HELLENISTIC PERIOD

Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon
(356–323 BCE)

Alexander was a king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. Aristotle's father was the physician to Alexander's father Philip II, and Aristotle was the private tutor to the young Alexander until he was 16. Philip II was assassinated, and Alexander the Great took the throne at the age of twenty. He spent most of his ruling years on a military campaign. He  overthrew the the king of Persia - Darius III. He was undefeated in battle, and created one of the largest empires of the ancient world - stretching from Greece to northwestern India. He founded over twenty cities that bore his name - most notably Alexandria in Egypt.

 Philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle thought the good-life could only be obtained through an idealized state, so citizens should strive to improve the state.

This sentiment ended with the death of Alexander the Great. The Romans conquered the Greek states, and Greek culture merged with other cultures. The Greeks no longer felt they were in control of the destiny. Philosophers abandoned the idea that the good-life could be obtained by participation in the state. In their pursuit for values they turned their attentions inward. This marks the transition from the Hellenic to the Hellenistic period.

The Olympic Games started in Greece. They were held at the sanctuary of Zeus in Olympia, Greece. During the Games, all conflicts among the participating city-states were postponed. As you are reading this chapter, ask yourself what the Olympic torch lighting ceremony represents.

Sanctuary of Zeus

 

CYNICISM

ANTISTHENES
(445-365 BCE)

 

LIFE

Antisthenes started his studies by studying rhetoric with the sophist Gorgias. He later became a student of Socrates. He and Plato were rivals, and Socrates' greatest students. While Plato's philosophy was more theoretical, Antisthenes' philosophy was more a way of life. Antisthenes is the founder of Cynic philosophy. It embodied Socratic principles, and later influenced Stoicism and Christianity.
 

PHILOSOPHY

1.   He rejected conventions, and turned to a natural life.

2.   Happiness is obtained through virtue - not pleasure.

3.   Virtue is obtained by detachment from all possessions and pleasures.
      (even good pleasures)

4.   Organized religion is a human fabrication.

5.   Only one God exists.

6.   God is unlike anything on earth, and cannot be understood by any representation.

DIOGENES

(412-323 BCE)

LIFE & PHILOSOPHY
 

1.   He was born in Sinop or modern-day Turkey.

2.   Diogenes was one of the founders of the Cynic philosophy.

3.   He was a student of Antisthenes, his student was Crates.

4.   Diogenes slept in an urn in the marketplace.

5.   His only possessions were the cloths he was wearing and a cup. When he saw a boy drinking from his hands, he threw his cup away.

6.   He rejected established customs and values.

7.   He rejected pleasure as the good or end in life.

8.   When Alexander the Great granted him any wish, he replied; stand out of my sunlight.

9.   None of his writings survived.

EPICUREANISM
(341-270BCE)

 

LIFE & PHILOSOPHY

1.   He started a philosophical commune in a garden.

2.   He was a student of Democritus, and accepted his theory that atoms are moving in an infinite void. If this is true, what happens in death, and should we fear it?

3.   The shapes, sizes, and weights of atoms are different.

4.   Reality is governed by chance.

5.   The interaction of atoms causes pleasure and pain.
      This is the source of all our values.
      There are no Platonic forms in an invisible mythical realm.

6.   All our actions are driven by pleasure and pain.
      This is called psychological hedonism.
      Freud was a psychological hedonist.
      Only pleasure is good, and pain is evil.
      This is called ethical hedonism or egoistic hedonism.
     

TYPES OF DESIRES

Are some pleasures unwise, or are all pleasures good?

What pleasures would you say are groundless and not rooted in nature?

What pleasures are natural and necessary?

What pleasures are natural and unnecessary?

What virtues involve seeking wise pleasures?

STOICISM

ZINO
(336 - 264 BCE)

"I am a citizen of the cosmos."

LIFE

Zeno of Citium was a Greek philosopher who founded Stoicism in Athens. Zeno lectured on a porch (stoa) where it gets its name. Stoicism is an evolution of Socrates, Cynicism, and Epicureanism.
 

PHILOSOPHY

1.   Knowledge comes from experience. (Empiricism)  

2.   Peace of mind comes from living a life of virtue in accordance (conforming) with nature.

3.   Reality consists of atoms moving in a void. 
     The soul and God are material.

4.   God is just and benevolent.

      God is the rational principle or Logos. (Heraclitus)

      Our souls are borrowed from the divine soul or fire - Logos.
     
      After death our eternal souls return to God.

      Our reason is borrowed from the Logos - or universal reason.

      Everything happens for the best.

      Everything happens for a reason.

      Nothing happens by chance.

      Even God is determined.

5.   The highest good is a life in accordance with reason.

      The book also states that pleasure is the highest good.

6.   Virtue, duty, and discipline are also good-in-themselves.

      Apathy is a virtue.

7.   No real harm can come to a virtuous person. (Socrates)

8.   Free yourself from emotions and desires that are outside your control.

      Your outlook is the only thing you can really control.
 

Epictetus (50-138 CE) Epictetus was a slave. He said, "Ask not that events should happen as you will, but let your will be that events should happen as they do..." (S135) A Zen statement to this affect is, "Happiness is not having what you want - but wanting what you have."	Chrysippus (Around 280-207BCE)      He became the head of    Zeno's school.
ROMAN STOICISM
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 – 43 BCE) He was a stoic philosopher, statesman, lawyer, and political theorist.	Lucius Annaeus Seneca (3 BCE – 65 CE)   He was Nero's prime minister.
Marcus Aurelius (121 – 180 CE) He was the Roman emperor and stoic philosopher.

ROMAN STOICISM

1.   Nature is ruled by physical and moral laws.

      Natural moral laws are universal.

In the Declaration of Independence it says, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

2.   Legal laws are human conventions.

      A just law conforms to the natural law.

SKEPTICISM

1.   We cannot assume that reason is sufficient to know reality. (Sophists)

2.   Reason can produce powerful arguments for both sides of an issue.

3.   We can't get outside our senses, so experience can't provide knowledge of reality.

4.   Only appearances are intelligible.

5.   There is no certainty.

      Nothing is impossible to doubt.

6.   We should suspend all judgment. (Pyrrho of Elis 360-270BCE Pyrrhonism)

7.   I know only that I know nothing. (Socrates - academic skepticism)

Agrippa

The Five Grounds for Doubt:

1.  Dissent - Not everyone will agree on any issue.

2.  Relativity - Your point of view changes how you perceive things.

3.  Infinite Regress - All proofs require further proof, and so on to infinity.

4.  Hypothesis - Someone will deny any axiom, or assert its opposite.
     There are no axioms (self-evident truths), so a regress cannot be terminated, and nothing can be proven. See note below.

5.  Circularity - If you avoided the previous problems, you assumed what you were proving.

NOTE:

#4. The foundational theory of justification asserts that there are self-justifying, or self-evident, beliefs. They require no further justification. They are the foundation for other beliefs, so no infinite regress occurs. 

We call self-justifying beliefs axioms, basic beliefs, or foundational beliefs. For example, if you ask me how I know I'm having a blue perception, I would answer because I am having a blue perception. No further justification is needed; it's self-justifying. If basic beliefs are self-justifying, no argument could be given to justify them. Unfortunately there is an argument:

The above argument shows that there are no self-justified beliefs. Therefore, there is an infinite regress of justification.

This is why we turned to the coherence theory. This theory says that beliefs are justified because they cohere - like pieces in a puzzle. Unfortunately this also has problems. 
 

     What do we know for sure?

     Are any of your beliefs self-evident?

     If reason ends in skepticism, are we left with faith?

     How should skeptics live? Should they observe customs, be apathetic, or do nothing?


 

NEOPLATONISM

PLOTINUS
(CE 204/5–270)

LIFE:

He was raised in Egypt.

Plotinus is considered to be the Father of Neoplatonism.

He founded a school in Rome.

PHILOSOPHY:

1.   The more unity a thing has the more real it is.

2.   The One is the highest level of reality. (God or the Good)

      It has no parts, is whole, indivisible, eternal, and unchanging.

      It is the cause of all things.

      It transcends thought.  

3.   Nous, the Divine mind, Emanates from the One.

      Nous apprehends the forms

      There are forms of universals and individuals.

4.   Emanating from Nous is the Cosmic Soul.

      Your soul is the offspring of the Cosmic Soul.

      Your soul is eternal, and in the process of reincarnation.