosophy that revitalized the Church, the Islamic world also introduced a wealth of technological and scientific knowledge to medieval Europe. Aristotle’s scientific methods had been refined to sophisticated levels in Persia, and advances in chemistry, physics, medicine, and particularly astronomy undermined the authority of the Church when they arrived in Europe.
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