(Originally written June 7, 2016 in Book 26)
What a fantastic day. Bill fixed our Volvo two days ago and then today, boom! The same thing happens. This time though the car died right in the middle of a busy intersection during rush hour. Other than that today was grand. No, I'm actually not too annoyed (and obviously don't blame Bill; though, that first sentence might've seemed to indicate it). The only truly frustrating thing was the car died. C'est la vie?
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter 11 - Socrates
Socrates is a man we may know much or little about because two of his pupils, Xenophon and Plato wrote volumes about him. Those voluemes however don't always sync up to provide a precise picture.
Xenophon defends Socrates too well. If Xenophon's analysis was wholly correct Socrates would never have been put on trial. But one of the few undisputed facts we know about Socrates is his trial and death in 399 B.C.
Xenophon and Plato both agree that Socrates was concerned with putting the right people into powerful positions.
The problem with taking Xenophon's Socrates as the historical one is the fact that Xenophon makes Socrates so pure he wouldn't have been accused of corrupting the youth. The problem with taking Plato's Socrates as the historical model is Plato's ability as a writer.
Plato's Apology is widely considred as historical. This is Socrates' defense at his trial (which Plato was present at).
The grounds for Socrates' trial seems pretty lear: Socrates was evil, curious and constanly making the right seem wrong and the wrong seem right. The real grounds for the trial also seem clear: he was aristocratic and many of his pupils wre of that class and had acted perniciously while in power.
According to Athenian law, when Socrates was found guilty and stenced to death he was to offer a suitable, lesser punishment for the jury to choose between. Instead he annoyed the court by offering to pay a tiny fine so he would not be mistaken as accepting cupability.
The prosecutors held that Socrates did not follow the religion, introduced noew gods and taught (corrupted) the youth with such ideas.
In his defense Socrates states that he is on trial because the Oracle at Delphi had claimed him to be the wisest man. In pursuit of disproving this he has made many enemeies by exposing those who thought they were wise as being unwise.
In attacking one of his prosecutors he points out that he is on trial for introducting new gods but this prosecutor is accusing him of atheism.
In his defense he states, "fear of death is not wisdom, since no one knows whether death may not be the greater good" (Russell, 87).
After convicted of death, Socrates shames the court, "If you think that by killing men you can prevent someone from censuring your evil lives, you are mistaken; that is not a way of escape which is either possible or honourable; the easiest and the noblest way is not to be disabling others, but to be improving yourselves" (Russell, 89).
On death he contends, either death is a good, dreamless sleep or a migration to another world.
Plato describes him as the Orphic saint: "in the dualism of heavenly soul and earthly body, he had achieved the complete mastery of the soul over the body" (Russell, 91).
Socrates was more concerned with ethical questions than scientific knowledge. He believed however knowledge was important because no one sinned on purpose. Thus, by acquiring knowledge one could abstain from sin.
"The close connection between virtue and knowledge is characteristic of Socrates and Plato. To some degree, it exists in all Greek thought, as opposed to that of Christianity. In Christian ethics, a pure heart is essential, and at least as likely to be found among the ignorant as among the learned. The difference between Greek and Christian ethics has persisted down to the present day" (Russell, 92).
The dialectic, seeking knowledge via question and answer wasn't invented by Socrates; but, he definitely used it and developed it.
Chapter 12 - The Influence of Sparta
To understand philosophers from Plato onward it is necessary to know about Sparta. Sparta had a double impact on Greek thought; first, through reality and second, through myth.
The reality of Sparta was the Spartan defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War.
The myth is the impact of Lycurgus, immortalized by Plutarch, and its impact on later philosophies including Rousseau, Nietzsche and National Socialism.
Sparta arose out of some Dorian conquerors in Laconia. They reduced the indigenous population to serfdom. The citizens of Sparta owned the land but were forbidden to cultivate it because of the demeaning nature of the work and its interference with their time as soldiers.
The Helots worked the land. The Helots were Greek and resented the order of things. They rebelled often. The Spartans maintained a Police State apparatus to control the Helots and once a year declared war on them to weed out agitators.
"The sole business of a Spartan citizen was war, to which he was trained from birth" (Russell, 95).
Children who passed their inspection after birth were educated solely to become good and loyal soldiers. Those who did not pass this intial inspection were killed.
Boys became men at 20 (serving in the military). They became citizens at 30.
No Spartan was to be poor or rich. Their currency was made of iron.
Women received the same physical training as the men. They were forbidden to show any emotion that didn't coincide to the state's favor.
Sparta was ruled by two kings from two different hereditary lines. The two kings belonged to the thirty-man Council of Elders. The Council tried criminal cases and prepared matters for the Assembly. The Assembly was a body of all citizens who could only vote yes or no on matters.
In addition to these three bodies there were the Ephors. There were five Ephors who acted as the Supreme civil court and had criminal jurisdiction over the two kings.
Tradition held that Lycurgus laid down the Spartan law in 885 BC.
Most other Greek city-states admired SParta. Paritally as an ideal from a bygone era. Partially as a model of stability. Partially for their near invincible status in battle on land.
Aristotle was intensely critical of the Spartan way of governance. Aristotle probably was writing of the real Sparta whereas Plato and Plutarch wrote of the mythical Sparta. Pultarch's praise of Sparta and Lycurgus was of great importance to post-Renaissance thinkers.
Sparta was isolationist, often foiling pan-Greek alliances and forbade its citizens from travel and allowed very few foreigners into the city for fear of corrupting the values of the state.
Chapter 13 - The Source of Plato's Opinions
Plato and Aristotle are the two most influential philosophers in history, and Plato is more important than Aristotle.
Plato's top ideas: 1) Utopia, 2) Theory of ideas, 3) arguments in favor of immortality, 4) his cosmogony, 5) knowledge as reminiscence rather than reception
Plato was born in 428/7 BC during the early years of the Peloponnesian War into an aristocratic family. He was a young man when Athens was defeated by Sparta and coupled with his aristocratic background was staunchly anti-democratic, blaming it for the Athenian defeat.
He was a pupil of Socrates.
He was an admirere of Spartan government (primarily because of his anti-democratic bent)
He was influenced by Pythagoras, Parmenides, Heraclitus and Socrates, each leading him to a pro-Spartan outlook. From Pythagoras came the other-worldliness, religious and mystical bent. From Parmenides came the beleif that reality is eternal and change illusionary. From Heraclitus came the belief that nothing is permanent in the sensible world. From Socrates he took the obsession with ethics and a teleological view of the universe.
Chapter 14 - Plato's Utopia
Plato's most important dialogue is The Republic. In it is contained the earliest of Utopias.
One conclusion of Plato is that rulers must be philosophers.
The purpose of The Republic is to define justice.
Plato works to define justice by defining an ideally just state.
In this state he divides citizens into three classes:
1) Common people
2) Soldiers
3) Guardians
The guardians are the sole holders of political power, initially selected by a legislator but then passed through hereditary means. (Plato does allow for exceptional men to rise from the other two classes and for an ill-fated guardian to drop).
The guardians, as politcal agents, are Plato's main concern and that main concern begins with the proper education to rule.
Education was divided into Music and Gymnastics. Music covered everything considered today as culture. Gymnastics concerrned physical training. Musical education was about educating the ruling elite to become 'gentlemen'.
The training up of gentlemen began young. Stories were told to children only if they were approved. Homer & Hesiod were not allowed because:
1) They show the gods misbehaving
2) They cause the fear of death
Sidenote (Future Modern Ancient Greeks)
When discussing political systems with some Alien, the hero gets offended when America is not mentioned. The Alien responds, "Oh yes... the great petry dish, the grand experiment politik, the new Rome, a system built on complete contradictions, an aristocracy so perfect it fooled the lower classes into believeing it was egalitarian in nature. It was perfect until you side-tracked into a primitive hero worship of completely unimportant entitites. There's nothing wrong with admiring or even elevating your artists to godlike status but when you elevate your inartistic to artistic and then what you call the artistic to the status of demigods you get a rather sad and debased populace. A pity really becaue everything was going so well. You survived your Punic war with the Soviets but will you survive long enough to allow the rise of a new Parthia to give you the impetus to survive a millenia? Or have you sped up your timeline and already become decadent and too self-obssessed and self-assured to recognize the imminent but slow rot that overtakes all empires? Not of course you, per se, because you are now a child of the stars and without the wherewithal to return home to the decaying America. But even if your America could cut out the corrosion and you found an astronomically improbable way home, would you be satisfied with life back on a primitive planet now that you have seen just a portion of what other worlds have to offer?" The alien continued with his political treatise in soliliqy as (our hero) ost all sense of national pride and pondered a suddenly existential question, if he ever could make it home, would he want to?
Sidenote complete
3) The homeric poems approve of uncontrollable laughter
4) Homer praises lavishness
Homer and Hesiod cannot be taught in the ideal State because the ideal gaurdians of that State must respect religion (misbehaving gods of Homer are unworthy of respect), must be willing to die for the State and thus, cannot fear or mourn death, be in control of their emotion (no great mirth() and be temperate and praise temperance and simplicity.
Education of the gaurdians also forbids any stories where the wicked are happy or where the good are unhappy.
Plato also banned drama because authors and actors would have to portrait either villains or those beneath their status; thus, debasing themselves.
Music, diet and exercise were also strictly monitored for ideal outcomes.
The young gaurdians must also see no ugliness until they are fully trained and then be exposed to temptations that must be found untempting and terrors which must not terrify.
Economically, Plato insisted on a communist approach where the gaurdians have little private property but are not lacking or unhappy. Poverty and wealth both produce ills so both will be banished.
Wives and children will be common to all men who are gaurdians.
Women gaurdians will be equal to all men gaurdians and recieve the same education.
Interestingly, marriage ceremonies where bride and groom will be chosen (they think) by lot will actually be arranged by legislators to produce the best offspring.
Children will not know who their parents are and parents will not know their children. Thus, children are common to all parents.
Women are to bear children between 20-40. Men to father children should be 25-55. ALl sex outside of these ages is fair and free.
All this reorientation of familial structures is to create a loyalty to the State as the primary focus.
The government is to be built on one great lie, "one royal lie", to get the whole thing in motion.
This lie is that God made men of three kinds - gold, silver and brass/iron. The men made of gold are to be the gaurdians. The men made of silver are to be the soldiers. The men made of brass and iron are to do the manual labor.
The lie was well thought out. Plato assumed that the first generation of Utopia wouldn't buy it, but subsequent generations through indoctrination would.
Plato reaches his definition of justice in the three types of men God created living in harmony. The city becomes just when each is doing the job he ought to do without interfering with anyone from another class.
Like philosophers before him, and the poets who lived before the dawn of philosophy, Plato embodies the Greek notion of fate - everything having its place and function. Justice was the harmony of living within the boundaries of this fate.
Plato's definition of justice allows for inequality without injustice. The gaurdians, even though the smallest class, rule because they are the wisest and fated to do so. Injustice would only occur if someone from the lower two classes was wiser than a gaurdian. That is why Plato allowed exceptions for promotion or demotion.
Plato, unlike many later Utopians, saw his Utopia as viably feasible and wished to implement it. Unfortunately he chose to try with Syracuse and it failed. Soon thereafter the rise of Macedonia made the polis antiquated and the notion of establishing a Utopian city-state impossible in the face of empires.
Showing posts with label Plutarch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Plutarch. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Ion of Chios
Early Greek Philosophy
Jonathan Barnes
2001
Ion of Chios
-born circa 485 BC on the island of Chios
-lived most of his life in Athens
-Believed all things are three in nature: intelligence and power and fortune
-Plutarch referred to him and made an interesting observation: even though fortune and wisdom are very dissimilar, both produced similar results: "both will aggrandize States, adorn men and bring glory and power and dominion"(Barnes, 182).
Jonathan Barnes
2001
Ion of Chios
-born circa 485 BC on the island of Chios
-lived most of his life in Athens
-Believed all things are three in nature: intelligence and power and fortune
-Plutarch referred to him and made an interesting observation: even though fortune and wisdom are very dissimilar, both produced similar results: "both will aggrandize States, adorn men and bring glory and power and dominion"(Barnes, 182).
Empedocles
Empedocles
FUTURE MODERN ANCIENT GREEKS - Empedocles is a wealth of subject matter.
The Classical Mind
W.T. Jones
1980
Empedocles
-Empedocles is the first pluralist we know anything about.
-accepted the Parmenidean notion that nothing is created or destroyed
-denied the Parmenidean notion that motion is impossible
-argued that motion took place by things swapping places in the plenum
-The many things that exist are roots: earth, air, fire and water. Each of these roots are a Parmenidean one, eternal, uncreated, indestructible and unchanging
-Two types of motion: Love & Strife
-Love - the motion of uniting
-Strife - the motion of separation
-The world ebbs and flows between total love (absolute mixing of the four roots) and total strife (absolute segregation of the four roots)
-the objects of the perceivable world are unstable combinations of the four roots
-anticipated the survival of the fittest part of evolution in a creative way:
As love begins to come back into the ascendency and take back from strife the world will have a strange look: "At this time the various parts of animals arise in a hit-or-miss way, as Love bit by bit mixes the elements that Strife has separated: 'heads spring up without necks and arms wander bare and bereft of shoulders. Eyes stray up and down in want of foreheads'. As love continues to mix things up, these parts get united in a completely haphazard way: 'these things joined together as each might chance, and many other things besides continually arose'. Eyes might, for instance, 'mix' with hands, feet with shoulders. Such mixtures obviously cannot survive, but in the course of random combinations a successful relationship sooner or later occurs" (Jones, 27). But the evolutionary process is completely controlled by chance. There is no god guiding it along.
FUTURE MODERN ANCIENT GREEKS - Empedocles needs to be a sort of mad scientist letting things 'evolve' by random. Weird beasts with no eyes, six hands and a foot, sort of a Dali painting out of a nightmare.
While Empedocles denied the existence of god in the evolutionary process of love coming into the ascendency, he did worship the overall process as a god like Xenophanes. Also like Xenophanes, the god of Empedocles was not anthropomorphic.
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
1972
"The mixture of philosopher, prophet, man of science, and charlatan, which we found already in Pythagoras, was exemplified very completely in Empedocles" (Russell, 53).
-Flourished circa 440 BC
-from Acragas, Sicily
-a democratic politician and claimed to be a god
-stories abound of him as a miracle worker, could control the winds, brought a woman back to life after being dead for 30 days
- to prove he was a god he leapt into the crater of Etna
"Great Empedocles, that ardent soul
Leapt into Etna, and was roasted whole"
-Like his contemporary Parmenides, Empedocles wrote in verse
-his science and religion were inconsistent with one another
-discovered a crude version of centrifugal force
-wild evolutionary theory
-knew that the moon shined by reflected life (but, thought the sun did too)
-four elements (six in function): fire, earth, water, air (love & strife)
-love and strife are processes that are cyclical. there was a time when love fully wiped out stripe and men only worshiped the Cyprian Aphrodite then. But strife came back and things began to separate again.
-The cycle of life was not teleological. It was only governed by chance.
-His religious leanings were Pythagorean and Orphic
-He also considered himself a god, even if sometimes he felt like one in exile for some sin
Early Greek Philosophy
Jonathan Barnes
2001
-Came from Acragas, Sicily
-Came from a rich and distinguished family
-lived circa 495-435 BC
-claimed to be no longer mortal, an immortal god, compassionate for strangers and inexperienced in evil
-was a little conceited, "But why do I attack them as though I were achieving something great if I prove superior to much-perishing mortal men?" (Barnes, 112). This is how Empedocles described being smarter than the average man, eh Boo-Boo. Sextus Empiricus however says that no one even moderately versed in philosophy would have thought him boastful.
Plutarch describes some of his words (the bold are Empedocles, the regular Pultarch):
There is an oracle of necessity, an ancient decree of the gods, that whenever anyone errs and defiles in fear his dear limbs - one of the spirits who have been allotted long-lasting life - he shall wander thrice ten thousand seasons far from the blessed ones. Such is the road I now follow, an exile from the gods and a wanderer. He proves from his own case that not just he himself but all of us are immigrants here and strangers and exiles. For it is not blood, my friends, nor blended breath (he says) which provides the substance and principle of our souls: from these the body has been fashioned, earth-born and mortal; but the soul has come here from elsewhere and he calls birth by the gentlest of terms, a journey abroad. And what is most true, the soul flees and wanders, driven by divine decrees and laws...when it is tied to the body, it cannot recall or remember from what honour and from what breadth of bliss it has come, having exchanged not Sardis for Athens, nor Corinth for Lemnos or Scyros, but the heavens and the moon for earth and an earthly life (Barnes, 113).
FUTURE MODERN ANCIENT GREEKS - This is why the Greeks live on another planet. They were sent to earth to live abroad by the gods. Some of them are still stuck in a cycle of birth-death in exile on earth, but some have returned to their home planet, where our traveler is being taken. They were sent to earth because of sin they committed, decreed to wander thrice ten thousand seasons far from the blessed ones. But, the gods got bored waiting and followed them to earth, forgot how to get home and have since traveled elsewhere. Only Prometheus, because of his punishment was sent back home to wait.
-Souls were 'long-lasting spirits' in his poetry because the soul is immortal
-Strife, the process by which things are coming apart in his cosmology punish the souls by forcing them to go from body to body
-the bodies of the animals men eat are the dwelling places of punished souls
-sex is bad because it makes men and women co-workers with strife
-He called those who gain the wealth of divine thoughts happy and those whose beliefs about the gods are dark are wretched
-believed that no part of the universe is empty
His biological evolution theory had four generations:
1st Generation of animals was just body parts
2nd Generation of animals were monstrous
3rd generation of animals are what we see today (properly joined limbs and such)
4th generation of animals is when Love is totally in dominance and all is One
"In the time of Love where many neckless heads sprang up" (Barnes, 142)
FUTUTRE MODERN ANCIENT GREEKS - A field of 'Love' where neckless heads are being grown like cabbages. There is a scarecrow in the field to scare away the strifebirds.
"Many were born double-headed and double-chested - man-faced oxen arose and again ox-headed men" (Barnes, 143).
For Empedocles blood contained the capacity to understand. Thought is located in the blood.
Empedocles was a vegetarian because he found that the souls migrated from one body to another. Eating an animal was a grave sin because you devour another when you eat meat.
Like Pythagoras, Empedocles said it was a sin to eat beans.
Empedocles had a Utopian ideal. In his Utopian age, the beasts and animals were friendly to man and man friendly to them.
FUTURE MODERN ANCIENT GREEKS - Empedocles is a wealth of subject matter.
The Classical Mind
W.T. Jones
1980
Empedocles
-Empedocles is the first pluralist we know anything about.
-accepted the Parmenidean notion that nothing is created or destroyed
-denied the Parmenidean notion that motion is impossible
-argued that motion took place by things swapping places in the plenum
-The many things that exist are roots: earth, air, fire and water. Each of these roots are a Parmenidean one, eternal, uncreated, indestructible and unchanging
-Two types of motion: Love & Strife
-Love - the motion of uniting
-Strife - the motion of separation
-The world ebbs and flows between total love (absolute mixing of the four roots) and total strife (absolute segregation of the four roots)
-the objects of the perceivable world are unstable combinations of the four roots
-anticipated the survival of the fittest part of evolution in a creative way:
As love begins to come back into the ascendency and take back from strife the world will have a strange look: "At this time the various parts of animals arise in a hit-or-miss way, as Love bit by bit mixes the elements that Strife has separated: 'heads spring up without necks and arms wander bare and bereft of shoulders. Eyes stray up and down in want of foreheads'. As love continues to mix things up, these parts get united in a completely haphazard way: 'these things joined together as each might chance, and many other things besides continually arose'. Eyes might, for instance, 'mix' with hands, feet with shoulders. Such mixtures obviously cannot survive, but in the course of random combinations a successful relationship sooner or later occurs" (Jones, 27). But the evolutionary process is completely controlled by chance. There is no god guiding it along.
FUTURE MODERN ANCIENT GREEKS - Empedocles needs to be a sort of mad scientist letting things 'evolve' by random. Weird beasts with no eyes, six hands and a foot, sort of a Dali painting out of a nightmare.
While Empedocles denied the existence of god in the evolutionary process of love coming into the ascendency, he did worship the overall process as a god like Xenophanes. Also like Xenophanes, the god of Empedocles was not anthropomorphic.
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
1972
"The mixture of philosopher, prophet, man of science, and charlatan, which we found already in Pythagoras, was exemplified very completely in Empedocles" (Russell, 53).
-Flourished circa 440 BC
-from Acragas, Sicily
-a democratic politician and claimed to be a god
-stories abound of him as a miracle worker, could control the winds, brought a woman back to life after being dead for 30 days
- to prove he was a god he leapt into the crater of Etna
"Great Empedocles, that ardent soul
Leapt into Etna, and was roasted whole"
-Like his contemporary Parmenides, Empedocles wrote in verse
-his science and religion were inconsistent with one another
-discovered a crude version of centrifugal force
-wild evolutionary theory
-knew that the moon shined by reflected life (but, thought the sun did too)
-four elements (six in function): fire, earth, water, air (love & strife)
-love and strife are processes that are cyclical. there was a time when love fully wiped out stripe and men only worshiped the Cyprian Aphrodite then. But strife came back and things began to separate again.
-The cycle of life was not teleological. It was only governed by chance.
-His religious leanings were Pythagorean and Orphic
-He also considered himself a god, even if sometimes he felt like one in exile for some sin
Early Greek Philosophy
Jonathan Barnes
2001
-Came from Acragas, Sicily
-Came from a rich and distinguished family
-lived circa 495-435 BC
-claimed to be no longer mortal, an immortal god, compassionate for strangers and inexperienced in evil
-was a little conceited, "But why do I attack them as though I were achieving something great if I prove superior to much-perishing mortal men?" (Barnes, 112). This is how Empedocles described being smarter than the average man, eh Boo-Boo. Sextus Empiricus however says that no one even moderately versed in philosophy would have thought him boastful.
Plutarch describes some of his words (the bold are Empedocles, the regular Pultarch):
There is an oracle of necessity, an ancient decree of the gods, that whenever anyone errs and defiles in fear his dear limbs - one of the spirits who have been allotted long-lasting life - he shall wander thrice ten thousand seasons far from the blessed ones. Such is the road I now follow, an exile from the gods and a wanderer. He proves from his own case that not just he himself but all of us are immigrants here and strangers and exiles. For it is not blood, my friends, nor blended breath (he says) which provides the substance and principle of our souls: from these the body has been fashioned, earth-born and mortal; but the soul has come here from elsewhere and he calls birth by the gentlest of terms, a journey abroad. And what is most true, the soul flees and wanders, driven by divine decrees and laws...when it is tied to the body, it cannot recall or remember from what honour and from what breadth of bliss it has come, having exchanged not Sardis for Athens, nor Corinth for Lemnos or Scyros, but the heavens and the moon for earth and an earthly life (Barnes, 113).
FUTURE MODERN ANCIENT GREEKS - This is why the Greeks live on another planet. They were sent to earth to live abroad by the gods. Some of them are still stuck in a cycle of birth-death in exile on earth, but some have returned to their home planet, where our traveler is being taken. They were sent to earth because of sin they committed, decreed to wander thrice ten thousand seasons far from the blessed ones. But, the gods got bored waiting and followed them to earth, forgot how to get home and have since traveled elsewhere. Only Prometheus, because of his punishment was sent back home to wait.
-Souls were 'long-lasting spirits' in his poetry because the soul is immortal
-Strife, the process by which things are coming apart in his cosmology punish the souls by forcing them to go from body to body
-the bodies of the animals men eat are the dwelling places of punished souls
-sex is bad because it makes men and women co-workers with strife
-He called those who gain the wealth of divine thoughts happy and those whose beliefs about the gods are dark are wretched
-believed that no part of the universe is empty
His biological evolution theory had four generations:
1st Generation of animals was just body parts
2nd Generation of animals were monstrous
3rd generation of animals are what we see today (properly joined limbs and such)
4th generation of animals is when Love is totally in dominance and all is One
"In the time of Love where many neckless heads sprang up" (Barnes, 142)
FUTUTRE MODERN ANCIENT GREEKS - A field of 'Love' where neckless heads are being grown like cabbages. There is a scarecrow in the field to scare away the strifebirds.
"Many were born double-headed and double-chested - man-faced oxen arose and again ox-headed men" (Barnes, 143).
For Empedocles blood contained the capacity to understand. Thought is located in the blood.
Empedocles was a vegetarian because he found that the souls migrated from one body to another. Eating an animal was a grave sin because you devour another when you eat meat.
Like Pythagoras, Empedocles said it was a sin to eat beans.
Empedocles had a Utopian ideal. In his Utopian age, the beasts and animals were friendly to man and man friendly to them.
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Heraclitus
Heraclitus
The Classical Mind
W.T. Jones
1980
-For Heraclitus, the original stuff is fire. "This world...was ever, is now, and ever shall be an everlasting fire" (Jones, 14).
-Heraclitus was influenced by the Milesian three, but was more subtle and refined
-Heraclitus' notion to resolve the problem of how one thing becomes every thing and is still one was to make the 'one thing' a non-material thing. For Heraclitus, the one thing then was the process itself.
-For Heraclitus, who like most men have difficulty in truly thinking abstractly, let alone communicating abstract thoughts, he called this process 'fire', which is always changing and yet still fire.
-The problem for the Milesian three was they held a belief in unity and still needed to reconcile the fact that things changed. Heraclitus however in proclaiming process as the one thing went to the extreme and created the problem of permanence. Because everything was fire and process, everything was always changing. This is the state of flux.
-Flux accounts for the change. Permanence is accounted for by accepting that the thing that is changing appears permanent because the rate of change is always the same.
-In addition to the Milesian three's problem of one and the many, Heraclitus has the problem of the world as it appears and the world as it really is.
-Heraclitus did not stop at describing the physical world as the Milesian three did. He dabbled into more areas.
-He used the eternal flux in describing how politics works as well. The political system is a constant tension of opposites. For example, without strife peace could not exist.
-Heraclitus' political theory was representative of his time. There was constant strife between the various city states and peace only existed when neither of the warring city states had enough power to overcome the other. Likewise, in the individual city states the nobles and the commoners only achieved a balance of peace when neither party was powerful enough to impose their will on the other. Heraclitus was on the side of the nobility.
-Heraclitus was contemptuous of the masses.
-In addition to social theory, Heraclitus showed an interest in religion. For Heraclitus, his aristocratic contempt for the masses extended to his religious sentiments. Accepting the scientific nature of the Milesian three, he rejected the contemporary religion of the masses.
-Heraclitus is quoted as saying 'the wisest man is an ape compared to God, just as the most beautiful ape is ugly compared to man'
-Heraclitus sometimes identifies his god as the process of flux
-Heraclitus' god was not personal. It was indifferent to human conceptions of right and wrong, justice and was immune to men's prayer.
-Heraclitus equated the flux/process sometimes with 'logos'.
-Some passages indicate that Heraclitus' ethics held that the chief good of man is to listen to the logos and even become absorbed by the logos
-Heraclitus was both a scientific and religious philosopher.
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
1972
[The Greeks] "discovered mathematics and the art of deductive reasoning. Geometry, in particular, is a Greek invention, without which modern science would have been impossible" (Russell, 39). The limitation to this Greek way of thinking though is that it is reasoned deductively from self-evident facts rather than inductively from empirical observations.
-Heraclitus was an aristocratic person from Ephesus.
-famous for his theory that everything is in a state of flux
-He was mystical in thought
-Fire was the fundamental substance
-everything is born by the death of something else
-there was a unity in the world, but that unity came out of the combination of opposites
-believed that mankind was so inherently bad that only force would compel them to act for their own good
-believed that War was necessary and good
-believed that strife was justice and that all things come into being and pass away through strife
-"His ethic is a kind of proud asceticism, very similar to Nietzsche's" (Russell, 42).
-The soul was a mix of fire and water, the fire being the noble part.
-Claimed the 'dry' soul was the best, but that it is pleasurable to the soul to get 'wet'. Hence, the asceticism
-He was hostile to the Bacchic religion, for example he wrote "They vainly purify themselves by defiling themselves with blood, just as if one who had stepped into the mud were to wash his feet in mud. Any man who marked him doing this, would deem him mad" (Russell, 43).
-Perpetual change was the state of the world.
-The unity in the world was a result from diversity.
-His god did not care about mankind - "To God all things are fair and good and right, but men hold some things wrong and some right" (Russell, 44).
-Like Hegel, Heraclitus seems to believe that a synthesis of opposites creates the world as it is.
-Heraclitus has a sense of cosmic justice in his system as no single thing can ever prevent one thing from totally taking over its opposite
-For Heraclitus, his God is distinct from the gods. His God is the embodiment of cosmic justice.
-Both Plato and Aristotle agreed that Heraclitus taught that nothing ever is, everything is always becoming.
-"The doctrine of perpetual flux, as taught by Heraclitus, is painful, and science, as we have seen, can do nothing to refute it. One of the main ambitions of philosophers has been to revive hopes that science seemed to have killed. Philosophers, accordingly, have sought, with great persistence, for something not subject to the empire of Time. This search begins with Parmenides" (Russell, 47).
Early Greek Philosophy
Jonathan Barnes
2001
-Heraclitus came from Ephesus in Asia Minor, circa 500 BC
-He was nicknamed 'The Obscure' and 'The Riddler'
-Even Socrates, when given a book of Heraclitus by Euripides states what he understood was splendid and was sure that what he didn't understand was splendid as well.
-Heraclitus rebuked and condemned a lot of people for their ignorance in his writings
-He claims all things are one, 'day and dusk - for they are one', 'the path of the carding-comb is straight and crooked', 'the path up and down is one and the same', etc.
-He was very critical of everyone he disagreed with, which was basically everyone. "Much learning does not teach thought - or it would have taught Hesiod and Pythagoras, and again Xenophanes and Hecataeus" (Barnes, 53).
-He defines wisdom as the ability to grasp the knowledge of how all things are steered through all.
-He was regarded by some of the ancients as arrogant and purposefully obscure
-He claimed that all things were made of fire and perished back into the fire
-Everything that exists is harmonized by the transformation of opposites
-Everything is full of souls and spirits
-He distrusted sensory perception
John Stobaeus quotes a couple of interesting Heraclitus sayings:
-It is better to hide folly than to make it public
-It is not good for men to get what they want
-To be self-controlled is the greatest excellence. And wisdom is speaking the truth and acting with knowledge in accordance with nature.
-All men can know themselves and control themselves
Again, he is not very complimentary of the common man: "For what thought or sense, he says, do they have? They follow the popular singers and they take the crowd as their teacher, not knowing that most men are bad and few good" (Barnes, 58).
He claims that most men satisfy themselves like beasts. The best men seek fame from mortals.
He is especially critical of Pythagoras. "Pythagoras, son of Mnesarchus, practiced inquiry more than any other man, and selecting from these writings he made a wisdom of his own - much learning, mere fraudulence" (Barnes, 59).
-He held that the world was uncreated
Stobaeus says "Heraclitus said that a man's character is his fate" (Barnes, 62).
On God Plutarch remarks that Heraclitus believed "In all respects superior to us, [god] is especially unlike and different from us in his acts; but of divine acts, the majority, according to Heraclitus, escape our knowledge through lack of trust" (Barnes, 66).
He claimed that philosophical men must be versed in many things
He distrusted the senses - bad witnesses for men are eyes and ears of those who have foreign souls (the mark of a foreign soul is to trust in non-rational perceptions)
War is to be praised in Heraclitus because it brings about strife, which is justice.
Aristotle describes his cosmology as the harmony achieved through the blending of the most contrary principles.
Again, he's not real complimentary of the masses, claiming that donkeys would prefer rubbish to gold.
The Classical Mind
W.T. Jones
1980
-For Heraclitus, the original stuff is fire. "This world...was ever, is now, and ever shall be an everlasting fire" (Jones, 14).
-Heraclitus was influenced by the Milesian three, but was more subtle and refined
-Heraclitus' notion to resolve the problem of how one thing becomes every thing and is still one was to make the 'one thing' a non-material thing. For Heraclitus, the one thing then was the process itself.
-For Heraclitus, who like most men have difficulty in truly thinking abstractly, let alone communicating abstract thoughts, he called this process 'fire', which is always changing and yet still fire.
-The problem for the Milesian three was they held a belief in unity and still needed to reconcile the fact that things changed. Heraclitus however in proclaiming process as the one thing went to the extreme and created the problem of permanence. Because everything was fire and process, everything was always changing. This is the state of flux.
-Flux accounts for the change. Permanence is accounted for by accepting that the thing that is changing appears permanent because the rate of change is always the same.
-In addition to the Milesian three's problem of one and the many, Heraclitus has the problem of the world as it appears and the world as it really is.
-Heraclitus did not stop at describing the physical world as the Milesian three did. He dabbled into more areas.
-He used the eternal flux in describing how politics works as well. The political system is a constant tension of opposites. For example, without strife peace could not exist.
-Heraclitus' political theory was representative of his time. There was constant strife between the various city states and peace only existed when neither of the warring city states had enough power to overcome the other. Likewise, in the individual city states the nobles and the commoners only achieved a balance of peace when neither party was powerful enough to impose their will on the other. Heraclitus was on the side of the nobility.
-Heraclitus was contemptuous of the masses.
-In addition to social theory, Heraclitus showed an interest in religion. For Heraclitus, his aristocratic contempt for the masses extended to his religious sentiments. Accepting the scientific nature of the Milesian three, he rejected the contemporary religion of the masses.
-Heraclitus is quoted as saying 'the wisest man is an ape compared to God, just as the most beautiful ape is ugly compared to man'
-Heraclitus sometimes identifies his god as the process of flux
-Heraclitus' god was not personal. It was indifferent to human conceptions of right and wrong, justice and was immune to men's prayer.
-Heraclitus equated the flux/process sometimes with 'logos'.
-Some passages indicate that Heraclitus' ethics held that the chief good of man is to listen to the logos and even become absorbed by the logos
-Heraclitus was both a scientific and religious philosopher.
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
1972
[The Greeks] "discovered mathematics and the art of deductive reasoning. Geometry, in particular, is a Greek invention, without which modern science would have been impossible" (Russell, 39). The limitation to this Greek way of thinking though is that it is reasoned deductively from self-evident facts rather than inductively from empirical observations.
-Heraclitus was an aristocratic person from Ephesus.
-famous for his theory that everything is in a state of flux
-He was mystical in thought
-Fire was the fundamental substance
-everything is born by the death of something else
-there was a unity in the world, but that unity came out of the combination of opposites
-believed that mankind was so inherently bad that only force would compel them to act for their own good
-believed that War was necessary and good
-believed that strife was justice and that all things come into being and pass away through strife
-"His ethic is a kind of proud asceticism, very similar to Nietzsche's" (Russell, 42).
-The soul was a mix of fire and water, the fire being the noble part.
-Claimed the 'dry' soul was the best, but that it is pleasurable to the soul to get 'wet'. Hence, the asceticism
-He was hostile to the Bacchic religion, for example he wrote "They vainly purify themselves by defiling themselves with blood, just as if one who had stepped into the mud were to wash his feet in mud. Any man who marked him doing this, would deem him mad" (Russell, 43).
-Perpetual change was the state of the world.
-The unity in the world was a result from diversity.
-His god did not care about mankind - "To God all things are fair and good and right, but men hold some things wrong and some right" (Russell, 44).
-Like Hegel, Heraclitus seems to believe that a synthesis of opposites creates the world as it is.
-Heraclitus has a sense of cosmic justice in his system as no single thing can ever prevent one thing from totally taking over its opposite
-For Heraclitus, his God is distinct from the gods. His God is the embodiment of cosmic justice.
-Both Plato and Aristotle agreed that Heraclitus taught that nothing ever is, everything is always becoming.
-"The doctrine of perpetual flux, as taught by Heraclitus, is painful, and science, as we have seen, can do nothing to refute it. One of the main ambitions of philosophers has been to revive hopes that science seemed to have killed. Philosophers, accordingly, have sought, with great persistence, for something not subject to the empire of Time. This search begins with Parmenides" (Russell, 47).
Early Greek Philosophy
Jonathan Barnes
2001
-Heraclitus came from Ephesus in Asia Minor, circa 500 BC
-He was nicknamed 'The Obscure' and 'The Riddler'
-Even Socrates, when given a book of Heraclitus by Euripides states what he understood was splendid and was sure that what he didn't understand was splendid as well.
-Heraclitus rebuked and condemned a lot of people for their ignorance in his writings
-He claims all things are one, 'day and dusk - for they are one', 'the path of the carding-comb is straight and crooked', 'the path up and down is one and the same', etc.
-He was very critical of everyone he disagreed with, which was basically everyone. "Much learning does not teach thought - or it would have taught Hesiod and Pythagoras, and again Xenophanes and Hecataeus" (Barnes, 53).
-He defines wisdom as the ability to grasp the knowledge of how all things are steered through all.
-He was regarded by some of the ancients as arrogant and purposefully obscure
-He claimed that all things were made of fire and perished back into the fire
-Everything that exists is harmonized by the transformation of opposites
-Everything is full of souls and spirits
-He distrusted sensory perception
John Stobaeus quotes a couple of interesting Heraclitus sayings:
-It is better to hide folly than to make it public
-It is not good for men to get what they want
-To be self-controlled is the greatest excellence. And wisdom is speaking the truth and acting with knowledge in accordance with nature.
-All men can know themselves and control themselves
Again, he is not very complimentary of the common man: "For what thought or sense, he says, do they have? They follow the popular singers and they take the crowd as their teacher, not knowing that most men are bad and few good" (Barnes, 58).
He claims that most men satisfy themselves like beasts. The best men seek fame from mortals.
He is especially critical of Pythagoras. "Pythagoras, son of Mnesarchus, practiced inquiry more than any other man, and selecting from these writings he made a wisdom of his own - much learning, mere fraudulence" (Barnes, 59).
-He held that the world was uncreated
Stobaeus says "Heraclitus said that a man's character is his fate" (Barnes, 62).
On God Plutarch remarks that Heraclitus believed "In all respects superior to us, [god] is especially unlike and different from us in his acts; but of divine acts, the majority, according to Heraclitus, escape our knowledge through lack of trust" (Barnes, 66).
He claimed that philosophical men must be versed in many things
He distrusted the senses - bad witnesses for men are eyes and ears of those who have foreign souls (the mark of a foreign soul is to trust in non-rational perceptions)
War is to be praised in Heraclitus because it brings about strife, which is justice.
Aristotle describes his cosmology as the harmony achieved through the blending of the most contrary principles.
Again, he's not real complimentary of the masses, claiming that donkeys would prefer rubbish to gold.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes and Heraclitus
(Originally written August 30, 2006 in Book 10)
Classics of Philosophy
Louis Pojman
Pre-Socratic Testimonies
Thales
1. [A12] Thales is the origination of the theory that all stuffs in the world came from an original substance. He founded monism. This original substance is constantly changing, yet remains its original self at some level. For Thales, this substance is water. It is water because everything proceeds from the nourishment of water and water is essential for everything's growth. - Aristotle
2. Thales is one of the Seven Wise Men. He was the first to pursue natural philosophy. Water was the beginning and the end of the world. Water is the causal agent of all things occurring naturally. Water, the causal agents is the impersonal force called god; god or water is eternal. In addition to being the first to pursue natural philosophy, was the father of Greek astronomy. - Hippolytus
3. [A22] Thales believed the soul to be a cause of motion. He held that "all things are full of god". Since water is the god and the primary substance, all things are gods or a manifestation of god. Souls are the cause of motion, thus water formed as a soul is a special type of the god that is in all things. - Aristotle
Anaximander
1. [A9] Like Thales, Anaximander believed all things came from a single substance. He denied that this substance was water or any other element. He believed the substance to be one of an indefinite or boundless nature. His poetic language shows how everything continues to change from opposite to indefinite to opposite to bring "Greek" justice to the world of substances. - Simplicius
2. [A10] Anaximander, Thales' companion, held that the boundless was the sole causal agent of origin and destruction in the physical world. He held that time was infinite and cyclical. As for the physical shape of earth, he believed it to be cylindrical. The physical universe was formed by substances breaking off from the boundless, first hot and cold, then a fire which formed earth and the stars. Man's origin came about from an evolution from fish - PseudoPlutarch
3. [A11] The earth is self-sustaining, unsupported by anything. He held we walk on the surface and there is surface opposite that surface. he held the heavenly bodies to be circles of fire, surrounded by air. Eclipses occur when breathing holes are blocked. Living creatures came to be through the moist being evaporated by the sun. Man was originally a fish-like creature. All things in nature originate from other things. - Hippolytus
Anaximenes
1. [A7] Anaximenes believed air to be the source of all other substances. Air produced the gods and all other things came from the divine. Air is perpetual motion and this causes all the changes in the air to produce the substances we all see. Dispersed air becomes fire, condensed air becomes wind, condensed air becomes wind, condensed wind becomes water, condensed water becomes earth, condensed earth becomes rock. Temperature causes the condensing and dispersing. The earth is flat and supported by air. All other heavenly bodies are the same. Like Anaximander, he believes all natural weather is caused by other manifestations of the first substance, in this accuse air. - Hippolytus
2. [B1] Hot or cold are not substances, but properties of substances - Plutarch
Heraclitus
The Word (logos)
1. [B1] The word is forever and forever incomprehensible. The Word is the cause of all things, but men comprehend it as much as they comprehend waking while sleeping.
2. [B40] Collection of data is not knowledge. Hesiod, Pythagoras, Xenophanes and Hecataeus were collectors.
3. [B50] All things are one, despite their appearances, thus sayeth the Word.
The world is everlasting fire.
4. [B30] The world is uncreated and eternal. It is a fluctuating fire
5. [B31a] Fire became sea, sea became earth and fire, wind.
6. [B90] The substances are exchanges with fire.
7. [B60] Everything that appears different is really the same.
8. [B12] "On those stepping into rivers staying the same other and other waters flow" (Pojman, 14).
9. [A6] All things are in perpetual motion. -Plato
10. Everything is in flux. -Plato
11. [B10] Everything comes from and returns to one thing (which is fire).
12. [B51] Man does not understand that everything comes from and returns to one thing (which is fire).
13. [B88] Everything is opposite, living and dead exist simultaneously in all beings; as one is engaged in proximity to one it is never separated from its opposite.
Soul is fire
14. [B36] Souls die becoming water; water dies becoming earth; but, earth gives brith to water and water to soul
15. [B119] "The character of man is his destiny"
16. [B114] Human law springs up from the divine law and common sense is knowledge of the divine law.
17. God is all opposites as fire is
18. The oracle of Delphi is mysterious, neither revealing nor concealing, only showing signs.
Classics of Philosophy
Louis Pojman
Pre-Socratic Testimonies
Thales
1. [A12] Thales is the origination of the theory that all stuffs in the world came from an original substance. He founded monism. This original substance is constantly changing, yet remains its original self at some level. For Thales, this substance is water. It is water because everything proceeds from the nourishment of water and water is essential for everything's growth. - Aristotle
2. Thales is one of the Seven Wise Men. He was the first to pursue natural philosophy. Water was the beginning and the end of the world. Water is the causal agent of all things occurring naturally. Water, the causal agents is the impersonal force called god; god or water is eternal. In addition to being the first to pursue natural philosophy, was the father of Greek astronomy. - Hippolytus
3. [A22] Thales believed the soul to be a cause of motion. He held that "all things are full of god". Since water is the god and the primary substance, all things are gods or a manifestation of god. Souls are the cause of motion, thus water formed as a soul is a special type of the god that is in all things. - Aristotle
Anaximander
1. [A9] Like Thales, Anaximander believed all things came from a single substance. He denied that this substance was water or any other element. He believed the substance to be one of an indefinite or boundless nature. His poetic language shows how everything continues to change from opposite to indefinite to opposite to bring "Greek" justice to the world of substances. - Simplicius
2. [A10] Anaximander, Thales' companion, held that the boundless was the sole causal agent of origin and destruction in the physical world. He held that time was infinite and cyclical. As for the physical shape of earth, he believed it to be cylindrical. The physical universe was formed by substances breaking off from the boundless, first hot and cold, then a fire which formed earth and the stars. Man's origin came about from an evolution from fish - PseudoPlutarch
3. [A11] The earth is self-sustaining, unsupported by anything. He held we walk on the surface and there is surface opposite that surface. he held the heavenly bodies to be circles of fire, surrounded by air. Eclipses occur when breathing holes are blocked. Living creatures came to be through the moist being evaporated by the sun. Man was originally a fish-like creature. All things in nature originate from other things. - Hippolytus
Anaximenes
1. [A7] Anaximenes believed air to be the source of all other substances. Air produced the gods and all other things came from the divine. Air is perpetual motion and this causes all the changes in the air to produce the substances we all see. Dispersed air becomes fire, condensed air becomes wind, condensed air becomes wind, condensed wind becomes water, condensed water becomes earth, condensed earth becomes rock. Temperature causes the condensing and dispersing. The earth is flat and supported by air. All other heavenly bodies are the same. Like Anaximander, he believes all natural weather is caused by other manifestations of the first substance, in this accuse air. - Hippolytus
2. [B1] Hot or cold are not substances, but properties of substances - Plutarch
Heraclitus
The Word (logos)
1. [B1] The word is forever and forever incomprehensible. The Word is the cause of all things, but men comprehend it as much as they comprehend waking while sleeping.
2. [B40] Collection of data is not knowledge. Hesiod, Pythagoras, Xenophanes and Hecataeus were collectors.
3. [B50] All things are one, despite their appearances, thus sayeth the Word.
The world is everlasting fire.
4. [B30] The world is uncreated and eternal. It is a fluctuating fire
5. [B31a] Fire became sea, sea became earth and fire, wind.
6. [B90] The substances are exchanges with fire.
7. [B60] Everything that appears different is really the same.
8. [B12] "On those stepping into rivers staying the same other and other waters flow" (Pojman, 14).
9. [A6] All things are in perpetual motion. -Plato
10. Everything is in flux. -Plato
11. [B10] Everything comes from and returns to one thing (which is fire).
12. [B51] Man does not understand that everything comes from and returns to one thing (which is fire).
13. [B88] Everything is opposite, living and dead exist simultaneously in all beings; as one is engaged in proximity to one it is never separated from its opposite.
Soul is fire
14. [B36] Souls die becoming water; water dies becoming earth; but, earth gives brith to water and water to soul
15. [B119] "The character of man is his destiny"
16. [B114] Human law springs up from the divine law and common sense is knowledge of the divine law.
17. God is all opposites as fire is
18. The oracle of Delphi is mysterious, neither revealing nor concealing, only showing signs.
Ancient testimonials on Anaximenes
(Originally Written August 30, 2006 in History I)
Classics of Philosophy, Louis Pojman
Anaximenes
1. Anaximenes believed air to be the source of all other substances. Air produced the gods and all other things came from these divine beings. Air is in perpetual motion and this causes all of the changes in the air to produce the substances we all see. Dispersed air becomes fire, condensed air becomes wind, condensed wind becomes water, condensed water because earth and condensed earth becomes rock. Temperature causes the condensing and dispersing of air. All other heavenly bodies are the same. Like Anaximander, he believes all natural weather is caused by other manifestations of the first substance, in his case, air. - Hippolytus on Anaximenes
2. Hot or cold are not substances, but properties of substances in Anaximenes. - Plutarch on Anaximenes
Classics of Philosophy, Louis Pojman
Anaximenes
1. Anaximenes believed air to be the source of all other substances. Air produced the gods and all other things came from these divine beings. Air is in perpetual motion and this causes all of the changes in the air to produce the substances we all see. Dispersed air becomes fire, condensed air becomes wind, condensed wind becomes water, condensed water because earth and condensed earth becomes rock. Temperature causes the condensing and dispersing of air. All other heavenly bodies are the same. Like Anaximander, he believes all natural weather is caused by other manifestations of the first substance, in his case, air. - Hippolytus on Anaximenes
2. Hot or cold are not substances, but properties of substances in Anaximenes. - Plutarch on Anaximenes
Sunday, July 16, 2006
The Roman Empire in Relation to Culture (B)
(Originally written July 16, 2006 in Book 4)
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
The Roman Empire in Relation to Culture (continued)
Rome's direct influence on Greek thought was largely responsible through two men:
1) Polybius (a historian)
2) Panaetius (a Stoic)
Polybius was born in 200 BC in Arcadia. He was Greek who was enslaved in Rome. While in Rome he became friends with Scipio and wrote the History of the Punic Wars in both Greek and Latin.
Panaetius was also a friend of Scipio and while Scipio was alive he spent a lot of time in Rome. After Scipio's death he spent most of his time in Athens as the head of the Stoic school.
Epictetus was a Greek (Stoic) but spent most of his life in Rome.
Plutarch (AD 46 - 120) attempted to reconcile Greek and Rome through his works, especially Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans.
For the most part the Greeks regarded the Romans with fear and contempt. Thought and art declined under Roman rule.
The four major philosophical schools left during the Roman rule were:
1) The Academy
2) The Peripatetics
3) The Epicureans
4) The Stoics
Another Russell attack on God- "The recognized schools of philosophy - The Academy, the Peripatetics, the Epicureans and the Stoics - continued to exist until they were closed by Justinian, from Christian bigotry, in the year AD 529" (Russell, 277).
When Rome first came into contact with the Greeks they became aware of how barbaric the Romans really were.
Young Romans admired the Greek culture after the Punic Wars.
Rome learned the Greek language, architecture and identified their gods with the Greek ones. "Rome was culturally parasitic on Greece" (Russell, 278).
Despite Rome's lack of cultural originality, their vast stabilizing of the known world spread the Greek culture far and wide. Rome 'civilized' the world.
In addition to Rome, the Mohammedans (Arabs) spread Hellenism.
The Arabs preserved Aristotle, while the West mainly focused on Plato.
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
The Roman Empire in Relation to Culture (continued)
Rome's direct influence on Greek thought was largely responsible through two men:
1) Polybius (a historian)
2) Panaetius (a Stoic)
Polybius was born in 200 BC in Arcadia. He was Greek who was enslaved in Rome. While in Rome he became friends with Scipio and wrote the History of the Punic Wars in both Greek and Latin.
Panaetius was also a friend of Scipio and while Scipio was alive he spent a lot of time in Rome. After Scipio's death he spent most of his time in Athens as the head of the Stoic school.
Epictetus was a Greek (Stoic) but spent most of his life in Rome.
Plutarch (AD 46 - 120) attempted to reconcile Greek and Rome through his works, especially Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans.
For the most part the Greeks regarded the Romans with fear and contempt. Thought and art declined under Roman rule.
The four major philosophical schools left during the Roman rule were:
1) The Academy
2) The Peripatetics
3) The Epicureans
4) The Stoics
Another Russell attack on God- "The recognized schools of philosophy - The Academy, the Peripatetics, the Epicureans and the Stoics - continued to exist until they were closed by Justinian, from Christian bigotry, in the year AD 529" (Russell, 277).
When Rome first came into contact with the Greeks they became aware of how barbaric the Romans really were.
Young Romans admired the Greek culture after the Punic Wars.
Rome learned the Greek language, architecture and identified their gods with the Greek ones. "Rome was culturally parasitic on Greece" (Russell, 278).
Despite Rome's lack of cultural originality, their vast stabilizing of the known world spread the Greek culture far and wide. Rome 'civilized' the world.
In addition to Rome, the Mohammedans (Arabs) spread Hellenism.
The Arabs preserved Aristotle, while the West mainly focused on Plato.
Saturday, July 8, 2006
The Influence of Sparta B (Russell)
(Originally written July 8, 2006 in Book 4)
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter 12 - The Influence of Sparta (continued)
Women in Sparta were not isolated as in the rest of Greece.
Women were not allowed to show weak emotions if their sons died in battle or if their children were killed as babies for being weak.
Childbearing was encouraged by the State. A man with three sons was exempt from war and a man with four sons was exempt from all public affairs.
There were two kings in Sparta: one peace-time, one war-time who served with a council of 28 elders.
The elders were chosen by the people, but had to be over 60 and from the aristocracy.
There was also the Assembly which was all the people. This body could not initiate anything but voted simply yes or no.
There were also 5 Ephors who made sure the kings upheld the Spartan laws. They served the kings but did not let them exceed their power.
Sparta was admired by other Greeks for its stability.
Cowardice was the highest sin in Spartan society.
Their army was nearly invincible on land until 371 BC when they were defeated by the Thebans.
Apart from wartime it appears as Spartans were notoriously hypocritical. Despite Spartan contempt for wealth, few Spartans could not be bribed. Spartan women, supposedly chaste, had their honor stripped due to a number of heirs to the throne being found not to be the sons of kings. Spartan patriotism (legendary) is put in question by a king dying as a traitor with Xerxes, king of Persia.
Sparta stayed as an isolated state numerous times when Greece tried to unite.
Aristotle heavily criticizes Spartan way of life:
1) too much power for women
2) unequal distribution of wealth
3) Ephors are too poor and thus suspect for bribes
4) too strict of laws made good people criminals
5) Sparta was overly decadent
In spite of Aristotle's matter-of-fact condemnation of Sparta, the mythical Sparta of Plutarch and Plato's Republic reigns supreme in man's mind.
This idealism and love of power still leads men astray today.
Lycurgus wrote the code of laws Sparta lived by. But Lycurgus was a pure myth. Nevertheless, Lycurgus' myth has deeply impacted the world.
The law was strict like those of Cret and not superficial as in Ionia.
He separated the soldiers from other citizens, which he learned from Egypt. He separated all occupations - merchants, artificers, laborers, warriors, etc.
Land was given to men in order to negate riches and poverty and the ills that come with both.
He banished gold and silver for the same reasons.
The coinage was in iron, which made commerce outside of Sparta impossible, furthering isolation.
All citizens were to eat the same food and together.
His philosophy of education believed that education was of the utmost importance.
He aimed to keep the birthrate up so the war machine would stay fueled.
Women danced for the young men naked to entice them to marry.
Marriage began as an illicit affair to keep desire fresh and new.
Jealousy was ridiculous in Spartan culture. Older men encouraged younger men to sleep with their wives to keep children production up.
Children were property of all honest men in Sparta - it takes a village.
Children were examined at birth to see if they were fit to live. If they were the hardening process would begin instantly. If not, they were killed.
Children were taught to obey, ignore pain, endure labor and overcome battle.
They were taught to steal, but if they were caught they were punished, not for the theft, but for stupidity.
Homosexuality in men and women was recognized as custom. It was part of boys education. Their lovers were credited or discredited by the boys' performance.
Liberty was small in all stages of Spartan life.
Legend states that upon hearing that an Athenian was condemned for idleness a Spartan exclaimed 'Show me this man who was condemned for living nobly and as a gentleman'.
Plutarch compares Spartan life to that of a bee hive.
Spartans were forbidden to travel and foreigners were only permitted in for business. Anymore was feared to corrupt Spartan virtue.
Spartan law permitted any Spartan to kill a Helot when he deemed necessary. Unlike the last few laws mentioned, Plutarch denies this abominable practice was from Lycurgus.
Spartan society deeply impacted Plato's view of Utopia.
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter 12 - The Influence of Sparta (continued)
Women in Sparta were not isolated as in the rest of Greece.
Women were not allowed to show weak emotions if their sons died in battle or if their children were killed as babies for being weak.
Childbearing was encouraged by the State. A man with three sons was exempt from war and a man with four sons was exempt from all public affairs.
There were two kings in Sparta: one peace-time, one war-time who served with a council of 28 elders.
The elders were chosen by the people, but had to be over 60 and from the aristocracy.
There was also the Assembly which was all the people. This body could not initiate anything but voted simply yes or no.
There were also 5 Ephors who made sure the kings upheld the Spartan laws. They served the kings but did not let them exceed their power.
Sparta was admired by other Greeks for its stability.
Cowardice was the highest sin in Spartan society.
Their army was nearly invincible on land until 371 BC when they were defeated by the Thebans.
Apart from wartime it appears as Spartans were notoriously hypocritical. Despite Spartan contempt for wealth, few Spartans could not be bribed. Spartan women, supposedly chaste, had their honor stripped due to a number of heirs to the throne being found not to be the sons of kings. Spartan patriotism (legendary) is put in question by a king dying as a traitor with Xerxes, king of Persia.
Sparta stayed as an isolated state numerous times when Greece tried to unite.
Aristotle heavily criticizes Spartan way of life:
1) too much power for women
2) unequal distribution of wealth
3) Ephors are too poor and thus suspect for bribes
4) too strict of laws made good people criminals
5) Sparta was overly decadent
In spite of Aristotle's matter-of-fact condemnation of Sparta, the mythical Sparta of Plutarch and Plato's Republic reigns supreme in man's mind.
This idealism and love of power still leads men astray today.
Lycurgus wrote the code of laws Sparta lived by. But Lycurgus was a pure myth. Nevertheless, Lycurgus' myth has deeply impacted the world.
The law was strict like those of Cret and not superficial as in Ionia.
He separated the soldiers from other citizens, which he learned from Egypt. He separated all occupations - merchants, artificers, laborers, warriors, etc.
Land was given to men in order to negate riches and poverty and the ills that come with both.
He banished gold and silver for the same reasons.
The coinage was in iron, which made commerce outside of Sparta impossible, furthering isolation.
All citizens were to eat the same food and together.
His philosophy of education believed that education was of the utmost importance.
He aimed to keep the birthrate up so the war machine would stay fueled.
Women danced for the young men naked to entice them to marry.
Marriage began as an illicit affair to keep desire fresh and new.
Jealousy was ridiculous in Spartan culture. Older men encouraged younger men to sleep with their wives to keep children production up.
Children were property of all honest men in Sparta - it takes a village.
Children were examined at birth to see if they were fit to live. If they were the hardening process would begin instantly. If not, they were killed.
Children were taught to obey, ignore pain, endure labor and overcome battle.
They were taught to steal, but if they were caught they were punished, not for the theft, but for stupidity.
Homosexuality in men and women was recognized as custom. It was part of boys education. Their lovers were credited or discredited by the boys' performance.
Liberty was small in all stages of Spartan life.
Legend states that upon hearing that an Athenian was condemned for idleness a Spartan exclaimed 'Show me this man who was condemned for living nobly and as a gentleman'.
Plutarch compares Spartan life to that of a bee hive.
Spartans were forbidden to travel and foreigners were only permitted in for business. Anymore was feared to corrupt Spartan virtue.
Spartan law permitted any Spartan to kill a Helot when he deemed necessary. Unlike the last few laws mentioned, Plutarch denies this abominable practice was from Lycurgus.
Spartan society deeply impacted Plato's view of Utopia.
Friday, July 7, 2006
The Influence of Sparta A (Russell)
(Originally written July 7, 2006 in Book 4)
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter XII - The Influence of Sparta
Sparta had a double influence:
1) Through reality (defeat of Athens)
2) Through myth (Plato & Plutarch)
The Spratan Myth is fully developed in Plutarch's 'Life of Lycurgus' and this had a profound impact on Rousseau, Nietzsche and National Socialism.
The Spartans captured Laconia (southeast Peloponnesus) in the Dorian invasion and enslaved the people there.
The slave class was known as the Helots, who were Greek and hated the Spartans.
Helots rebelled constantly and once a year the Spartans (ritualistically) declared war on them. Young Spartans killed any Helot deemed insubordinate without penalty.
Sparta produced soldiers. They were obsessed with war and had no time for cultural or scientific training. All healthy boys were trained to be soldiers, wholly devoted to the state. Sick boys were not raised and thus, died.
Spartan boys were trained until 20, then military service began. They became citizens at 30.
Each Spartan had a plot of land, worked by the Helots. They were not to be rich or to be poor.
No silver or gold was permitted. Money was made of iron. Spartan simplicity reigned.
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter XII - The Influence of Sparta
Sparta had a double influence:
1) Through reality (defeat of Athens)
2) Through myth (Plato & Plutarch)
The Spratan Myth is fully developed in Plutarch's 'Life of Lycurgus' and this had a profound impact on Rousseau, Nietzsche and National Socialism.
The Spartans captured Laconia (southeast Peloponnesus) in the Dorian invasion and enslaved the people there.
The slave class was known as the Helots, who were Greek and hated the Spartans.
Helots rebelled constantly and once a year the Spartans (ritualistically) declared war on them. Young Spartans killed any Helot deemed insubordinate without penalty.
Sparta produced soldiers. They were obsessed with war and had no time for cultural or scientific training. All healthy boys were trained to be soldiers, wholly devoted to the state. Sick boys were not raised and thus, died.
Spartan boys were trained until 20, then military service began. They became citizens at 30.
Each Spartan had a plot of land, worked by the Helots. They were not to be rich or to be poor.
No silver or gold was permitted. Money was made of iron. Spartan simplicity reigned.
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