3 periods:
1. Free City States, brought to an end by Philip and Alexander -- freedom and disorder
2. Macedonian domination, also known as the Hellenistic Age (between death of Alexander and the conquest of Egypt by the Roman Empire) -- subjection and disorder; also known as the best works of science and mathematics in Greece; includes the foundation of the Epicurean and Stoic schools
3. Roman Empire -- subjection and order, the rise of Christianity
Hellenistic Age
- at Alexander's death, his empire was divided between 3 generals. The European part fell to Antigonus's descendants. Ptolemy obtained Egypt and made Alexandria the capital. Seleucus obtained Asia, where Antioch later became the chief city
- Alexandria was the most successful from a Hellenistic point of view. Egypt was less exposed to war, and Alexandria was in a favoured position for commerce. Specialization characterized the world of learning.
- After Alexander's conquests, there was no longer an incentive to take an interest in public affairs, and the Hellenistic world lacked a ruler strong enough to produce social cohesion
Cynics and Sceptics
- Greek philosophers turned aside from politics to the problem of individual virtue and salvation -- from Christianity evolved a gospel of individual salvation which inspired the Church and a missionary zeal
- the school of Cynics was founded by Diogenes - believed in the 'return to nature', with no government, no private property, no marriage, no established religion, no slavery, no luxury and pursuit of artificial pleasures. Popular Cynicism does not teach abstinence, but only a certain indifference.
- Scepticism was first proclaimed by Pyrrho, who maintained that there could never be any rational ground for preferring one course of action to another. This meant that one conformed to the customs without any of the actual beliefs required -- 'a lazy man's consolation'
- The Greeks admitted logic that was deductive, which had to start from general principles that were regarded as self-evident. A modern Sceptic would point out that a phenomenon merely occurs, and is neither valid nor invalid.
The Epicureans
- Epicurus: the pleasure of the mind is the contemplation of the pleasures of the body. Virtue is the 'prudence in the pursuit of pleasure'. Justice consists in so acting as not to have reason to fear other men's resentment. Dynamic pleasures consists in the attainment of a desired end. Static pleasures consist in a state of equilibrium. E.g, the satisfying of hunger is a dynamic pleasure -- the state of quiescence after the hunger is satisfied is a static pleasure
- Absence of pain, rather than presence of pleasure, is the goal. Above all, live so as to avoid fear.
Stoicism
- Founder Zeno
- early Stoics were mostly Syrian, the later ones mostly Roman. Socrates was the chief saint of the Stoics. Later Stoics followed Plato with regards to the soul as immaterial; earlier Stoics agreed with Heraclitus that the soul was composed of material fire. Zeno was concerned with Virtue, and had little patience for metaphysical tendencies.
- main doctrines are about cosmic determinism and human freedom. Zeno did not believe in chance, but that the course of nature is determined by natural laws. Soon there will be a cosmic conflagration and all will become fire, which concludes a cycle, and the whole process will repeat itself endlessly. All things are parts of one single system -- Nature; the individual life is good when it is in harmony with Nature. Virtue is the sole purpose of a man's life. Since Virtue resides in will, everything good or bad depends only upon himself. Man has perfect freedom to pursue Virtue. The Stoic is not virtuous in order to do good, but does good in order to be virtuous.
- inherent contradictions in Stoicism: on the one hand, the universe is a deterministic single whole; on the other hand, the individual will is autonomous
- main importance of the Stoics -- the theory of knowledge and the doctrine of natural laws. Theory of knowledge - they accepted perception, between things which can be known with certainty on the basis of perception, and those which are only probable. A questionable doctrine in their theory of knowledge is the belief in innate ideas and principles. Greek logic was deductive and based on first premises, which were general and could not be proven, though it could be used as the starting point of definitions.
- Doctrine of natural right: by nature, all human beings are equal.
