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Greek philosophers
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We know almost nothing about Thales
of Miletus. Later generations told many anecdotes about
this wise man, but it is difficult to verify the reliability of these stories.
What seems certain, however, is that he predicted the solar eclipse of
28 May 585, which was remembered because the Lydian
king Alyattes
and the Median
leader Cyaxares
were fighting a battle on that day. Another reliable bit of information
is that he did geometrical research, which enabled him to measure the pyramids.
However, his most important contribution to European civilization is his
attempt to give rational explanations for physical phenomena. Behind the
phenomena was not a catalogue of deities, but one single, first principle.
Although his identification of this principle with water is rather unfortunate,
his idea to look for deeper causes was the true beginning of philosophy
and science. Thales died after 547. |
National Museum, Beirut
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Thales was not the only one who was looking for a first cause. Pythagoras
of Samos (c.570-c.495) did the same. According to legend,
he left his country and studied with the wise men of Egypt, but was taken
captive when the Persian king Cambyses
invaded the country of the Nile (525). He now became a student of the Chaldaeans
of Babylon
and the Magians
of Persia. Some even say that he visited the Indian Brahmans, because Pythagoras
believed in reincarnation. At the end of the sixth century, he lived in
southern Italy, where he founded a community of philosophers. In his view,
our world was governed by numbers, and therefore essentially harmonious. |
Musei Capitolini, Roma
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Heraclitus
was a rich man from Ephesus and lived c.500, during the Persian occupation
of his home town. His philosophical work consists of a series of cryptical
pronouncements that force a reader to think. Unfortunately, a great part
of his work is lost, which makes it very difficult to reconstruct Heraclitus'
ideas. It seems certain, however, that he thought that the basic principle
of the universe was the logos, i.e. the fact that it was rationally
organized and therefore understandable. Bipolar oppositions are one form
of organization, but the sage understands that these oppositions are just
aspects of one reality. Fire is the physical aspect of the perfect logos. |
Villa dei papiri, Herculaneo
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Parmenides
of Elea was a younger contemporary of Heraclitus of Ephesus,
but he lived at the opposite end of the Greek world: in Italy. Both men
were intrigued by the immense variety of phenomena, but where Heraclitus
discerned order in the chaos, Parmenides pointed out that the endless variety
and eternal changes were just an illusion. In a long poem, which partially
survives, he opposed 'being' to 'not being', and pointed out that change
was impossible, because it would mean that something that was 'not being'
changed into 'being', which is absurd. In other words, we had to distrust
our senses and rely solely on our intellect. The result was a distinction
between two worlds: the unreal world which we experience every day, and
the reality, which we can reach by thinking. This idea was to prove one
of the most influential in western culture. |
Bust from Velia (Italy). Photo Jan van Vliet.
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One of the solutions to the problem postulated by Parmenides of Elea,
was the hypothesis of Democritus
of Abdera: matter is made up from atoms. There was no real
evidence for this idea (which was not completely new), but it explained
why change was possible. The atoms were always moving and clustering in
various, temporary combinations. Therefore, things seemed to change, but
'not being' never changed into 'being'. (It was assumed that 'not being'
was a vacuum, which means that it is in fact not a 'not being' because
a vacuum exists in four dimensions.) The consequence of this idea is that
we are allowed to use our senses, although Democritus warns us to be careful. |
Musei Capitolini, Roma
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Thales, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, and Democritus had been
trying to explain the diversity of nature. The object of the studies of the Athenian philosopher Socrates
(469-399) was altogether different: he was interested in ethics. It was
his axiom that no one would knowingly do a bad thing. So knowledge was
important, because it resulted in good behavior. If we are to believe his
student Plato,
Socrates was always asking people about what they knew, and invariably
they had to admit that they did not really understand what was meant by
words like courage, friendship, love etc. Socrates was never without critics.
The comic poet Aristophanes
ridiculed him in The clouds, and when his pupil Alcibiades
had committed high treason, Socrates' position became very difficult. He
was forced to drink hemlock after a charge that he had corrupted the youth.
Among his students were Antisthenes, Plato and
Xenophon. |
Louvre, Paris
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In the decade after the death of Socrates,
Antisthenes
(c.445-c.365) was the most important Athenian philosopher. Like his master,
he tried to find out what words mean, but he was convinced that it was
not possible to establish really good definitions (which brought him into
conflict with Plato). He did only partially agree with Socrates that someone
who knew what was good, would not do a bad thing. Antisthenes added that
one also had to be strong enough ("as strong as Socrates") to pursue what
was good. Therefore, Antisthenes recommended physical training of all kinds,
and wanted his students to refrain from luxury. His most famous pupil was
Diogenes
of Sinope. |
British Museum, London
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The Athenian philosopher Plato
(427-347) is usually called a pupil of Socrates, but his ideas are no less
inspired by Parmenides. Plato accepted the world of the phenomena as a
mere shadow of the real world of the ideas. When we observe a horse, we
recognize what it is because our soul remembers the idea of the horse from
the time before our birth. In Plato's political philosophy, only wise men
who understand the dual nature of reality are fit to rule the country.
He made three voyages to Syracuse to establish his ideal state, both times
without lasting results. Plato's hypothesis that our soul was once in a
better place and now lives in a fallen world made it easy to combine platonic
philosophy and Christianity, which accounts for the popularity of Platonism
in Late Antiquity. One element, however, was not acceptable: the idea of
platonic love - a homosexual
relation with pedagogical aspects. |
Musei Capitolini, Roma
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Diogenes
of Sinope (c.412-c.323) was a student of Antisthenes.
Both men are called the founder of the school that is known as Cynicism.
The essential point in this world-view is that man suffers from too much
civilization. We are happiest when our life is simplest, which means that
we have to live in accordance with nature - just like animals. Human culture,
however, is dominated by things that prevent simplicity: money, for example,
and our longing for status. Like his master, Diogenes refrained from luxury
and often ridiculed civilized life. His philosophy gained some popularity
because he focused upon personal integrity, whereas men like Plato and
Aristotle
of Stagira had been thinking about man's life and honor as member of
a city state - a type of political unit that was losing importance in the
age of Alexander
the Great. However, we can not return to nature. The Cynics became
some sort of jesters, accepted at the royal courts because their criticism
was essentially harmless. |
Musei Vaticani, Rome
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Plato's most famous student was the Macedonian
scientist Aristotle
of Stagira (384-322). After the death of his master, he
studied biology and accepted a position as teacher of the Macedonian crown
prince Alexander at Mieza.
When the Macedonians subdued Greece, Aristotle founded a school at Athens.
Most of his writings are lost; what remains are his lecture notes, which
were rediscovered in the first century BCE. During the last decades, scholars
have started to re-examine the fragments of the lost works, which has led
to important changes in our understanding of Aristotle's philosophy. However,
the accepted view remains that he replaced his master's speculations with
a more down-to-earth philosophy. His main works are the
Prior Analytics(in
which he described the rules of logic), the
Physics, the Animal
History, the Rhetorics, the Poetics, the
Metaphysics,
the Nicomachean Ethics, and the Politics. All these books
have become classics, and it is not exaggerated to say that Aristotle is
the most influential philosopher of all ages and the founder of modern
science. |
Archaeological museum,
Palermo
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All philosophers are confident that rational thinking is the road to
truth. Except for
Pyrrho
of Elis (c.360-c.270BCE), who entertained some doubts about
the quest for knowledge. He argued that we can not fully comprehend nature,
do not know for certain whether a statement is true or false, and are unable
to build an ethical system on so weak a fundament. People would be happier
if they gave up these useless intellectual exercises and postponed their
judgment. The result was a conservative political philosophy, because Pyrrho
recommended that, even though we had no moral absolutes, we should live
by time-honored traditions. The weakness of his system is, of course, twofold:
in the first place, one can not postpone a judgment forever, because sometimes
action has to be undertaken; in the second place, how can you be certain
that certain knowledge is impossible? Pyrrho's world-view is called Skepticism,
and may be compared to the postmodernist philosophy of the 1980's. |
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We live happiest when we are free from the pains of life, and a virtuous
life is the best way to obtain this goal. This is, in a nutshell, the view
of the Samian philosopher Epicurus
(342-271). In his opinion, we are unable to understand the gods, who may
or may not have created this world but are in any case not really interested
in mankind. Nor do we know life after death - if there is an existence
at all after our bodies have decomposed. Therefore, we must not speculate
about gods and afterlife. In Antiquity, Epicurism was the most popular
of all philosophical schools, a popularity which it partially owed to the
fact that its founder had explained his thoughts in several maxims, which
even the illiterate could remember. Predictably, Christian philosophers
attacked Epicurus' ideas about the afterlife and divine providence. |
British Museum, London
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After the conquests of Alexander, the world was larger than ever, and
the city-state had ceased to be an important political unit. Like Diogenes
of Sinope and Epicurus,
Zeno
of Citium (336-264 BCE) ignored traditional values like
prestige and honor, and focused on man's inner peace. In his view, this
was reached when a person accepted life as it was, knowing that the world
was rationally organized by the
logos. A man's mind should control
his emotions and body, so that one could live according to the rational
principles of the world. It has often been said that Zeno's ideas combine
Greek philosophy with Semitic mysticism, but except for his descent from
a Phoenician town on Cyprus and an interest in (Babylonian)
astronomy, there is not much proof for this idea. This philosophy, called
Stoicism, became very influential under Roman officials. |
Musei Vaticani, Roma;
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Zeno of Citium
was succeeded as head of the Stoic school at Athens by Cleanthes, who was
in turn succeeded by Chrysippus,
a native of Soli in Cilicia
(c.279-c.206). His contributions to the development of philosophy can especially
be found in the field of logic, where he studied paradoxes and the way
an argument should be constructed. He also reflected upon the use of allegoresis,
which is a way to read a text metaphorically and find hidden meanings (or
construct them). From now on, philosophers started to use the epics of
Homer
and the tragedies of Euripides
as if they were philosophical treatises. Finally, Chrysippus was the man
who concluded that if the rational principle of the universe, the logos,
was divine, the world could be defined as a manifestation of God. |
British Museum, London
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We are ill-informed about the development of philosophy after the origin
of the Stoa, Epicurism, Skepticism, Cynicism, Aristoteleanism, and Platonism.
For several reasons, nearly all texts are lost. This was also the fate
of the works of the Stoic sage Posidonius
of Apamea (c.135-51), but his books are often quoted by
other authors. As a philosopher, he was not an innovator, but applied the
theory to science and scholarship. For example, his Histories were
a philosophical continuation of the World History of Polybius
of Megalopolis. Among his other publications were treatises
in which the Stoic world view was applied to everyday subjects: On anger,
On
virtue, and
Consolation. Being more interested in educating
the masses than in theoretical purity, he often borrowed ideas from other
schools. Philosophy after Posidonius often was a cross-fertilization between
viewpoints (e.g., Plutarch
of Chaeronea and Plotinus). |
Museum of Rhodes
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The charismatic teacher and miracle worker Apollonius
lived in the first century AD. He was born in Tyana and gave a new interpretation
to Pythagoreanism, which was essentially a combination of ascesis and mysticism.
In his books On astrology and On sacrifices, he demanded
bloodless offerings to the One God, who needs nothing even from beings
higher than ourselves. This brought Apollonius into conflict with the religious
establishment, but he was recognized as a great sage and received
divine honors in the third century. Although the Athenian Philostratus
wrote a lengthy Life
of Apollonius, hardly anything is certain about the man who was
and is frequently compared to the Jewish sage and miracle worker Jesus
of Nazareth. |
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In his own age, the Delphian
oracle priest Plutarch
of Chaeronea (46-c.122) was immensely popular because he
was, like Posidonius
of Apamea, able to explain philosophical discussions to a general audience.
Among his Moral treatises are treatises like Checking anger,
the useful The art of listening, the fascinating How to know
whether one progresses to virtue, and the charming Advice to bride
and groom. Plutarch also wrote double biographies, in which he usually
compared a Greek to a Roman (e.g., Alexander
and Julius
Caesar). In the epilogue, he analyzed their respective characters.
The result is not only an entertaining biography, but also a better understanding
of a morally exemplary person, which the reader can use for his own progress
to virtue. |
Museum of Delphi
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Born in Phrygia, Epictetus
(c.50-c.125 CE) became a slave of the emperor Nero's
courtier Epaphroditus.
When he was old, useless and therefore "freed" from slavery, he had to
make a living and started to teach the Stoic philosophy, first at Rome
and (after the emperor Domitian
had expelled the philosophers in 89) at Nicopolis in western Greece. Because
Epictetus was able to explain Stoicism in a systematic way and with an
open eye to its practical applications, he had many students from the rich
senatorial
order, which ruled the Roman empire. Among these men were the future emperor
Hadrian
and the historian
Arrian
of Nicomedia, who published several of his conversations. Epictetus
wrote a Handbook, which is arguably the most popular book on philosophy
that was ever written. |
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After the age of Posidonius
of Apamea, it was not uncommon that philosophers from one school borrowed
concepts and ideas from other branches of philosophy. Slowly, the schools
were merging, and a new synthesis (called Neo-Platonism) was created by
Plotinus(205-270).
Like Plato, he accepted that our world was a mere shadow of the world of
the ideas, which was in turn -and this was a novel idea- a shadow of an
even higher world, which was again a shadow of the One God. In other words,
the world has four levels of reality: God was the highest level, and then
there were the levels of the intellect, the soul, and matter. (That matter
is more real than the speculative levels of existence, was an unusual idea
in Antiquity.) According to Plotinus, the wise man would try, by
means of ascesis, to free his soul from matter and unite it with God. Plotinus
achieved this mystical unity several times. His philosophy was adopted
by the fathers of the church Ambrose and Augustine, and was to remain the
philosophical school par excellence until Aristotle of Stagira was rediscovered
in the twelfth century. |
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